CHENHUNG CHEN at MOAH’S ROBOT SHOW

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Chenhung Chen weaves a web of magic with her sculptures, from delicate copper crocheted pieces to mysterious recycled wires transformed.

The artist is leading walk-through of her exhibition, I Ching in America 2.0 on Saturday, September 1 at 1 p.m. 

Focusing on the linear, inspired by the use of line in both Chinese calligraphy and American Abstract Expressionism, she creates delicate but strong sculptural works that weave a symmetry through chaos, and shape beautiful, works that express motion, much like a wave arising from an ocean.

With much of her material recycled from electronic and computer components, her ability to take technological detritus and reshape it creates works that are both haunting and alive, as if instead of conducting electrical current they are conducting the energy of art. Like her deeply dimensional sculptures, her 2D work is also focused on the linear, whether she is working with graphite, acrylic, oil, ink, or patterns created with the staples as a kind of embroidery.

Los Angeles based and born in Beigang, Taiwan, Chen says “I grew up practicing the calligraphy of ancient poetry. I thought it was beautiful both visually and linguistically. It was part of the training of traditional Chinese scholars and it was that training that left an impression upon me during my youth. I enjoyed it, as well as felt it shape my psyche and begin the development of my artistic voice.”

Later, influenced by American culture, she experimented with a variety of materials while still expressing the linear qualities of calligraphy. “I wanted to bring that elusive quality into a three-dimensional setting. This was the motivation behind much of my early work.”

Nine years ago, a friend gave her a bag of thick cables. “I decided to recycle the copper wire in the cables to crochet a different body of work. Then one day it hit me; the cable conducts electricity, just as humans do. We are conduits, conduits of that Power. We try to emulate it, harnessing electricity to advance our lives.”

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Today, Chen crochets coated wire with electrica wire, drawing in the air, drawn to the ideas of negative space, silence, and love of nature. She contrasts the materials of daily life, creating parallels that reflect yin and yang, male and female.

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Her work’s profoundly visceral quality is balanced by an ethereal, mesmerizing weaving – she is like a spider of art, making webs that transcend the possible.

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Don’t miss the artist’s talk this Saturday; the exhibition runs through September 26th.

Chenhung Chen: Artist Talk & Tour

Saturday,  September 01, 2018  1:00 PM

Her talk will be followed by an intimate conversation and tour from another richly rewarding artist, Alex Kritselis.

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Alex Kritselis: Talk & Tour

Sat, September 01, 2018  2:00 PM

MOAH is located at 655 W. Lancaster Blvd. in Lancaster. That’s 90 minutes from DTLA and worth the drive.

  • Genie Davis; photos courtesy of artists

 

 

 

Chenhung Chen: I Ching in America

Chen 2In a beautiful, mysterious, and mystical way, Chenhung Chen creates delicate works of art from the detritus of technology.

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Saturday marked the reception for and closing of a month long residence at Shoebox Projects in DTLA.

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Suspended from wires, the installation floated in air and fell like a discarded royal garment along the floor.

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Small colored heaps dotted one end of the room.

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Referencing the spiritual nature of the I Ching, of which this installation is part of an on-going series, there was a meditative quality to the fine wire crocheted elements, the intertwining of cords and and cables.

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Like an art spider with a silky and serene web, Chen pulls viewers into her orbit and leaves them dangling with delight.

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Watch for her upcoming exhibitions…in June 2018, Chen will be a part of the Torrance Museum of Art’s Studio System project: June 1 – June 30, 2018, creating art in a residency there.

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Chen also has several lovely wall art works on exhibit at the Newberry Lofts’ Art in Place exhibition in Long Beach through the end of January.

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  • Genie Davis; photos: Jack Burke, additional by Genie Davis

Four Solo Shows Connect at LAAA’s Gallery 825

 

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The “4 Solo Shows” now at the Los Angeles Art Association’s Gallery 825 are brilliant parts of a dazzling whole. From Chenhung Chen’s freestanding, exciting sculptures created from wire, cords, and the detritus of technology to Seda Saar’s complex, blossoming  works in colored plexiglass and mirrors, both what we see and what we imagine come to vivid life.

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Above, Chen with Entelechy #23

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Chenhung Chen’s “Entelechy” is a world built with wires and crocheted metal alloys, with each piece as packed with motion and inside-out exposed imagery as if living creatures have sprung to life from an alchemy of technology and spirit. With each piece vividly different and fluid, the powerful nature of Chen’s vision draws upon the feminine and masculine in each of us, upon the kinetic nature of life itself, humming through our veins as electricity does through wire.  Don’t miss the chance to “plug into” Chen’s compelling work.

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Above, Janine Brown

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Janine Brown’s “The Wallflower Project” haunts with delicate, almost translucent portraits captured through her self-made cardboard pinhole camera. The idea of a person being a wallflower is the inspiration for her works, an idea which came from a casual remark about her husband’s handsomeness and her own tendency to take a step into the background. The word wallflower was, the artist notes, “coined in Victorian times, a time period in which actual wallpaper was popular.” She started gathering wall- paper samples to create a look in which the subject begins to disappear into the patterns themselves. As her project has evolved, so has her art form, moving from the black and white images in this show, to color images printed directly on wallpaper itself.  The pieces here are haunting, images of the past captured through the prism of the present.

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Above, Seda Saar

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Seda Saar’s “Polyhedron : Art + Reality Are One” is all about illusion. Saar, who has also worked her magic in theme park design as well as sculpture, pulls viewers into a 3D vision that appears to go on forever, “like the ocean, on and on.” Layering light and color constructions made of plexiglass and mirrors, the trippy through-the-looking-glass feeling of Saar’s work is truly magical. The judicious use of mirrors creates a scene that feels like an alternate reality – figuratively stepping inside, the viewer sees the building blocks of fractals creating an entire universe both light and bright.

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Above, Devin Thor

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Devin Thor’s “Paleolithic Creatures” are also from an alternate reality, one in which extinct creatures live again as sculptures cut from sandstone. A geologist as well as an artist, Thor’s flat images are tribal in nature, astonishing in their simplicity, an elegy to existence lost, a hopeful monument to better stewardship for our planet. His minimalized approach is purposeful: limiting the number of lines necessary to define his creatures creates a universal reality uniting creatures of all kinds, even humans.

Unifying this exhibition of four brilliant artists is each of their attempts to create a reality that moves and engages. Whether through mirrors, wires, sandstone, or photographic images new worlds are opened, ready and waiting to explore and engage.

 

 

The Art of Walking: Fall Brewery Art Walk

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Paintings by Kristine Schomaker – contemporary mixed media-  Photo: Jack Burke

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MLA Gallery at Brewery Art Walk – a focus on fine art from Latin America – Photo by Jack Burke

Just east of downtown Los Angeles is the Brewery Art Complex, created in 1982 in what was once the Pabst Blue Ribbon Brewery. Hoist a glass in honor of the artist-in-residence code which allowed artists to rent both living and working space in buildings formerly zoned industrial. Renting only to artists, the Brewery is among the world’s largest complexes. The public gets to explore the sprawling spot and enjoy the opened studios of many artist residences twice a year – in spring and fall.

There’s a real steam punk feel to the cavernous space, where the Brewery smoke stack still towers over loading docks and gardens. The complex has evolved into eighteen acres of working artists perched in the northeast corner of the city. Not only is the area huge, so is it’s creative scope – painters, sculptors, photographers, performance artists, multi-media creators, and fashion designers all reside here.

Why should you visit? To experience the diversity and excitement of the art. Over a hundred residents participate, speaking with browsers and buyers about their work. Like no other art walk, the Brewery gives strollers a glimpse into what it means to be an artist, and the space the artists create in, eat, sleep, and dream in. And as an extra bonus, many beautiful, unique pieces are available for purchase, some well under $100. From plastic purses showcasing colorful neon strands to enormous paper mache drumsticks, perfectly crafted landscapes, textured portraits, and brilliant contemporary photography, there’s a wide range of talent.

This fall’s art walk took place Oct. 3rd and 4th. Each year, we have the pleasure of meeting new and unique artists, and visiting with those whose work we’ve come to admire. Here’s a mix of some of the works on view this fall – artists you should definitely check out when the spring open house commences, or visit their websites, follow their Twitter feeds, see their shows now.

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Kati V. Milano‘s archival pigment prints capture natural elements both animal and mineral from a recent trek to Iceland. Her photography has a visceral, tangible quality that makes you feel the rough wool on the sheep, the delicate trajectory of a feather, the sharp edges of ice and stone.

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In shared studio space with Milano, artist Ryan McIntosh exhibited his photos from the same recent Icelandic trip. Voluptuous ocean waves with the texture of lace, velvet, and satin are alive with motion in pieces such as “Ocean Variants 2014.” McIntosh is also the founder and master-printer of Miscellaneous Press.

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Jane Szabo‘s photographs of dresses are beautifully evocative. The dresses themselves are crafted by Szabo from everyday objects like road maps and coffee filters. “They suggest a persona and become a stand-in for myself, who I am, am not, and who I wish to be.” Her conceptual photography is alive with light, filled with metaphor, playful in its mix of fashion, photography, and the human form as sculpture. Szabo’s photographic work is both vividly representational and otherworldly.

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Victoria Sebanz is an artist who creates exciting mixed media including evocative, poetic photography – images that evoke another of her art forms: dance. The motion of dance, the subtle and curved shapes that are human forms, flowers, neon curves, the limbs of trees, the torsos of women – all captured in her work. Sebanz says “Movement, texture, shape and shadow are the bones for my work…”

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Kristine Schomaker‘s rainbow colors draw the eye, while the provocative social commentary of her collections engage the mind and illuminate the heart. Below, “A Young Girl’s Vanity.”

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Schomaker not only creates her own art, she supports other artists in the Los Angeles community through her company, Shoebox PR.

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“The painted mannequins are inspired by my Avatar in Second Life. In that virtual world, I used one of my paintings as a skin on my Avatar and it became a brand for me and my work. It was a natural progression to bring her into the real world. Painting a mannequin was the best way at the time to make it happen,” Schomaker says.

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Some of Schomaker’s paintings evoke calligraphy. Below: geometric shapes, feathered patterns, and a richness that evokes flight and music notes – a peacock in a painting.

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Below, artist Yvonne Beatty with a beautiful fall-colors piece, that is both realistic and as imaginative and detailed as a fairy-tale. “In my drawings and paintings I apply traditional and contemporary media using unconventional techniques. The challenge is to create works that, while static, gain movement in the viewer’s mind.”

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Below, Cynthia Friedlob once incarnated art aurally as a jazz singer. You can feel the jazzy rhythm in her pieces here. Her works are both brilliantly hued and meditative, and she says she would like to live in an Edward Hopper painting “with Bill Evans music playing softly in the background.”

 

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Below, Chuka Susan Chesney exhibits at FRESH, a contemporary art exhibition at Lamperouge Gallery, jurored by Jane Szabo, and assembled by the Pasadena Society of Artists. Chesney’s piece “Sister Cancer” proclaims that the disease will not defeat when smothered with love.

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Fine art photographer Lissa Hahn, below.

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Hahn’s images are created with no digital manipulation. The electric feel of her photography unfolds like a spin-art take on the world. She captures her subjects with one exposure, stretching out depth and colors into a complex visual pattern that illuminates and intrigues. Below, she shows off a beautiful creation of an entirely different nature.

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Below, artist Chenhung Chen, with pieces in a variety of different media.

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Chen focuses her art on the formation of line in drawings, sculptures, and 3D installations. Regardless of medium, her pieces are vibrating with motion, whether wire and metal sculptures, pristine line drawings, or hand-crocheted copper wire. Her work evokes the sea, the ceaseless rhythm of water, air, and life itself.

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Chen’s work exudes motion and life. Can inanimate objects be this animate?

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Want to walk for yourself? The Brewery art walk will be back in full bloom, come spring.

  • Genie Davis; all photos by Jack Burke