Durden and Ray – Page 3

Collectivity Shines at Durden and Ray

Posted on August 22, 2018August 23, 2018 by Diversions LA

Closing this weekend, Collectivity at Durden and Ray gives viewers a blueprint for the modern world. A joint-exhibition between two art collectives – Hyperlink in Colorado Springs, and Durden and Ray here in Los Angeles – hence the title – the show was collaboratively curated by UCCS Galleries of Contemporary Art Director Daisy McGowan and Durden and Ray artists Lana Duong and David Spanbock. Representing the works of 12 artists from each collective, the show offered a fresh look at image making, and what these images mean to us.

Larua Shill’s dynamic – and ironically Instagram-ready – mixed media sculptural work, Separation Perfected, features selfie sticks, plaster, and laser cut mirrors. Her held-aloft cluster of handsare lifting mirrored cell phones to take the ultimate selfie.. Reflective of today’s cultural mores and on what makes art truly art, the work is compelling visually and emotionally. What do we see in these mirrors but ourselves? And what do we reflect? Creation? A memory? A reverential tribute to ourselves as the ultimate significant other?

David Leapman’s series of gold ink and watercolor works are also visually dazling; the prolific artist also offers large scale works such as Vampire Blues, using cristalina and acrylic on canvas. Leapman’s dayglow Rambler’s Gristle vibrated with color, a mysterious voicing of change and possibility in a world that seems overwhelming at times.

Leapman above, Jackel below.

Ben Jackel’s stoneware, ebony and beeswax sculptural works Fortress Wesel and Fortress Sedan evoked a sense of flight and a wish for escape. As with many of the works here, a sense of mystery, and of a future inexorably tied to the past seemed to whisper from these works.

Sijia Chen’s lush, lavender-dominant Veil resemebled an abstract sunrise, shadows aslant, or a look into a wordless, wondrous afterlife. The large scale work has an ethereal glow.

Jorin Bossen’s oil, acrlic, and pastel works – virtually headless, rust-colored images of gunslingers from the old west – are time travellers, icons caught in a transition between now and the past. Representative of the masculine ideal, no faces to distract us, these works have a rooted irony, as well as being potent memorials to a part of the American mythos.

Powerful, witty, and passionate, Collectivity offers a brilliant commentary on the components of our modern life, and on our beliefs, hopes, and dreams. The exhibition offers evocations of the past and lush portals into an unknown future. The show was brilliantly laid out, taking us into tomorrow and yesterday, moving skillfully between the hyper-awareness of our modern existence and the restive spirit of the great unknown we all face. Above all, this is a show that invites viewers and artists alike to go dancing forever in the art of the now.

Durden and Ray is now located in the Bendix Building in the heart of the Fashion District. Come for the art and stay for the sunset, too.

Genie Davis; photos: Genie Davis

Art as Poetry “In the Stillness Between Two Waves of the Sea”

Posted on June 22, 2018June 22, 2018 by Diversions LA

There’s both poetry and passion in the exhibition now at Durden and Ray through June 29th.

Alison Woods and Dimitra Skandali have assembled a beautiful collection of exibiting artists: Natasa Biza, Kio Griffith, Nancy Ivanhoe, Dimitris Katsoudas, Despina Nissiriou, Aliki Pappa, Ty Pownalll, Nikos Sepetzoglou, Fran Siegel, Dimitra Skandali, Valerie Wilcox, and Alison Woods.

You’ll want to visit this show here – it flows as beautifully as waves against the shoreline – before it travels abroad.

As curator Woods reports, “Thanks to the generosity of The Aegean Center for the Fine Arts, and John and Jane Pack, Works from In the Stillness Between Two Waves of the Sea will travel to the Aegean Center for the Arts in Paros, Greece, giving artists an opportunity to participate in the creation of site-specific works in both countries while offering a glimpse of the concerns that inspire them in locales thousands miles from each other.”

The exhibition had its roots in a graduate school meeting between Woods and Skandali at the San Francisco Art Institute, and continued to grow each time the artists have met since.

“Last year Dimitra contacted me for a letter of recommendation and possible contract for a future show at my residency to renew her O1 visa. I immediately thought of Durden and Ray, where I am a member, and asked if she would be interested in doing an exchange show between Greece and Los Angeles.”

From such prosaic needs has arisen a show that is both delicate and deep. “The title for the show comes from TS Eliot’s poem Little Gidding,” Woods relates. “The project creates a dialogue between two different cultures, showing a common place, a willingness to connect and communicate above distances and differences.”

Some of the works have a political slant such as Natasia Biza’s installation and video “For all Party Occasions: Object Lessons” which documents the items sent to Greece after WWII as a part of the Marshall plan; Kio Griffith’s “Coral Sea (heavy fog)” which he describes as “an impossible ship made from both US and Japanese parts;” Dimitris Katsoudas “ex ils : The Meditteranean (series)” botanical drawings of fish found in the Mediterranean with the parts of humans lost at sea while seeking political asylum; and Despina Nissiriou’s video “Vocal”.

“Nikos Sepetzoglou’s works inject a sense of humor into what could easily become a somber political dialog with ‘Message is the Bottle,’, ‘Gazing at the Black Bubble,’ and ‘If a Beaver had a Nail,'” Woods states.

Other pieces share a nautical theme or aesthetic. These include Fran Siegel’s Navigation, a vertical history of the port of Genoa inspired by Italo Calvino’s “Invisible Cities.” The work is an elaborate multidimensional collage drawing completed while on a residency fellowship in Italy.

Dimitra Skandali’s installation of found and given fishing nets from around the world are pieced together with crocheted seagrass; while Nancy Ivanhoe’s “Currents” and “Tide Pool” are deconstructed screens referencing the sea. Aliki Pappa “E La Nave Va” an installation of 38 drawings of shipwrecks, offers haunting images from films and memories.

“The remaining works share an aesthetic of quiet contemplation,” Woods reveals. Woods says these include Ty Pownall’s sand sculpture “Into the Mystic”, Valerie Wilcox’s constructs “Redeemed” and “The Interlude” and Alison Woods’ painting “Palimpsest” derived from the Ancient Greek παλίμψηστος (palímpsēstos, “again scraped”), a compound word that literally means “scraped clean and ready to be used again”.

The exhibition has a beautiful flow of color that reminds one of tides and scattered shells on woven along sinuous shorelines. Woods says this sensation was the outgrowth of careful thought.

“In thinking about the peaceful moments of co-creation and the title “the stillness between two waves of the sea”, it made sense to us to keep the tones down, without intense contrasts and focus how the pieces complement each other. Los Angeles and Greece are both influenced by the sea.”

As curators, the pair used this to guide the image selection and the aesthetic of the show, Woods notes. “The palette is subdued, but includes shades of blues punctuated by small bursts of its complimentary color of orange. We were interested in creating a strong dialogue between the individual artworks. Seeing the whole show as one piece was a big priority for both of us. We were also dealing with a very high ceiling and used that to our advantage by placing artworks above eye level.”

Working together with Skandali, Woods says both shared a commitment to excellent and a trust in each other’s choices.

“I think we both intuitively grasped what the overall objective of this show was. Once we began to install the show, things went very smoothly, with only a few bumps. I enjoy the Greek warmth, emotional energy and food. You could call it My Big Fat Greek Show experience. I am looking forward to the project in Paros where I will get to meet the rest of the Greek artists who were financially unable to travel to Los Angeles for this show and have promised lots of hugs and kisses.”

We only wish we could come along.

Visit Durden and Ray at 1923 S Santa Fe Avenue, Los Angeles, through the 29th to sail into this blissful sea of art.

Genie Davis; photos: Genie Davis

Emulations at MuzeuMM

Posted on May 9, 2018May 7, 2018 by Diversions LA

Okay, Durden and Ray. Your collective is offering radiant exhibitions all over town. We recently profiled the group’s show Odd Convergences: Steps/Missteps closing the 12th at the Korean Cultural Center; now another fast-moving and well-worth-seeing pop-up show is reigning at Muzeumm, in mid-city, Emulations; downtown at the collective’s own location, a stellar international exhibition, Kan, is offering a fresh look at cultural connections.

Let’s start with Emulations – as you should, too. Don’t let this one slip away.

The truly awesome exhibition offers a brilliant look at the “hyper-real.” Taking a fresh look at the ways we, as viewers, consume and produce images, artists Dani Dodge, Daena Title, Ed Gomez, Ichiro Irie, Ben Jackel, Kiel Johnson, and Brian Thomas Jones tackle what we see, how we see it, and new ways of seeing in one fell swoop.

Taking over the gallery’s backroom, Dodge, above, has created a riveting installation in “Screenburn.”

Iconic images taken from films such as Sunset Boulevard and Pretty Women are projected against stained-glass-hues and gauzy fabric. A glitter-lettered director’s chair spells the installation’s title, positioned before a small black and white television screen, perched atop a black draped altar on which a series of large votive candles are placed.

On the glass of the candles are Dodge’s paintings of Los Angeles architectural landmarks, and a rainbow – a symbol of hope. On the television are images of asphalt and a brief message from the artist that reveals this, the gritty streets and endless ability to drive into the sunset, is the LA she loves. The film and TV depictions are the la-la land people strive for and seek – in fact one image is from the film La La Land – but the reality of this strange, anonymous, pulsating city is just as compelling and worthy of contemplation. There may be no pot of gold at the end of this rainbow, but the rainbow is real.

Dodge reveals the dreams of this city and the dreamy reality: we can be whoever we want to be here, and let the light of our own candles burn. The nature of the installation is that of a church: our prayers for fame may not be realistic, but we can worship at the altar of possibility, and follow any road to a home of the heart.

In the main gallery, Title’s large-scale paintings on canvas are also dazzling. She presents female icons – beauty pageant winners taking a selfie even as the winner is announced in “Miss Selfie,” “Wonder Woman at the Disco” caught in mid-dance, and “Big Doll” evoking Barbie underwater, her reflection echoing back upon her.

Created in oil and oil/acrylic/pastel/and pencil on canvas, Title’s works pop from the wall, all vivid color, brilliantly realistic yet beyond real. She’s created the ultimate in image: a super hero, a classic doll that little girls have long grown up on, a crowned winner – and taken those images one step beyond. We have made the women she depicts (and Barbie, here, is a woman as much as a doll) what they are, and they have made us aspire to be them. “Miss Selfie” may be a self-referential moment, but it’s a joyous one; “Wonder Woman” might just be one of us, out for a night on the town. “Big Doll” is something else again, poignant, because we can’t ever be the perfection of Barbie – if we were underwater, we would drown.

Stoneware and stoneware with beeswax sculptures by Ben Jackel depict a fire hydrant and a triple standpipe; he’s made sculptural art out of everyday objects, transcending them.

So too has Kiel Johnson, whose cluster of chipboard and tape cameras are a sculptural “picture” of an object that takes pictures. Now that’s hyper-real.

Johnson’s “River Front” model town is a terrific, fresh take on urban dioramas, and a look at our big city as if seen from far, far above.

photo above: credit Ed Gomez

Ed Gomez’ dark oil-on-canvas “Horseman 3” is hauntingly apocalyptic; his “Columbia, Vehicle for Transcendence” is a diptych of the space shuttle cock pit that aims to put the viewer at the control panel.

Irie works with poster putty on panel, creating a dimensional version of “Amsterdam Hilton 1969 by Cor Jaring,” depicting John and Yoko Lennon. The film negative/digital prints of Jones are noir-rich black and white images of Hollywood, from a “Wild West” town to a “MASH Signpost.”

Curated by Jones and Gomez, the exhibition presents a new mythology that transcends reality – and if that’s what hyperrealism is, we may never want to go back to seeing things as they “really” are.

Emulations will be closing May 12th. Get in there.

Muzeumm is located at 4817 W. Adams Blvd., Los Angeles

– Genie Davis; photos: Genie Davis, and where noted, Ed Gomez.

Durden and Ray Exhibit Wows at the Korean Cultural Center

Posted on May 8, 2018May 7, 2018 by Diversions LA

At the Korean Cultural Center on Wilshire Blvd., through May 12th, the Durden and Ray art collective has mounted an impressive array of abstract art and sculpture with Odd Convergences: Steps/Missteps. The expansive gallery features the work of artists Carlos Beltran, Carl Berg, Jorin Bossen, Gul Cagin, Jennifer Celio, Sijia Chen, Joe Davidson, Dani Dodge, Lana Duong, Tom Dunn, Roni Feldman, Ben Jackel, Brian Thomas Jones, Jenny Hager, David Leapman, Sean Noyce, Max Presneill, Ty Pownall, David Spanbock, Curtis Stage, Valerie Wilcox, Steven Wolkoff and Alison Woods. Curated by Gul Cagin, Roni Feldman and Valerie Wilcox, this is a strong show that features experimental approaches to understanding the world around us.

There is so much to be appreciated, both in the curation that allows viewers the time and space to take in the vivid abstracts here, and in the works themselves, which are unique visions of the world both within and without. They are interpretive and passionate, a look into the minds and hearts of artists looking to make sense of our culture, our lifestyles and culture, and life itself.

While too many to mention here, each piece is frankly worthy of contemplation: Jenny Hager’s deeply dimensional acrylic on canvas, “Higuera, above;” Carl Berg’s pixilated pigment on matte paper musings; Carlos Beltran’s stunning “Digital Landscape” that straddles the line between painting and digital creation, below.

Curtis Stage’s mysterious archival inkjet print photographs, Dani Dodge’s immersive styrofoam sculptural “Ruins,” and David Leapman’s lush “Markers of Four Decades,” with bright abstract forms popping out from black are all standouts.

Above, Curtis Strange; below, Dani Dodge

Below, David Leapman

Alison Woods’ “Utopia Machine” glows with gold; Jennifer Celio’s “The Simple Operation” is awash in light.

Above, Alison Woods; below, Jennifer Celio

Working in oil and spray paint on canvas over panel, Max Presneil’s “RD210” offers marks and forms that feel iconic, below.

Roni Feldman has a dazzling, fecund green universe in “The Way,” while Sean Noyce’s screen prints and acrylic work are a visceral mix of color, form, and technological reference.

Above, Feldman; below, Noyce.

Faces peer from the dream-like lushness of Tom Dunn’s “It’s Only Painting but I Like It;” Ty Pownall works his sculptural sand forms powerfully in “Excavation Set.”

Dunn, above; Pownall below.

Steven Wolkoff works in sculptural black and white paint in “Static Pile,” while Valerie Wilcox shapes mixed media wall sculptures from wood, acrylic, plaster, and paper mache among other materials, her “Constructs” are like puzzle pieces well worth figuring out.

Wolkoff, above; Wilcox, below.

So too are Gul Cagin’s acrylics that create abstract body shapes in the orange, gold, and black; David Spanbock’s fascinating depictions of abstract cityscapes.

Cagen, above; Spanbock, below.

And Ben Jackel’s stoneware “Dark Tower,” (below, with Jackel, right) is a literally and figuratively weighty sculpture, a meditation on power and control.

The KCC is located at 5505 Wilshire Blvd. in Miracle Mile. Go out and art!

Above, close up, Dani Dodge “Ruins.”

Genie Davis; photos: Genie Davis

Stevie Love October 30, 2024 at 8:52 am on Visionary Delight: The Images of Carl Baratta – A World in Both Plein Air and Fantastical LandscapesThanks for this, Genie!
JJ October 22, 2024 at 10:23 am on Carved Slices Up Artistic Halloween Fun at Descanso GardensSo wonderful to experience another fun adventure through your writing and photos!
Lori Markman September 22, 2024 at 7:37 pm on Yoko Ono: Music of the MindI really liked your article. It made me want to see the exhibit.
Catherine L. Ruane September 21, 2024 at 12:42 pm on Yoko Ono: Music of the MindAmazing review/art history essay. Thank you Nancy.
Cathy Breslaw September 21, 2024 at 8:22 am on Yoko Ono: Music of the MindNice article Nancy, Cathy Breslaw