Leaving Eden: Samuelle Richardson and Snezana Saraswati Petrovic

Posted on by Diversions LA

Climate change has made the idea of leaving Eden, our planet earth, all too real a prospect.  What happens to the flora and fauna, the animal life – including the human animal – if we allow the continued environmental apocalypse to continue? Art has often stood in the forefront of calling attention to and presenting an action call for salient issues. It has awakened viewers to the necessity for change, to the beauty of the world around us, and provided a sense of hope for the future. So, too, does Leaving Eden, coming February 11th to Keystone Gallery in Lincoln Heights.

The collaborative exhibition between Samuelle Richardson and Snezana Saraswati Petrovic will fill viewers with the joy of Richardson’s expressive textile animals and Petrovic’s immersive flowers, trees, and glistening waters. Gallery visitors will move – as the flourishing creatures and landscape in this art world do – from their lush, green, and blue Eden to a dry, desert world, where all life must struggle for food and water — with hope that they can return to Eden again.

Divided into two rooms: an Edenic garden and a desert filled with Joshua Trees and cacti, the two artists have combined their gifts to create a vision to cherish and consider, one that expresses the beauty of nature and our vital need to protect it.

Richardson describes the journey viewers will take as a circular one, revealing what it is like to live in and leave our Eden and then try to create a more “pristine world…a circular journey back to square one [where] flora and fauna prevail.”

Petrovic says “As an immigrant, I am in search for an idyllic version of the home that I have lost due to war. My realization was that the real home for all of us is the Earth, and for me, it represents Eden, the most diverse and idyllic garden of all.” To prepare for the exhibition, she began to draw studies of plants in Huntington Gardens, Joshua Tree, the Salton Sea, and Oahu, Hawaii. She adds that mythologically the “idea of Eden is connected to the human need for a place of immortality,  an ideal place for human habitation with lush beauty, and it exists not just in Christianity but… is [expressed as] Jannāt ʿAdni in the Quran or [as] Pure Lands in Buddhism…in all of these gardens, there are always references to infinity and transformation.”

Both artists express that sense of transformation in their work. For Richardson, “New work begins with a mental picture of the subject, then I research pictures that express the type of character I want.  I build up each figure in stages to achieve gesture and expression, working with the pictures as a bridge to discovery.”  Here you will see lions, birds, wild dogs, and even a few humans created by the artist.

Petrovic was in part inspired to create her mixed media sculptures of zip ties and dry natural plants from references to the Byzantine traditional blue depictions of Eden, with video installation elements culled from her Oahu and Big Island residencies, while the desert installation was inspired by the Salton Sea and it’s “white shore with fish skeletons turned into mineral dust,” and uses a white, orange, and blue palette – skeletons, sun and sky – in her work in the Desert room.

Visitors to the exhibition will also be able to interact with some of Petrovic’s work through AR and the use of iPads in the exhibition or through their own smart phones. The AR depictions reveal dry dirt transforming with a live, growing seedling, what she calls a “symbolic shift of the wheel of fortune from global catastrophe to renewal and healing.”

Richardson and Petrovic greatly enjoyed working together on this project. “It’s uncanny how much Snezana and I have in common regarding our worldview and how we have advanced as artists.  Our collaboration also included outings to Huntington Gardens to observe and compare our impressions on nature,” Richardson says.

Petrovic relates that “We would immerse ourselves in different parts of the gardens, and have conversations related to the nature of different environments, desert versus rain forest. We were looking at the shapes and relationships between flora and negative spaces…we shared some images of our previous works and investigated the works of Henri Rousseau and Hieronymus Bosch.”

She adds that “Sam’s dogs, tigers and birds are bringing my environments and sculptural installations to life. I cannot wait to see all of them being brought together into this unique project!”

Richardson brought to the exhibition new ideas inspired from a recent residency in Rome, and a fascination with the Etruscan culture, which Petrovic also finds compelling.  “We both agree that our creations are coming from the ‘same world’ of connectedness to feminine history as well as our own past design experiences. Sam’s fashion industry experiences brought a deep understanding of patterning, fabric and thread use into her sculptures. My interest in the relationship between space versus object is from professional experience as a production/set and costume designer,” Petrovic relates.

Richardson has added to her wire, foam, and fabric sculptures – with the “fabric covering my work emulating glaze on ceramic” with a new artistic expression – in woodwork. “I am building shapes that resemble boats, joining and cutting pine lumber [for the exhibition.]”

Petrovic has included her latest experiments in organic bioplastic, also using dry plants and palm leaves in the exhibition. She says taht she has long been driven toward reimagining the future, beginning with a residency at the Pomona Art Colony under Judy Chicago examining the “current and future scientific predicament of global ecological catastrophe…if we do not protect our home, there will be nowhere to go. Leaving Eden was a natural progression of my exploration of gardens and homes within the looming danger of climate change and plastic overuse.  It added another layer to my imagined world of the future. I see this whole experience as a love poem to the Earth, our own impermanence and existence that might have a chance for a replay.”

Richardson, Petrovic, and I, as conceptualizing curator, all encourage you to visit our Eden and its aftermath and look toward that replay, one which our world all too dearly needs.

Leaving Eden holds its opening Saturday, February 11th from 6 to 9 p.m.; an artist’s talk and closing event will be held Saturday, February 25th at 4 p.m. Additional gallery hours Thursday-Sunday by appointment.

Keystone Gallery is located at 338 S Avenue 16, Los Angeles, CA 90031

  • Genie Davis; photos by Genie Davis and Samuelle Richardson

First Response: A Call to Artistic Action

Posted on by Diversions LA

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Curator Nurit Avesar created a rapid – or First Response to the 2016 election. Gathering artists with a mission, she pulled together a vibrant group show that is as lush and encompassing as it is politically potent.

The show, which just closed at Keystone Art Space,  included work by Elana Kundell, Janet Neuwalder, Kim Abeles, Bobbie Moline-Kramer, Peggy Pownall, Susan Kurland, Nicholas Coroneos, Nadege Monchera Baer, Kristine Schomaker, Scott Froschauer, Molly Segal, Kio Griffith, David Estrada, Marcus Durkheim, Sigrid Orlet and Avesar herself.

“The election hit us so hard, it was overwhelming. We feel so vulnerable and bombarded. Really, many of us couldn’t do artwork in the usual way, there was a push to do something,” Avesar says. “So I said, let’s do a group show, and it just came together. Some pieces are new for the show, and others were pieces that the artists already had which fit well thematically. For example, Nadege Monchera Baer does a lot of work about destruction, and Nicholas Coroneos work has a very cynical take on church corruption, on abuses of power in general, on the money behind it and that sort of thing.”

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Above, the vibrant deconstruction by Nadege Monchera Baer is composed of colored pencil and acrylic on Dura-Lar. The work pulls the viewer into the gorgeous wreckage and leaves her dangling. The title says it all “And Then…” a stunning emotional precipice.

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Above, the delicate, profound watercolor and gouache work of Molly Segal. The large scale of her works on paper makes the miraculous detail of her work even more exciting. A dream-like sadness touches her art, which expresses the wildness of nature –  nature that will, in the end, outlast man’s wildest foibles and strangest regimes.

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Above,  Scott Froschauer, whose rich sepia images are creating using gun powder of the same kind involved in the tragedies at Sandy Hook Elementary and in Memphis.

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Above, Kristine Schomaker says “My current work is part of a new cross-platform project called “An Ode to a Lost Love” whose leitmotif addresses the de(con)struction of self in relation to society’s perception/projection/reflection of beauty. This work focuses on the complexities of gender identity, body image, and the societal privileging of women’s physical beauty over character and intellect.”

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Curator Avesar notes that “This show is about the current political situation and the realization that our most basic democratic ideals are being threatened, giving way to unapologetic abuse of power and special interests. As artists, we use images to articulate our first response to these uncertain times. Looking back into recent world history, we examine the use of propaganda to incite hate, blame others, spread lies and fear.”

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Above: Kim Abeles created a brand new interactive mixed-media piece for the exhibition.

“It felt very good to be busy having a conversation with people about what is going on every day. The exhibition is opening a conversation that’s on-going. I’m not sure if this is the only political show I will do. The artists felt sincerely compelled to do this one,” Avesar notes.

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Incredibly delicate and beautiful works by Susan Kurland above and below. The ethereal nature of the materials, both fabric and wax, add to the poignancy of the works.

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Janet Neuwalder’s installation “The First 100 Days” are books which have, according to the artist, been unbound, unhinged, reformatted and made neutral by eliminating the powerful content of descriptive language. “Verbs, adjectives, and other words that shape the images we see when we read and convey information important to reader and writer, have been removed. …By limiting information for the reader, I start to control the flow of information.  This process takes time.  I found it difficult to change some of these books I cared about. They became forever changed.  I imagine, if books kept becoming ‘neutral,’ within a few generations, so much might  be lost. Perhaps, the painters would be the chosen ones to memorize the books and become the living memory banks of these books.”

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“This show started a momentum for us. We wanted to create a sense of empowerment from having a conversation together, and not feeling so isolated in the world,” Avesar attests. “We started the show before the Muslim ban and immigration executive order happened, but everything ended up being so appropriate,” she adds of her prescient exhibition.

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Above, Nicholas Coroneos. So many strings attached…

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Above, Avesar in the heart of her exhibition.

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Above, Kio Griffith’s old-fashioned dark room photos felt like an exhibition-must for Avesar to include. “The piece is done using traditional darkroom composite photography.  He created this piece using photos he shot while a recent trip to Japan. The complex nature of the black and white prints and their humanity resembles images from the 1950s, and yet the work is very contemporary. There is heaviness and beauty to them.” The title of the piece is “Who Can Say that We Can’t Live Like Dogs.”

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Above, Nicholas Coroneos. The sculptural piece says it well: we are cashing out.

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Above, left – Avesar’s own textured, raw abstracts speak of the outrage and fierceness of #resist. To the right, David Estrada.

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“Artists like to do things with their hands. This show is a gut-feeling show,” Avesar relates. “I started talking to artists in January, so this show was put up very quickly, some pieces were wet when we hung them.”

Perhaps this haste lends to the fresh, multi-faceted look of this exhibition.

Susan Kurland and Avesar collaborated on “The Making of America,” below, an interactive work. “People who came to the opening and visited the show put most of the ribbons up. The idea was to get everyone to participate in the making of this piece, which consists of multi-colored ribbons tied on a wire sculpture in the shape of the map of the U.S. It represents the many different cultures in America, and the nation’s multi-faceted and rich fabric,” Avesar says.

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“We wanted to end things on a more positive note, for people to stay informed and connected,” Avesar adds.

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Above, “Blaze” by Nadege Monchera Baer.

An important exhibition both visually and intellectually, First Response will not be these artists’ last word on our politics and our people.

  • Genie Davis; photos:  Jack Burke, Genie Davis

Make Believe: Kathy Curtis Cahill at Keystone Gallery

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Closing this weekend, Kathy Curtis Cahill’s Make Believe, now at Keystone Gallery, is a potent and poignant look at childhood and the full-on miracle of imagination.

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Using dolls as a stand-in for children, these believably life-like, charming subjects dress up as cowgirls, super heroes, a princess, a doctor and nurse. Whether evoking Cahill’s own childhood or that of her son, these doll children are vulnerable, adorable, and haunting. There is magic afoot: within a child’s creative play, and within the creations Cahill herself presents.

Cahill’s earlier exhibition, Memories and Demons, approached a darker side of childhood, dealing with trauma and abuse, and the ways in which children can be all too easily scarred.

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The delicate and wondrous world of childhood presented here serves, Cahill notes, as a “direct counterpoint” to her earlier series. “These works are all about the joy, the amazing freedom of the world children have before age five.”

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The artist also notes that children may also use their imagination and play to overcome trauma or escape from it, much as she and her brother did as children. A tomboy, Cahill and her brother together played with toy soldiers, shot BB guns, and roamed through the woods. Their own fantasy world provided them comfort and pleasure.

Cahill’s personal childhood play is one thread of the exhibit; a second illuminates the play of her son. Taken together, this series touches the heart with its evocation of childhood pleasures and escapes, and in a gentle way also reveals the touching vulnerability of children’s imagination. Dreams are delicate; they are beautifully wrought fantasies should not be disturbed. There is respect as well as whimsy in her portrayals.

Created primarily outdoors near Cahill’s northern California studio – she also maintains a studio in Los Angeles – the works are shot using natural lighting, and are designed to be as ‘real’ as possible. “I’ve done fake,” she laughs, referencing her past as an Emmy-winning set decorator.

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She casts her dolls carefully, and her settings. Some settings take longer to create, as in “Tea Party,” where Cahill changed settings numerous times before ending up in her own home, and changing the color of the background curtains.

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Others seemed to find themselves, as in “Grr!” where a small boy in the woods, clad in a bear costume, pays homage to Cahill’s own son’s childhood and playfulness.

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Along with her photographs, Cahill features a large scale installation of her doll and stuffed animal subjects as well as other toy props used in her works. She choose to include these actual subjects to inform viewers about exactly what she worked with, as well as to make them more “real” to viewers. She says that for children, dolls and stuffed toys come alive. “They’re the first things we identify after our mothers,” she says.

The artist finds them joyous, and sees them as individuals, her own artistic children.

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The entire exhibition space itself serves as a unifying installation, with living room furnishings from the 1950s and 1970s representing the environments in which Cahill and her brother played and those in which her own child played. The photographic works are hung as if they were were family photos, furthering the illusion that these dolls are as real as the children who played with them and believed in them.

If you’ve ever read The Velveteen Rabbit,  the story of a toy rabbit that becomes real through the love of a child, or believed yourself in beloved toys “becoming real,” Cahill’s work will heighten that belief.

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There’s a lovely intimacy to these pieces, a beautiful, dream-like quality.  Just as children play dress-up and become for a time what they imagine they can be, Cahill allows viewers to play along, to see the world with fresh eyes, to see what they can still, even as adults, make “real.”

Cahill’s Keystone Gallery closing will be February 5th. The gallery is located at 338 S. Ave 16, Los Angeles.

  • Genie Davis; Photos: Jack Burke and provided by the artist