As Gertrude Stein once said, a rose is a rose…but the flowers in Bloom are far more than that. They are created of oil and watercolor, fabric and photograph, sculptural and quilt, mixed media and magic.
Curator Kristine Schomaker, in the second 2024 iteration of the return of her in-person Shoebox Projects gallery space, has created a wild and brilliant juried group show, walls radiant with stunning images of rich fecundity and gracious petals.
This is a garden of art, and it is a sweet one. You can almost smell the scents of these blossoms, you can almost touch the rich and silky petals. Dip your dreams into these dewy blossoms and find the fragrance of blissful beauty if you will – or simply admire the amazingly unique, original, and lush interpretations of Bloom.
“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.”– Frances Hodgson Burnett
Above, a splendid “Hibiscus” in close up by Caley O’Dwyer bursts with vibrant color.
Annie Seaton’s fabric garden is ablaze in light and embossed with sewn-in jewels, above.
Below, Kira Vollman’s mixed media includes 3D sculptural flowers made from fine metal mesh – copper, brass, and steel – and photography, to shape a delicate floral dreamscape.
From the dazzling swirls and kaleidoscopic wonder of Karen Hochman Brown to the heightened realism of Lauren Mendelsohn Bass, the delicacy of Nurit Avesar’s work, and the rich grace of Dellis Frank’s, there is something growing on these walls to soothe every soul.
The exhibiting artists include: Shula Arbel, Nurit Avesar, Zadie Baker, Jane Bauman, Holly Boruck, Patricia Branstead, Anne M Bray, Rachel Bunteman, Corinne Cobabe, Adeola Davies-Aiyeloja, S. Emily de Araujo, Estefania Farias, Liz Flynn and Alyssa Arney, Dellis Frank, Carole Goldman, Damien Gossett, Tara Graviss White, Edwin Grundman, Karen Hochman Brown, Alison Hyman, Nicola Katsikis, Amanda Koger, Cristi Lyon, Monica R Marks, Katrina McElroy, Rena McInerney Olk, Martha Meade, Lauren Mendelsohn Bass, Masha Metamorph, Katie Middleton, Kris Moore, Heather Morrow, Marisa Murrow, Melanie Nolen, Caley O’Dwyer, Jennifer Ogden, Julie O’sullivan, Lark Larisa Pilinsky, Melissa Reischman, Katherine Rohrbacher, Terry Romero Paul, Annie Seaton, Shilla Shakoori, Karen Sikie, Phoebe Silva, Mahara Sinclaire, Elizabeth Souza, Nancy Spiller, Barbara Spiller, Carol Steinberg, Emily Sudd, Debbi Swanson Patrick, Kira Vollman, Robin Ward, and Liberty Worth.
As Schomaker says “Whether walking in a garden, planting your own, receiving them from friends or lovers, viewing delicious Renaissance flower paintings or walking through the flower market in DTLA, flowers bring joy and happiness to our internal and external worlds. Flowers are symbols of strength, longevity, grace, balance and abundance. We need more flowers right now.”
There are certainly plenty in Bloom at Shoebox Projects. Closing is 3-5 pm on February the 25th with gallery hours by appointment on additional days. Shoebox Projects is located in The Brewery Lofts complex in Lincoln Heights.
Featured image: Ellen M. Friedlander; image directly above: Heather Lowe/Carole Silverstein
The online exhibition Call and Response might be one of the best exhibitions of the art decade, never mind that it happened now, was a direct call to our loneliness, our longing, and our collective creativity.
The project was organized through Shoebox PR and Art & Cake; the dedicated art leadership behind it included those organizations’ helmswoman, Kristine Schomaker, as well as Sheli Silverio, S. Vollie Osborn, Emily Wiseman and Susan T. Kurland.
Kristine Schomaker
In traditional terms, the exhibition uses the process of randomly chosen collaboration to explore ongoing partnered work reminiscent of both jazz riffs and Exquisite Corpse; as “a way for us to stay connected, to check in with each other and to support each other. This is collaboration at a distance.”
Shelli Silverio
But this show goes beyond that description: beautiful, interesting, expanding artworks created from collaborating; a riveting example of what happens in challenging and cheering each other’s abilities; and a way to truly tap into the zeitgeist of what may very well be not just this year, but this decade.
Robyn Alatorre
Creating entirely new works of art inspired by one’s partner’s work of art over a brief course of time is a pretty incredible effort and joy. So too are the formidable amounts of both that the organizers put into mounting the show, on exhibit here:
This was truly a formidable and moving project; not in the least because of the often isolation/corona virus related/ elegiac images, but more so in the vastness of the reaching out, the hope and hopefulness in participants voicing plans for future collaborations, feeling heartened by the experience, or confronting their own sense of loss.
Adrienne Cole
In short: in loss there is gain; in waiting there is growth; in stillness, there is a voice; in partnership, the soul is not alone.
This show is a moving, even wonderful, experience. I spent a lot of time enjoying the art works and attended the two hour zoom reception, and each moment spent was a pleasure.
Jackie Bell Johnson
There are too many fine pairings to cite or come close to showing them all, but I wish I could, and I will laundry list the 106 participants by pair at the end of this piece. Rather than reviewing the art – although it is uniformly exceptionally worthy, the amount is overwhelming – I’m offering a taste of the reception, and what the artists felt about the experience.
Go absorb the works online yourself: you will be glad you did.
Cindy Rinne, partnered with Jason Jenn, described their pairing as “exciting…to see that Jason also performed and writes. We did collages and poems every few days, creating with a new perspective. We plan to work together in the future.” Exciting also describes the glow and poetry of their work together, and Jenn adds “It was a great way to stretch.”
Dani Dodge and Stacie Birky Greene’s collaboration “turned out to be awesome… I got images from Stacie, who works in photo montages, and I took what she does and translated that into what I do. To have someone who was so giving and didn’t mind if I got my own image in late… it was a great process to work with her,” Dodge reports. The result was a pairing of haunting, insightful images.
Leora Wien
Ashton Phillips and Leora Wien were similarly inspired. Wien was moved to try different mediums with Phillips; likewise, Susan Kurland and Lina Kogan found their partnership to be “inspirational.”
Bibi Davidson stretched her oeuvre as well with a vibrant, moving image collaboration with Jen Snoeyink, whose photographic depictions of site-specific installations vibrate with color. Collaborative work above.
Photographic artists Diane Cockerill and Martin Cox agreed that their collaboration “was something to look forward to…it gave meaning to our day, and we were on the same wavelength with what we wanted to say, many times,” Cockerill reports. Cox agrees “I would rush out to find something, shooting close to home…this forced me to come up with something that made sense.” Cockerill adds “The [photographic] stories were a by-product of our exchange.”
L. Aviva Diamond had been in lockdown mode prior to the county-wide safer at home regulations, and found collaborating with Micke Tong – a process she has never done before, an entirely new experience. “It was hard at first,” she says, “I didn’t have any connection with the installations and thedigital art he was doing. But he taught me how to do masks, and connect to his emotions. I’m really proud of what we came up with.” Tong agrees: “It was a joy to communicate with Aviva. She would react to what I was doing and there was a deeper relationship toward our work at the end of the process.” Their work is a dance, as is that of curators Schomaker and Silverio, who also collaborated on art work as well as the exhibition.
Schomaker relates “The idea for Call and Response came as a way to help artists. Shelli convinced me to do this. We played off each other’s art and emotions, and it got me out of the anxious mind set I was in sometimes.” Silverio adds “A lot of the time we are giving advice to artists, but for myself, I didn’t take my own advice. This was a really good exercise.”
Dwora Fried, working with Jeremy Hight, adds “I was inspired by Jeremy. I had a lot of insecurity at the beginning but then I began to feel that things would more than work out.” Something to remember in general, today.
David Isaacson says of his pairing with Amy Kaps, above “Her art came fast and fun. I was sacred shitless, but I was born to do this. Working with a performing artist like Amy was exciting. We hope to make a future performance art piece together.”
And Kayla Cloonan relates of her work with Misty Mawn, “I typically work in abstraction, while Misty is primarily figurative. She got me out of myself, and it was really rejuvenating.”
Julia Montgomery said of working with Kristine Augustyn. “I didn’t want to stop, I couldn’t stop. This kept me going.” Augustyn adds “She gave me a place to focus, to see her working was so exciting. It was an organic experience, and we built something.”
Building something: the concept of Call and Response as a whole.
Given 24 hours per participant to answer each other’s “call,” these works, are especially profound given this constraint. Some artists built upon each other’s piece; others bounced ideas back and forth. All created work that was important to the spirit: their own, and that of the viewers.
Image above – Ellen M. Friedlander
Kimberly Morris, above
In all, those exhibiting include:
Nora Cohen/Emily Wiseman Jen Snoeyink/ Bibi Davidson Gini Mann-Deibert/Debbie Carlson Ashton S. Phillips/Leora Wien Ashley L. Gnar/Yvonne Jongeling Kenzie Dickens/Laura Henneforth Cia Foreman/Kat Nuñez Paula Goldman/Karen Fisher Chris Fontaine/Kimberlee Koym-Murteira Jacki Morie/Zarina Silverman Kayla Cloonan/ Misty Mawn Larissa Nickel/Ted Meyer Jesse Standlea/Dafna Steinberg Leticia Velasquez/Reneé Fox Isa Gordon/Robyn Alatorre Kristine Augustyn/Julia Montgomery Adrienne Cole/Gina Herrera Anne M Bray/Sina Evans Cathy Breslaw/Susan J. Osborn Dale Voelker/Samantha Fields Sally Baxter/Karen Hochman Brown Jason Jenn/Cindy Rinne Darren McManus/Xu Darocha S. Vollie Osborn/Alyssa Haley Moon Micke Tong/L. Aviva Diamond Laura London/Heather Arndt Conchi Sanford/Ellen Friedlander Bee Colman/Cassandra Takeshi Audrey Coates/Lissa Young Jeremy Hight/Dwora Fried Martin Cox/Diane Cockerill Kimberly Morris/Tom Lasley Lorraine Bubar/Jody Zellen Albert Valdez/John Park David Isakson/Amy Kaps Carole Silverstein/Heather Lowe Emily Silver/Angela Brooks Hillary Ramirez/Sadhana Bhetuwal Susan Kaufer Carey/Madeline Arnault Coleman Griffith/Lynn Azali Jacqueline Bell Johnson/Kris Hodson Moore Michelle Andrade/Sohani Holland William Hemmerdinger/Teresa Coates Lina Kogan/Susan Kurland Liliana Hueso/Andee Rudloff Jill D’Agnenica/Victor Wilde Allison Butcher/Leah Shane Dixon Kristine Schomaker/Sheli Silverio Kerrie Smith/Aazam Irilian Dani Dodge/Stacie Birky Greene Adeo Las/Diane Linquata Rebecca Bennett Duke/Leyna Lighman
There is a Round 2 of Call and Response, with an online reception scheduled for May 9th – and in which, I am participating with the written word and the occasional photo image in collaboration with my randomly chosen partner, Adrienne Cole.
Be sure to watch for the invitation to attend the virtual reception, and visit the work. There’s life out there in the void. You’ll want to experience it.
Genie Davis; photos provided by Shoebox Projects; featured image by Ellen M. Friedlander.
Now at Shoebox Projects through April 14th, Dani Dodge offers mixed media works in a tribute to the Joshua Tree that is profoundly moving and beautiful. The exhibition, My Ugly/Beautiful Friends, is comprised of two compelling parts.
With “Wielding Swords,” Dodge deconstructs the Joshua Tree spikes into separate stories of survival, love, and loneliness. Much like the human body, these spikes age; they metamorphose, going from upright to drooping to being absorbed as a protective coating for the plant itself.
Here, working with mixed mediums in dimensional wall sculptures sheathed in thick plastic that are alternately chartreuse, clear, and hot pink that also forms the shapes, Dodge offers seeds, beads, glittery fabric, even film shoot permits as a part of her reprsentations.
There is – or was – (Dodge is selling out this show) – an entire wall, a quilt of sculptural images on display like a surreal forest of these fierce and wonderful desert leaves.
Beautiful and evocative as this work is, the other part of her exhibition resonates even more strongly.
In “Symbiosis 1-12,” the artist explores the Joshua Tree’s ugly/beauty and its symbiotic relationship with the yucca moth, on which the trees rely for pollination; in turn, the moth depends on the Joshua Trees for their survival.
Using her own photographs, adding her own notes and painted art work, she adds a moving depth to the story of the trees, their strange beauty and toughness, and the somewhat bizarre moth itself which sports tentacle-like fronds from its mouth.
Dodge explains her process in creating these works. “Over the past four months or so, I had been photographing these plants that captivated me while doing residences at the Mojave National Preserve and the Prime Desert Woodland Preserve in Lancaster, Calif. I loved the photographs, but as an artist I wanted to say more about the plants than I could capture in a photo. I wanted to simultaneously emphasize their strength and fragility at the same time I explored their awkward beauty.”
And so Dodge added additional, lush elements. She rims some of the trees with gold leaf; utilizes spray paint; incorporates beads. She used hand-cut stencils, paint pens and acrylic paint to incorporate the yucca moth into her works, and to further place emphasis on what she calls the “ugly/beautiful nature of my friends;” she crafts what she calls “S.O.S. notes” for their survival.
These are deeply moving works, reminiscent of religious icons in her treatment, not just because of the touches of gold, but in her reverence for these mysterious, otherworldly trees.
“When I wanted to push past what the photographic image could say, I decided to use a symbol of beauty and wealth: gold. Specifically gold leaf on the sides of each work and then incorporated into the photograph in some of the pieces,” she says. “Each time I go into the desert, those arms welcome me. I wanted the gold to symbolize the beauty some do not see in the branches of these plants that were called hideous by some early explorers.”
According to the artist “This installation is an ode to the Joshua Tree’s ability to adapt and survive for so long, and a prayer that it may continue.” That prayer may be necessary indeed due to both climate change and the trees’ slow reproduction and dispersal rate.
She adds “To me, the Joshua Tree simultaneously symbolizes survival and fragility. It demonstrates the power of adaptation, while also illustrating the danger of climate change (even) to the most adaptable species. This plant also is one of the most ugly/beautiful pieces of nature on our planet.”
Photo above by L. Aviva Diamond
The Joshua tree was given its name by a group of Mormon settlers who crossed the Mojave Desert in the mid-19th century. Its unique shape reminded them of a Biblical story in which Joshua reaches his hands up to the sky in prayer. Joshua’s own name has a meaning: Yahweh is salvation. And to many, including Dodge, the trees represent their own form of salvation, redemption, and resilience.
“To me,” she says, “those akimbo branches are like the arms of broken souls welcoming me into their fold.”
Photo above by Thalassa Dimitra Skandali
Dodge creates immersive, surrealist environments and installations from Los Angeles to Stockholm. A member of the Durden and Ray collective in Los Angeles, and alumnae of A.I.R. gallery in New York, you can read more about her at http://www.danidodge.com
And go see this show with a prayer in your heart and wings on your feet. We did.
Shoebox Projects is located in DTLA at The Brewery Complex in Lincoln Heights.
– Genie Davis; photos: Genie Davis; two additional photos: by L. Aviva Diamond, and from Dimitra Skandali, as noted above.
The exhibition title is Won’t Pray, but the exhibition itself is incredibly spiritual. Transforming Shoebox Projects into a kind of meditative, spiritual consciousness during her December residency, LA-based artist and curator Elizabeth Tingloff created a dream-like space of highly tactile materials.
Abstract objects are strongly textured and yet ethereal; representations of some existence beyond our own, both alien yet highly recognizable. The well-curated exhibition gave the viewer something to look at in every corner of the Shoebox space. An upside down tree is tied to the ceiling with coiled wire as subtle and silvery as snakes. Below the branches – or roots, your choice – the tree is reflected in a kind of upside down world of mirrored puzzle pieces. It is real, but it is illusory. Like life itself.
Coiled wires also emerge from single pieces suspended on the wall, black against gold, like a dazzling treasure framed by circles of darkness. It looks transcendent, yet trapped. Several pieces in this material configuration, but in a variety of shapes and textures, are included in the exhibition.
Others wires spin like vines, dangling above, within, and below silvery teale-blue rectangles hung from a hook as if they were slabs of meat. They dangle above the illusion of a precipice created by a smaller grid of mirrored squares. And yet others spill from a second wall piece that is emerald green, crumpled fabric caught within another black frame.
There are elements of sci-fi, of futuristic worship, of a world gone inside out; and the sense of entering another realm, a kind of subverted fairy tale.
A pod-like shape, gold crusted, partially opened, stands at the front of the room. What emerged from this cocoon? A birth? Vestigages of faith? A reason to dismiss all hope and prayers?
An old-fashioned kneeler, the kind lapsed Catholics grew up up on while gazing into the faces of implaccable saints, stands in one corner, its kneepad a goregous series of painful metallic circles.
Each of the works here could be unpacked by individual elements; layers of meaning like a face behind a veil behind another veil are barely glimpsed at first look, yet the overall effect of the work, even without searching deeper, is mesmerizing. Many pieces have a jeweled quality, mirrors, gold, metallic bits, the silver and black wires.
Tinglof’s work reaches into and flips around the ideas of accepted truth and self-examination. What are we praying for, if we do pray? What is the reason for our prayers or our agnosticism? What is going on in our world? What is our world? All of these questions – and doubtlessly many more – emanate like beams of light from within a mix of painting and sculpture.
In both the positioning of the art around the gallery, and the way in which each piece seems to dialog with another – gold to emerald, blue to silver – there is a passionate exhortation of color and form, something vigorous and questioning everywhere a viewer looks.
This is not a first such exploration for the artist. The found of Joshua Tree-based Rough Play Projects and co-founder of LA’s Rough Play Collective, her work has long focused on on delving beneath surfaces and into the nooks and crannies of beliefs. Tinglof has also worked as a photo journalist and video documentarian; her insight into the precariousness of our world and our belief systems seem grounded in fact.
The exhibition overall was as if one stepped through a looking glass – and looked long and hard inside oneself. And from there, found the visceral images from Won’t Pray suggesting we examine the “why” in our lives and the world at large.
