Three fine solo exhibitions and one eclectic curated group show shine at LAAA’s Gallery 825 this month.
In Gallery One, Alison Woods solo exhibit Metaclysmic abstraction in the virtual age, reveals the truth of how Woods’ describes her work as that of “an alchemist.” Layered, intricate, and sublimely interlocking shapes grace both of her large-scale works, one a mosaic green and serpentine, the other a sci-fi scene rooted on Mars (above). A smaller work shines with gold, futuristic and evocative of both natural wealth and the accumulation of the unnatural variety, affecting life on earth. A sculptural piece combines detritus from coffee shop bags to Kleenex in a floating, stalactite shape that also speaks to the human state.
While she delves into the Jungian and technological in all four of these fascinating works, the result in each and overall in the exhibition space is the rewarding creation of a kind of visionary landscape that layers past beliefs and visions with a strange and scintillating map of tomorrow.
Maya Kabat fills the middle gallery’s space in an immersive fashion, with some works positioned at eye level, while others reside close to the floor. Her geometric, sculptural abstract oils use supports and wood panels to shape Super Spatial, an exhibit that expands beyond the gallery’s own spatial constraints to create a body of floating, shifting architecture.
Vivid in palette and intriguingly faceted in line, this multi-surfaced exhibition seems to contain oceans and sunsets within its compelling box-like shapes.
Speaking of color…Seda Saar creates exceptional, glowing rainbows in the third gallery, with her show In Revelations: Seeing Light. Saar offers rainbow towers; vivid yellow and sienna prisms that replicate a rising or setting sun; and a sensual midnight blue in a half-raindrop shape, with a silvery mirror at its heart. There is a crescent moon that reflects a second planet, a series of color bright connected ovals, and a double reflective oval, opalescent in tone.
Spiritual and visceral, Saar’s delightful work lights up with mystic beauty.
In the north gallery, curator Cynthia Penna presented a juried group show titled SUPERSENSE. A suspended, jeweled hexagon by Espe Harper is one of a variety of works exploring (either? both?) “tactile presentation or fetishism” as the exhibition describes its theme. There were colorful flowered bustiers and shadowy profiles, candy cool hyperrealism from Lauren Mendelsohn-Bass, and a bright melting lollipop from J’Attelier.
All exhibitions will be on view through September 15th. LAAA is located at 825 N. La Cienega in West Hollywood. Open 10 to 5 Monday-Saturday by appointment.
- Genie Davis, photos by Genie Davis