Co-curated by art critic, curator, and author Shana Nys Dambrot and photographer Osceola Refetoff, Chungking Studios is serving up an exciting juxtaposition of painting and photography through January 29th in Chinatown. Featuring the works of painter Scott Trimble and photographer Refetoff, this visually and emotionally linked combination of images is a mind expanding look at scenery both external and internal.
As if seamless, the melding of photographic images with painterly ones is like watching two different sides of the same art coin. Here the same touch of color, there a similar image; the vibrancy and desolation of the desert, the emptiness or vividness in a place or a face. Shapes, shadows, and feeling coalesce.
The two artists met, liked each others work, and wanted to put on a show despite apparent lack of similarities in their work. Dambrot and Refetoff chose work by each artist that is intrinsically linked, through landscape, palette, and lines.
Trimble describes his work. “I paint every day, it’s a total coping mechanism for me, the one and only area of my life in which I have total freedom. It brings me such joy, I can’t imagine not painting.” Trimble says he was thrilled to work with Dambrot and Refetoff, and agrees with Dambrot’s description of putting the show together as “casual and organic.”
“Osceola and Scott were trading studio visits,” Dambrot explains. “Their work was so different, but they both wanted to have a show together. To assemble the exhibition, we went with a palette approach, picking images that were both hot and cold, or shared the same graphic strengths.”
Refetoff and Dambrot made studio visits together. “It was a ‘yes, no, maybe’ process,” Dambrot notes. “And once we had the loose structure, we unpacked the pieces, we looked at Scott’s paintings and Osceola’s photographs, and we just saw the pairings. I saw that this idea made sense.”
Refetoff adds “We were originally thinking of separate walls for Scott’s paintings and my photographs. We thought it would be hard to make black and white photos and colors work seamlessly together, but they do. It’s a dialog together.”
“It clicks, and I can’t say why,” Dambrot laughs. “We toyed with the idea of calling it ‘Studio Visit’ since the show grew out of the binding of two artists who explored each others work.”
The exciting visual aspect of the work is apparent the moment the viewer steps into the gallery. Thematically, the pieces work through their images, their colors, their emotion. It is an underlying sensibility that perhaps drew both artists together originally which creates a dynamic pull throughout the exhibit.
Missed the opening? See the work of this electrifying trio Thursday 1/28 from 8-11 p.m., as part of an LA Art Show sponsored celebration honoring Pop Surrealist artist Robert Williams with a lifetime achievement award. Other Chung King Road galleries will be open late, too.
Chungking Studios is located in the heart of Chinatown, at 975 Chung King Rd. in DTLA