Inspirational Work from Late Artist Nadege Monchera Baer at The Front and in Stunning Group Show, Mother Memory at Wonzimer
Genie Davis
It’s been a summer of changes and some chaos, but it is past time to catch up on some of the wonderful exhibitions I’ve had the joy of experiencing in July and August.
It’s only fitting to post first a tribute to Nadege Monchera Baer, a brilliantly imaginative artist whose articulate use of color and pattern, exquisite precision, and enormous artistic and personal grace I am proud to have known over the last 13 years. In my coverage of past exhibitions, I’ve touched on her versatility, her lush textures, her frankly dazzling use of materials, and her constant willingness to both experiment and offer experiential vibrancy to her viewers.
From her dazzling pointillist work to unique laminated dimensional sculptures, her inventive passion for art, and her ever-fresh use of mediums and style were, and will always remain, magical. Of the latter work, in 2016, Baer said, “I want to do more of this, laminate different drawings. I love the possibility that the door has maybe begun opening to doing something else with my work.”
At last weekend’s pop-up exhibition of her work at The Front in Lincoln Heights, the luminosity of her work was almost overwhelming.
Whether creating lush works that resemble flowers, a bird of bright plumage, or the human form, her mix of abstract and figurative work shapes the alchemic. In another exhibition as part of the BLAM collective which frequently exhibited on Santa Fe Avenue in DTLA, she even made beautiful a depiction of an oil spill clean-up, saying “I’m always painting changes in the environment. I’m trying to show our concern about the environment. ”
She also profoundly witnessed and depicted the intense wonder in the world.
Invention, beauty, grace: Baer offered each with a generous heart and spirit. She was an artistic force to be reckoned with. Earlier this summer she was a part of a stunning small group show at FOCA, curated by Aline Mare; and along with the brilliant tribute exhibition at The Front, which has now closed, last weekend also brought viewers to Baer’s work at an exciting group exhibition, Mother Memory, at Wonzimer Gallery, curated by Toti O’Brien, and running through September 12th.
At the latter show, amid a collection of powerful artists’ works, Baer is still a standout, her eye for color, for texture, for pattern, and above all, for the mystical meaning within the heart of her work made her images both bold and exciting.
That exhibition is a don’t-miss extravaganza of joy, mystery, and passion from artists including: Anita Getzler, Gina Lawson Egan, Peter Liashkov, Marina Moevs, Toti O’Brien, Melinda Smith Altshuler, Nancy Kay Turner, J Michael Walker, and of course, the unforgettable Nadege Monchera Baer.
The show richly dives into a wide range of mothering experiences: memories of mothers, the idea of mothering, the experience of motherhood, and the expression of memory itself as a mother to our minds and souls. O’Brien’s poetic curation asks viewers to examine how memory itself is a mother to us, and the ways in which our memories create and shape us, nurture us and guide us. Of course, memories can also bring tears, wild imagination, revisionist history, exuberant moments relived, and aspects of our past, our future legacy, and the passage of time that both succor us and can devastate.
In just such a way, this potent exhibition honors Baer, even as her work honors the viewer with its presence. We have our memories of her art, her vibrant personality, her stunning fashion sense, culled from a background in fashion and film abroad. We have our own memories in which her work dances, as well as memories yet formed and yet shaped of her work, her passions, and that of all the artists exhibiting here.
Each work in this show is a gem: an installation from Nancy Kay Turner features elements of glitter and bronze within collages of past memories and evocations of our own collective history…
Curator and exhibiting artist Toti O’Brien’s whimsical, alive, and stirring wall sculptures of the female form are provocative and fun at the same time…
Anita Getzler pays tribute to those who lost their lives to Covid in both video and sculptural forms involving dried roses, which sculpturally are hung like the beads on an abacus that counts the passage of time…
Gina Lawson Egan’s intensely original sculptural totems and figures take the viewer on an evocative but accessible fantasy ride, looking like the stuff dreams are made of.
Each of the artists here provide an insight into memory and movement and invention, the ways in which we, as human beings, bring our own marks into the future, recreate our pasts, and preserve our lives and legacy through art and understanding.
While she may have left us bereft here on Mother Earth, Baer (work above) continues to grace our lives with her eternally living artwork. And the group show at Wonzimer highlights both her work and that of the other exhibiting artists in an exhibition that demands to be seen, felt, and carried in our hearts.
Wonzimer Gallery is located at 341 S. Avenue 17 in the Lincoln Heights area of Los Angeles. The gallery is open Wednesday-Sunday, and do visit Mother Memory, up until September 12th.
To see more of Nadege Monchera Baer‘s works, visit her garden of images on Instagram.
- Genie Davis; photos by Genie Davis