Inspirational Work from Late Artist Nadege Monchera Baer at The Front and in Stunning Group Show, Mother Memory at Wonzimer

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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

 

Vojislav Radovanovic’s Bird Circuit Sings

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           Vojislav Radovanovic’s Bird Circuit Sings – by Genie Davis

Vojislav Radovanovic’s stunning solo exhibition Bird Circuit soars through a poetic exploration of identity, self-expression, and joy. Using an exciting, primarily brilliant palette and perfectly detailed images of wonderous birds as its starting point, the exhibition is inspired by the historical bird circuit, a collection of bars with names inspired by birds, which welcomed guests to queer-friendly spaces in cities such as New York and Los Angeles when such were considered to be illegal.

Radovanovic’s work is a lesson in painterly perfection and magical realism. As curated by Jason Jenn, the vibrant images fly through a variety of remarkable, mystical paintings which in many cases landing in immersive installation space.

Above, “Bejeweled Finch” is rich in layers, materials, and the intricate lovliness that is the make-up of each piece in this exhibition. Here, Radovanovic uses mixed media on light reflector, glass and wood bead, and thread to create a delicate and dreamy image.

Each of the artist’s works here are both profoundly lovely and filled with dynamic energy. The winged cultural mascots he depicts herald the strength of cultural resistance to oppression, the vibrancy of which has never been more pertinent and vital than today. These avian figures pull viewers into stories that were born in a network of gay bars, sanctuaries for connection. In these images, birds indicating these places of sanctuary lead one into a world of metaphor and music as potent as birdsong. There are anthropomorphic figures, playful scenes, loving couples, and alchemic mystery — the latter firmly embued in each work.

Along with the birds themselves, there are elements of magic. Mysteriously dark, seemingly shape shifting birds clad in top hats appear in  “Magician; a silver bird astride an artist’s brush with a half moon perched between his wings, in “Omen.”

 

Some of the paintings are magical in approach if not subject. These are layered in theapplication of paint and the precision of Radovanovic’s brush strokes, or involve the quilts of smaller previous paintings conjoined into larger work, as in “Urge to Sing,” below.

And along with his paintings, Radovanovic offers sculptural images, including fantastical blue wooden swans sailing across a shiny silver lake in one gallery, and video projected on soft fabric behind shimmery curtains in another.

 

 

The fabric serving as the location of the video projection makes the images move and dance like ripples on a clear lake, each embodying a different reflection. In the same gallery are the artist’s assemblage, “Ladders,” and the lush collage of “Let Love Flourish (Cape),” an elaborately embroidered silver cape with a dimensional collage that once again speaks to the idea of magic, of talismans, or a conjurer’s protection from risk.

Other sculptural pieces also shine. “The Frog” is a whimsically vivid green friend, accompanied by a wildly blooming water lily, while “Small Birds” are layered, hinged sculptural visions in green and blue,  enjoying a small water source surrounded by pink flowers.

Each of these transformative paintings and sculptures speak to the power of love, and the ways in which love always finds a way. They are also powerful rebukes to the hatred and ugliness of the world in the past, and even more certainly of the present. They are a reclamation and a redemption.

“Swans” form a beatific heart in one intensely moving piece, awash in moonlight, moody and romantic with its sliver of perfect moon and palette of watery blues.

“Ultraviolet”  presents the ways in which the unique vision of birds allows them to see the world through vision that far exceeds human sight in their perception of colors and light, including ultraviolet light. A velvety blue flower features an eye, while two blue birds pluck intensely ruby-colored berries from a branch, and two red mushrooms pulse with sensual energy.

In a way, the artist’s perception is equally heightened. He sees not just the subjects he paints but presents their innermost souls, rich and rewarding, as multiply layered as the feathers on bird wings. He embraces the need for sanctuary, succor, sweetness, and celebration in every work, weaving the fantastical with the fabulous, the fierce with the importance of faith, magic, and hope.

There are many ideas nesting within Radovanovic’s work, but one of the most vital is the importance of joy and the ability to take flight above the darkest of times, claiming special places as our own, always seeking the radiance of love and freedom, and envisioning the promise of delight.

Bird Circuit closes Saturday, June 28 2-5 p.m. at the Ronald H. Silverman Gallery with a closing reception, catalog signing, and artist and curator walk-through. The exhibition will also be on view at https://www.laartdocuments.com/ if you’ve missed this beautiful show live.

  • Genie Davis; photos provided by the artist and curator

 

New Dazzler at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery

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New Dazzler at Tany Bondakdar Gallery – Genie Davis

Sandra Cinto’s Prelude to the Sun, at Tanya Bonakdar, on exhibit through July 2nd,  is golden, literally and figuratively. The artist has restructured the gallery walls themselves to glow with a site-specific golden installation, a large-scale curved wall drawing.

Also on display are a series of tondo and oval-shaped canvases that shift from blue to gold in an exploration of the day’s cycle from dawn til dusk.

These are visually stunning works that use the sun as an inspirational element and to reveal the passage of time. Stars, waves, cliffs, bridges, and swings, are among the delicately rendered subjects presented. It’s a gorgeous show, and one that should be soaked in just as you’d sit on the beach or in a park and enjoy a little sunshine. Meditative yet energetic, this is a stellar exhibition made to be seen live.

  • Genie Davis; photos by Genie Davis

 

 

Desert X Marks the Art Spot

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Desert X Marks the Art Spot  – by Genie Davis

Through May 11th, don’t miss the 5th iteration of Desert X, in of course, the desert – Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, and Desert Hot Springs are among the locations this year.  This is one of the strongest and most successful editions of the exhibition, whose purpose is to create and present international contemporar art that fits the desert sites in which its located. We saw each of the works over a leisurely two day visit.

Let’s start where we did, with Agnes Denes jubilant, flower filled work at Sunnylands in Rancho Mirage. The Living Pyramid is both an artwork and an environmental intervention, per Desert X – under any category, it’s a deeply touching piece that reveals the fragility and promise of life in the desert.

Completely different and located in the raw desert piece is Muhannad Shono’s viscerally haunting What Remains. The fabric works evoke windswept sails on long dried seas.

Sarah Meyohas’ Truth Arrives in Slanted Beams is a pristine vision that unfolds like a bright white ribbon. Her immersive installation creates significant word patterns using  “caustics,” light patterns formed by the refraction or reflection of light through curved surfaces. What a dynamite piece.

Ronald Rael’s Adobe Oasis in Palm Desert is just that, a maze that also serves as a place of rest and succor from the sun.

Out on Highway 111, off Tramway Road, in Palm Springs, Kapwani Kiwanga’s Plotting Rest is beautifully matched in setting and offers different encompassing views of art and scenery from every angle.

Sanford Biggers’ work sparkles as it brings the sky, or at least its clouds, closer to earth. Beautiful from all angles, Unsui (Mirror) shines.

Possibly my favorite in a field of favorites this year (or a desert’s worth, perhaps) is Kimsooja’s To Breathe, a dancing, light-filled walk through prism that changes with the direction of the sun. We visited at noon, when the piece gave off rainbows.

While G.H.O.S.T Ride moves about, when we saw it, the Mad-Max-like work by Cannupa Hanska Luger was just up the hill from Kimsooja’s piece. Delightful and imaginative with an audio component, the location was a tough climb on a hot day, let’s hope it’s easier to view in these warmer final weekends.

Alison Saar brings heart and soul to a terrific and interactive Soul Station in Desert Hot Springs. From a fully realized gas station interior, to signs with mantras for peaceful living, and a gas pump with a seashell silver handle that offers beautiful poetic messages to listeners, this art is fully alive.

Also in Desert Hot Springs, Jose Davila offers monoliths reminscent of Stone Henge – if Stone Henge was made today and spoke to the movement of immigration as does The act of being together.