Quaranta at BG Gallery Reveals Dreams of Pandemic Art

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Susan Lizotte

Quaranta, just closed at bG Gallery in Bergamot Station, but viewable online, is a dynamic group exhibition with a powerful group of LA-based artists.

Curators

Susan Lizotte and Jenny Hager (above) co-curated a beautiful show with an inherent and wildly colorful rhythm, one of introspection and resurrection, of internal vibrance and vivid takes on the external world.

Both alluding to and inclusive of work produced during the beginning of the pandemic and quarantine times, Quaranta offers a wide range of work that reveals not only the artists’ psyches during that time period, but the diverse and experiential quality of the Los Angeles area artists who produced it.

Dani Dodge

The work includes the glorious gold leaf-infused mixed media images of Dani Dodge in her tragic yet life-affirming “Mojave Burning…”

Luciana Abait

the vibrant colors of Luciana Abait in “Pink Sky-Orange Mountains,” in which a reflective body of water and an ice formation reflect these hot, bright shades…

Gay Summer Rick

twilight drenched yet still glowing work from Gay Summer Rick…

Susan Lizotte

lustrous new map work from Lizotte, above; rich layered abstract from Hage, below…

Jenny Hager

and, an intricate landscape piece from Sijia Chen that summons a sense of profound wonder in its multicolored patterns.

Sijia Chen

There is lush sculptural work from Steven Fujimoto in the mandala-like pattern of his “Tide Pools” …

Steven Fujimoto

and the fascinating four-part reworking in watercolor of a classic image from Lena Moross.

Lena Moross

Other excellent pieces come from Douglas Alvarez, with his lovely still life depictions of fruit, and Ray Beldner’s tribal-like geometrically patterned rocks.

Douglas Alvarez

Tara de la Garza’s raw sculptures, Alex Shaffer’s perfectly lit, graffiti-filled LA street scenes, and the fascinating patterns represented in diverse pieces from Diane Meyer, Curtis Stage, and Alexandra Weisenfeld complete the exhibition.

Curtis Stage

The curators’ description reads “Work produced during the Quarantine, by nature, is a visual documentation of artists’ emotional response, either directly, or indirectly.” That response is one of vivid palette, repeated patterns, totem-like shapes and colors, an inner world of brightness, texture, contrast, and form that both mourned and celebrated an outside world. Both curators exemplify this in their own very different works – compelling in color and depth.

Tara de la Garza

As we drop our protective cocoons and become masked butterflies, it’s wise to remember the year 2020, and the time of emotional gestation, both physically limiting and emotionally draining, yet somehow as crazy perfect as dreams become art. Quaranta’s perceptive take on this period and strong mix of important, LA-based artists brings that art dream full circle to external viewers.

If you missed Quaranta at BG in Santa Monica, view the online exhibition here. 

  • Genie Davis; photos: Genie Davis

 

Illumination Shines on “Reindeer Road”

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Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse (okay, 6 cylinder) open (well, it was chilly, so the windows were open to take photos only) sleigh (automobile.) Located in the parking lot of Santa Anita Racetrack, Reindeer Road offers an exuberant drive through-light experience, perfect for a car load of kids or Christmas-light seeking adults.

Produced by World of Illumination, which holds the title as the producer of the world’s largest drive-through animated light show, has brought their illumination nights to Arcadia.

The exhibition opened Thanksgiving weekend, and will be running through January 2nd. Synchronized to pop and holiday music, the road leads guests under glittery, light changing tunnels, past polar bears and ice caves, blue sparkling mountains, leaping reindeer, happy gingerbread men, and a glowing version of the North Pole.

The event traverses over a million square feet that contains 250,000 glittering lights.

The colors and general jubilance is delightful, and it’s easy to get into the spirit of the season and starting singing along to those rocking holiday songs.

“World of Illumination prides itself on creating immersive experiences that push boundaries when it comes to audio-visual and drive-through entertainment. We’re not just about creating spectacles in our work. Our team of artists, engineers, designers, and technicians are passionate about telling stories, and that is reflected in Reindeer Road,” according to event marketing partner Stacey Kole at Branded Pros.

Reindeer Road was developed by a team of artists and technicians led by creative director Aaron Curry, who has also worked in lighting design for theatre and opera.

The company runs 4 other events events in Arizona and Georgia; this is their first year in Los Angeles, the land of the automobile. It should be a tailor-made experience for the region.

Reindeer Road‘s vibrant, dancing, and colorful LED lights and state-of-the-art displays are pure fun to drive through, and the attraction takes approximately 25 minutes to experience; when we went early in the run on a weeknight, it took us a little less time; if things are busy it may take longer. Either way, you’ll feel thoroughly “illuminated.” Ticket cost is per vehicle so you can scoop up everyone and go “laughing all the way.”

Weekday vehicle passes start at $59; Dasher fast passes are $79; weekends are $69/$89. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit World of Illumination’s website.

  • Genie Davis; photos: Genie Davis, drone shot provided by WOI

Happy Hauntings All Year Joy Ray Haunts in Ghost Visions

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Closing on Halloween and with a Zoom-friendly séance, Joy Ray’s Ghost Visions was perhaps the most seasonally accurate hosting of an art exhibition to appear in greater Los Angeles. The always provocative artist hosted a robust opening, a well-attended art talk, and the aforementioned magical séance, but it is Ray’s art itself which haunts with a lushly dark beauty.

Ghost Visions: A Joy Ray Solo Show, installation view

From black, dense, and fanciful sculptural work, such as the spooky “Diadem” and “The Futility of Consent,” to lushly textural wall art and mysterious plasma cut shapes on metal, Ray’s work here has an otherworldly quality that is entirely intentional.

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Fabric based wall art sometimes feels richly balanced, visceral both in terms of texture and visual layers. Like melted artifacts from a fire in a haunted house, her dimensional sculptures range from a blackened bat mobile with shiny black paint and a seeming growth of sand to a sand obscured blackened kneeling child figure in “Thoughts and Prayers.” These found objects made sculpture are perhaps the most spooky element of the exhibition, witty and dark, both literally and figuratively.

Joy Ray, Dark Mirror.jpg

Wall art includes materials with their own “past life,” materials and repurposed garments purchased at thrift stores, specifically the denim material used for jeans.  Much of this work has a metallic appearance, alight with a kind of inner, silvery glow, as with the striated “Spirit Duplicator.”

Joy Ray, Ghost Signatures.jpg

Rusted metal pieces comprise other, smaller sculptures in which the artist has described her process of metal sculptural use as a process in which the conditions she creates in determine the final outcome – a collaboration, if you will, with the spirit world, or at least the environmental one. Standing rectangular works feature kinetic scrawls akin to a signature, wave like and not quite intelligible. These are the works the artist created during a six way stay at the Chicago School of the Arts Institute, using a CMT plasma cutter and a simple string as the basis from which to cut.  Each 4 x 11 piece has patterns cut directly into steel, and are reminiscent of a name plate, the kind a ghost or sea nymph would leave on an office desk.

Dark and experimental, Ghost Visions is also experiential – viewers could enjoy a haunted moment or two contemplating each work. The exhibition is also playful, an invitation into another realm. Some of the works are available for viewing through Shockboxx’s Artsy page, at

https://www.artsy.net/show/shockboxx-1-ghost-visions-a-joy-ray-solo-show?sort=partner_show_position. If you missed the show in person, or if you’d simply like to bring a little ghostly glamor into your life, be sure to make a visit

Sya Warfield Creates Pulp Idols

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Working in mixed media on wood, artist Sya Warfield has created a new series, Pulp Idols. Completed throughout the last year, seven of these layered works will open this weekend in a new Santa Clarita gallery space.

Consisting of seven, immediately recognizable images, Warfield used photographic pulp transfer, combined with water-based pigment inks, acrylic ink, crackle paste medium, metal leaf, vintage newsprint and spray paint.

Warfield’s work is quite alive in her depiction of iconic and well-known figures and the ideas associated with them. Elevating these images into fresh focus, the artist has shaped entirely original portraits, centering them in a way in which each individual’s character, cultural importance, and era, are also a part of each artwork.

Warfield says she chose to create “portraits of key figures who have effected change within our societies and cultural lives… [such as] controversial 1980s-era artist Keith Haring, pictured with one of his own designs on his t-shirt; and Andy Warhol, [with] heavy bangs across his eyes and a constellation of stars applied to his shoulders.”

Other images include those of Frida Kahlo, Marilyn Monroe, Madonna, Nelson Mandela, and Malala Yousafzai. A direct and intensive gaze is the dominant feature of the artist’s evocation of Kahlo; her works featuring Monroe and Madonna exude a hypnotic sense of both power and sexuality that pull the viewer into these popular stars’ worlds.

She also includes a kindly smiling Mandela and a serene yet watchful image of Yousafzai. While the latter two images are inextricably bound to global politics and just causes, and Kahlo is a passionate icon for art and women’s issues, Warhol, Haring, Monroe, and Madonna are true pop – or pulp – idols.

According to Warfield, “The series invites viewers to reflect on the complexity of life, the passing of time and the ongoing ripples of influence we experience and can exert positively in the world.”

The work also includes a message rooted in “elements of the Japanese notion of Wabi Sabi, deliberate imperfection. There are spiritual elements to this series which include the energies that surround [these] people supported by colors and textures,” Warfield says.

Each image seems to emerge from the wood it is created upon, as if rising from underwater, or the passage of time. It has a resonance that builds upon the featured image, transforming and elevating it. The viewer might consider not only each subject as an icon in society, but due to the image Warfield creates from it, as an updated and secular evocation of a worshipped religious icon.

Her images have layered, gilded quality reminiscent of the Byzantine images that decorated churches from the 4th century on. In a way, the viewer can see Warfield’s idols as just as venerated in our modern culture as the figures of early saints.

Pulp Idols represents just one aspect of Warfield’s work. The artist has created images using photography, video, and mixed media, including the process used in her current work utilizing the “photographic pulp transfer process combined with water-based pigment inks and acrylic inks,” along with a variety of other elements.

“My work has definitely evolved over the years,” Warfield asserts, explaining that she is always seeking new challenges. She’s specifically looking forward “to working bigger and creating installations. I want viewers to be curious, inspired, and hopeful.”

To that end, Warfield has also recently completed a public art commission of 2 utility boxes in Del Rey.

Her current Pulp Idols exhibition is on view starting this weekend in Santa Clarita’s new Canyon Country Community Center. The show opens October 30 at 10 a.m. and runs until December 16th.

Santa Clarita’s new cultural hub, the community center is located at 18410 Sierra Highway, Canyon Country, CA, 91387.

The exhibition is also on view virtually on artsteps.com.

  • Genie Davis; photos provided by the artist