With an all-day opening rather than the gallery’s pre-pandemic busy, music-filled evening events, Gabba Gallery reopened in June after a long IRL closure. The in-person exhibition of “H is for Honey” represents not just a return of the in-person versus virtual gallery itself, but a reintroduction to gallery-represented artist Essi Zimm with a lush and inviting solo show.
Vivid of color, the mixed media and oil works on panel are well-worth individual, in-person contemplation. The artist’s depiction of flora and fauna creates a dense, involving world layered with beautiful surprises.
Originally scheduled to open in March 2020, the delay has if anything made these tributes to the natural world, and its residents other than man, all the sweeter. Incorporating Zimm’s childhood learning in a bookstore, with parents, both in disparate ways, believers of miracles, her paintings are steeped in folklore and fairytale, rich with spirituality and fantasy.
With a process as layered as each work, Zimm starts with an abstract representational image, covers it with paper, that “mimics the debris that sticks to memories.” There are certainly strong elements of realism in her portrayal of animals and flowers, but the life and liveliness of the images is steeped in a more indistinct, patterned visual poetry and storytelling. With colors that recall the tropical, the jungle, and the forest in spring, the works leap to life with hope and happiness, and sometimes a soft underpinning of sorrow.
In “Agave,” Zimm gives us jubilant, leaping teal bunnies and the female fertility symbol of the agave plant in bloom, a lustrous sun behind them. “Asphodal” (above) depicts three grey langurs, with solemn, haunting expressions resonating with the artist’s description of the work. The primates represent entwined good and evil, combined and different cultures, a mysteriously balanced universe. Delicate white blooms hover, creating the sensation of jungle mists, or grey spring dawn. In “Hyacinth,” a swan surrounded by purple, pink, and orange flowers preens gracefully, a representation of Greek myth and floral grace. “Yarrow,” in wild patterns and lustrous golden yellow is a study of yin and yang, featuring Quilin, a Chinese unicorn whose name represents male/female duality.
Coming in August, the gallery will undergo its 4th annual (with the exception of 2020, which made exceptions out of so many things) Remix: The Art of Music. Featuring over 60 artists, this music-inspired art exhibition will open August 21st, with viewing through September 19th. Pun intended: it should rock.
Gabba Gallery is located at 3126 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles.
- Genie Davis; photos, Genie Davis
Nice piece about my favorite gallery, Genie!
one of my favorites too!