John Bankston and His Animal Friends at Walter Maciel

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John Bankston, in The Companion, his 8th exhibition at Walter Maciel Gallery, offers a view of man and his best friends – animals who are perhaps his dopelgangers, or his spirit creatures; animals with which he is establishing a tentative relationship. Evoking the colors of Gauguin and the innocence of Rousseau, Bankston captivates with his series of brightly hued, narrative art.

The series is playful, and follows the meetings between the protagonist, a neatly coiffed and attired black man dressed in simple, colorful shirt and pants, and the animal creatures he meets, from lions to brightly spotted leopards, sometimes multi-colored in their spotting, sometimes blue or red. Regardless of coloration, the spotted animal is referred to as “the beast” by Bankston. Vibrant birds land on his hand, other creatures peer through the underbrush. In other works, the protagonist stands alone, as if searching for a friend.

There is a sense of trust, tentative friendship, and longing for relationship in these works, which began with an oil stick image of a man leaning comfortably against a lion. The underlying basis for this series is the artist’s thoughtful take on race relations: his genuine concern about safety, in a world where black men are all too often forced to endure police profiling and apprehension, as well as with a broader view of inequality and inequity.

In some works the message is somewhat ambiguous – is the man a figure caring for these animals or is he scared of them. In past series, Bankston has had his protagonist interact with other humans, but here in this colorful, exotic forest setting, the man is sought out by these would-be animal friends.

There are many works in this series, and throughout, the man’s relationship with these often somewhat fantastical creatures, evolves. From an ambiguous pose to one of closeness. These works fill the main galleries at Maciel; in the second space, earlier evocations of the protagonist, either by himself or meeting up with other humans, some costumed, are on display.

Just as exploratory as the evolution of the animal relationships is Bankston’s use of mediums: he ranged from acrylic to oil based paints and oil stick, creating on canvas, paper, and linen. Mixing mediums creates both a sense of the magical setting and a layered quality to the work, pulling the viewer into the dynamic  of children’s fairy tales and adult dreams.

The meticulously simple drawings, call backs to a world of coloring books and primers, serves as a lure of both accessability and safety, creating a comfortable space in an alchemic world, allowing the viewer to examine a wide range of experiences and messages.

There is a message of caring for creatures beyond humankind, of finding friends outside our own small “comfort circles,” and a strong environmental message, too – if our protagonist’s relationship with these animals is fragile, so too is humankind’s relationship with the rest of the natural world. If friendships are to be carefully explored, if racial inequities are to be examined, these, too, are topics that should be handled in a comfortable space, defenses down, understanding expanding.

Viewing this exhibition is to enter a lovely, lustrous, world, with a brilliant, jeweled palette within which lies a precious but tenuous web of connection.  To make that connection is to appreciate the feelings of those beyond our own, to care for the physical environment, its inhabitants, and relationships with all.

Explore Bankston’s world through July 1st; the gallery is open from 11-6 Tuesday-Saturday.

  • Genie Davis; photos by Genie Davis

 

SEiS Gallery Features Innovative Three Artist Show

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Heather Lowe, above

Innovative and experiential are a good descriptive match for the visual and mental mind twists of Shape Shift at SEiS Gallery in mid-city.

The exhibition offers work from Heather Lowe, Mike Savage, and Chalavie. Lowe presents a potent mix of geometric loveliness in her acrylic on canvas and bristol works, and takes these shapes into depths that resemble an alternate reality with her lenticulars. Dazzling lenticulars like “Pinna Bouquet,” in lime green and oranges, look terrific before you even notice that they are awash in motion; the painted works, such as the spiral twist of “Seashell,” are equally exciting, here a combination of stereo and single images which form a kind of gymanstic puzzle for the mind.  Lowe is an alchemist of art and the art of science.

Savage, in one instance collaborating with Lowe, also has a variety of geometric images, including a glowing mild steel and automotive paint sculpture “New Order Portland,” an impressively monochrome shape that turns up in one of his painted works, “New Order PNW,” and a variant in “New Order Pico,” both acrylic and gesso on canvas. Of his color-rich works, “LCW Red Blue Yellow Black” appears to be a chair, if a chair vibated with variants of primary shades to the extent that the fabric radiated off the form.

Chalavie has a mix of perfect, beautifully wrought wood work such as “Tool Kit for the End of the World,” and “Totem” as well as intricately detailed images of construction equipment, and in “Stack,” a pile of boards that look as if the painted work could be as dimensional as her sculptures.

Lowe offered a fun, short workshop along with an artist talk on the making of lenticulars, this past weekend (see below); Savage also hosted a special art event. Closing is the 20th so hurry in!

SEiS is located at 1910 6th Ave. in the heart of LA.

 

  • Genie Davis; photos: Genie Davis

Bryan Ida – New Exhibition at Billis Williams Gallery Goes Visually and Emotionally Deep

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Bryan Ida, left, with galleriest Tressa M. Williams, right

Bryan Ida creates art that sings with meaning. It comes as no surprise that he once majored in music composition before turning to fine visual art.

His astonishing use of minute and meaningful words to shape fascinating, rewarding images of people – such as several such works recently exhibited in the group exhibition Bridging the Pacific at Torrance Art Museum, is just one way in which the artist expresses rich feeling and creates compelling work. Ida’s intensely detailed, powerful, and meticulous ink on panel works there depicted a very personal story, that of his mother and father, being forcibly “evacuated” from the San Francisco area in 1942, when Japanese Americans were torn from their homes and livelihoods due to World War II-fueled, race-driven paranoia. The delicate and precise nature of that work is that of an artist both empath and activist.

In his new exhibition, his fifth solo show at Billis WIlliams, Ida’s exhibition DEEP is entirely different, yet equally suffused with understanding, compassion, and purpose. Here, he goes to the heart of the human relationship with the natural world. Works are from two separate series,  one of which is filled with vivid color and geometric lines, the other is muted in palette, yet glowing, in  intimate, moving depictions of animals in a twilight sky.

The work takes on the complex beauty of the natural world,  and how human existence – as currently exercised – direly effects it.  Ida’s landscapes feature sliced images, as if viewed through slatted blinds, or seen through the limited vision that humans are presently capable of viewing the natural world. Vivid orange leaves are dissected by slats, as are startling emerald and chartreuse grasses and trees. Some images include intensely touching depictions of animals, such as the orangutan above or tiger below. The colors are vibrant, blunted only by their dissection.

The “broken” images spell out the dichotomy between how humans view and treat the natural world, as well as the earth’s innate lovliness.

With the artist’s Fading Light series, above, depicted animals emerge gradually to the viewer, as if transcending a twilight fog or thick, moonless dusk. The lack of illumination speaks to endangered species, extinction, and man’s disregard for other creatures. Yet, within each image, within each sensitive and almost angelic animal face, there is a glow, as if a facet of light had permeated a black diamond. There is still a ray of hope, if we will catch it.

 

Both series are not only masterfully beautiful but brimming with both sorrow and the ecstatic. Nature stands at the brink of a cataclysm caused by human carelessness and greed. As Ida says  “In the name of human advancement and expansion the cost to animal species and the environment is deep and irreversible. The true measure of a civilization is in its compassion and empathy, not in its ability to consume.”

In the face of loss and adversity, the flora and fauna, the creatures that share our world, are waiting for us to act and end the destruction our relentless quest for conquest has wrought. Ida presents the message without prosthelitizing, creating lush and poetic works that give viewers both thoughtful pause and thrilling beauty.

Experience the empathy and ecology and the consummate wonder in this exhibition – and let its meaning resonate.

Also at Billis Williams, see Stephen Wright’s liquid luminosity, in Beach Break in Gallery 2, all euphoric mid-sea sunshine and light in motion.

Both DEEP and Beach Break are on display through June 3rd; the gallery is open Wednesday-Saturday 10 a.m. -5 p.m.

  • Genie Davis; photos by Genie Davis and provided by the gallery

Spring Has Sprung – Art Blossoms at Loft at Liz’s, Durden and Ray and More

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Finally, the cold weather that has plagued Los Angeles seems to be ending, and spring flowers are everywhere.  And so are terrific group art exhibitions.

As if celebrating the season, the Loft at Liz’s serves up a delicious, vibrantly colorful exhibition, Finding Beauty. Splashing big with texture, color, and light, the exhibition is all about natural beauty and ecology, and is the creation of a new multi-disciplinary art collective, UOOORS. Curated by Fatemeh Burnes and Mei Xian Qiu, the exhibition features the works of Aline Mare, Fatemeh Burnes, Naida Osline, Neal Taylor, Ray Beldner, Marjan Vayghan, Rob Grad, Sue Irion, John David O’Brien, Kubo Hkla, Poul Lange, Ellen Friedlander, Naida Osline, and Mei Xian Qiu.

Stellar works in a variety of mediums even included an opening night performance:  a ritual burial of a deceased lizard, joining the soil of a potted plant. It’s a jubilant and delightful exhibition, from the rich painted works of Vayghan and Burnes to the lush and liminal photography of Friedlander. The gallery is open every day 11- 6 with the exception of Sunday, and runs through June 12th.

Downtown there’s even more art in bloom. Head downtown to the Bendix Building for a wide range of shows on multiple floors. On the 8th, don’t miss the terrific new group exhibition at Durden and Ray.  Curated by Hagop Najarian and Stephanie Sherwood, Expansion Joint offers a visually stimulating, richly entertaining exhibition. Debby and Larry Kline‘s sculptural works appear throughout the show, both tying the varied images together and adding notes whimsical and mysterious – perhaps bunny astronauts or interstellar adventurers, they “visit” works by Gretchen Batchellar, Carsten Bund, Kim Garcia,  Hagop Najarian, Stephanie Sherwood, and HK Zamani.  

The exhibition as a whole investigates space – both on Earth and apart from it. Edgy and surreal, witty, and, well, expansive, the show includes an eight foot ink drawing (just one panel in a larger piece) by the Klines, “The Dark Side of the Moon (Phase 3);” as well as Sherwood’s fascinating abstract-painted discarded furniture, fusing 3D with 2D work. Similar fusion but a very different style,  Zamani’s mix of dimensions comes in vivid chromakey blue and black; it’s a slash of color that commands attention. Bund’s mesmerizing digital painting; and Najarian’s vivid, delightful mix of the figurative and abstract, are also among this show’s thoroughly immersive works. In short, this is an exhibition that stimulates, amuses, and, well, expands the viewer’s sense of artistic consciousness. Don’t miss – the show is only up until May 21st, and is open on Saturdays 12-6, and by appointment.

Elsewhere in the building, Christopher Ulivo’s fantastical, narrative, fun, and intricate egg tempura paintings,  Ancient Rome Today glows with light and calls out for a detailed viewing through June 3rd at Track 16; the gallery is open Wed-Sat 10-6.

Pas de deux: Death’s Crook is a spooky, cool digital exhibition pulsing with eerie black and white appeal by Jacqueline De Jong and Ozgur Kar at Chatteau Shatto next door, through June 4.

The absorbing, highly textural group exhibition at Tiger Strikes Astroid – Theories & Prayers on Concrete, runs through May 21st, featuring work that examines migration both physical and emotional, by Adrian MM Abela, Mariam Alcantara, and Lupita Limón Corrales, curated by Jackie Rines. 

Next door at Monte Vista Projects, a two-person exhibition blends sculpture and painted works in Push & Pull, an exhibition offering the painted work of  Wendy Duong and the wiry, inventive sculptures of Connor Walden.

And, 515 Gallery serves up a group show of tasty abstract works, many geometric in nature, through May 20th. A. M. Rousseau, Sijia Chen, Fatemeh Burnes, Mei Xian Qui, Ave Pilada, Ruth Trotter, Carolie Parker,  Danny Shain are among the fine artists exhibited in Rewire. Contact these galleries for hours.

Now, go spring into art action!

  • Genie Davis; photos by Genie Davis