Magnificent Nature is Monumentally Fragile in Palm Desert

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The natural beauty of the desert is art in itself.  A recent weekend viewing these desert vistas, the exhibitions at Desert X, and the gorgeous luminescence of Phillip K. Smith’s work at the Palm Springs Art Museum – both exhibitions up through May 5th – was richly rewarding. Both exhibitions will be featured in a separate pictorial essay here in coming weeks.

But the biggest art standout of all was an exhibition that spoke to those desert vistas, the mountains behind them, the fecund forests, natural landscapes far and near. Monumentally Fragile at the Walter N. Marks Center for the Arts in Palm Desert offered the most resonant of all the exhibitions viewed on this trip to the desert, memorable images with a dream-like lingering in the eye and heart. The three-gallery space was curated by StartUp curatorial founder Ray Beldner, and featured three different artists, each with a single room to present large scale, but yes, delicate, individual exhibitions.

These intricate paper works were each entirely unique, but taken as a whole, vibrated with even greater meaning. Here is nature in all her wonder, in her own precarious state, given humankind’s rampant disregard for preserving her.  Using fragile materials to create images of an environment that we should all strive to protect is an inspired idea; carefully, gently, and pointedly positing the importance of our stewardship. Having recently curated an exhibition in Los Angeles about climate change, Leaving Eden, I was excited to see work that spoke to the same precious fragility of nature.

The works in Monumentally Fragile are as magnificient as nature herself.  Catherine Ruane, who lives in the desert’s Morongo Valley, has created a series of emotionally moving smaller circular works, arrayed in a pattern around a larger circular work. Here are yuccas and Joshua Trees, night sky and its constellations, each so perfectly rendered in the artist’s signature monochrome use of pencil and charcoal that their intricate beauty brings tears. On an opposite wall, Ruane adds walnut ink to her coloration, depicting leaves and flowers with an even more wistful cast, as if they were relics from a distant time. The centerpiece of the exhibition, however, is her vast General Sherman tree, a nearly life-size paper cut out of a tree with  delicate drawn leaves and branches shaping a mesmerizing, even ethereal, creation. These pieces ache with life and light.

David Tomb of Marin, Calif., creates in full color, shaping wonderfully sweet and fairy-tale-like forests of voluptuous green, flowering plants, and animals to frolic and fly through this world.  Reminding the viewer of a wondrous jungle, within this amazing world bright blue, yellow, and orange butterlies and golden-beaked birds are joined by shadow-casting, dimensional sparrows suspended in flight.  Dimensional vivid green plants spring from the ground. Tomb’s lustrous work is like a stage set for the senses, poetic, wild, and adventurous.

Holly Wong of San Francisco fills the center of her gallery with brightly colored abstract shapes, reminiscent of both flowers and mosaics, of woven lace and cacti, undersea coral and tangled vines. On the walls, smaller pieces of mixed media also evoke sea life, with a rich and opalescent cast and tangled strands of netting and fiber. Hers is mutable moonscape of nature,  mysterious and fascinating, a tapestry of colors and movement.

All three artists have created work that is beautiful and carefully wrought, special works that reveal sensuous, solemn, grand, and perfect nature in all her wonder and all her valuable, vibrant, easy to break, glory. While the exhibition has closed in person, the works can be viewed online, by clicking on each image. Take care of nature – and watch out for the blissful work of these three artists.

  • Genie Davis, photos by Genie Davis

The Los Angeles Print Society Presents Between Us and the Trees: Conversations in the Secret Language of Nature

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The Los Angeles Print Society’s members-only exhibition, Between Us and the Trees: Conversations in the Secret Language of Nature opens this Saturday, April 1st at Eagle Rock’s Center for the Arts.

As one of LA’s most highly regarded art associations, this year’s exhibition is a perfect fit for April’s Earth Day celebration. The exhibition was inspired partially by forest scientist Peter Wohlleben who authored The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, What They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World, a book which discusses the secret language of the trees, the forest ecosystems, and the fungal communication of the ancient forests.

The exhibition explores the topics in this book, including themes of plant intelligence, hidden communication, and the transcendent connections between us and the natural world.

Participating artists include: Leslie Brown, Renee Amitai, Curtis Bartone, Mary Sherwood Brock, Andra Broekelschen, Jennifer Chen, Sydney Cross, Michelle Dakan, Judy Dekel, Mollie Doctrow, Holly Downing, Beth Fein, Christina Yasmin Fesmire, Karen Fiorito, Betty Friedman, Deanna Glad, Yuji Hiratsuka, Jani Hoberg, Linda Hunsaker, Gail Jacobs, Carolyn James, Gesine Janzen, Cindy Koopman, Mako Lanselle, Carolyn Liesy, Linda Lyke, Diane McLeod, Jared Millar, Mary Anne Molcan, Teresa Munoz, Jackie Nach, Angela Oates, Rebecca Harvey Pollak, May Roded, Marianne Sadowski, Sarah Sanford, Annie Silverman, Elsie Sims, Barbara Sloan, Noriho Uriu, Cathy Weiss, Donna Westerman, and Linda Yoshizawa.

According to Karen Fiorito, president of the LA Print Society, “The idea for this show came from discussions between Melinda Farrell, the Director of the Center for the Arts Eagle Rock, and our Exhibitions committee. Melinda had been working with the theme of plant intelligence and communication in some of her projects for the Center, and we all agreed that this idea would be a great exploration for our membership.”

The idea was equally supported by juror John Greco, who turned out to also be a fan of Wohlleben’s book. The exhibition includes 54 artworks created by 42 artists. Greco says the selection process was  based on adherence to the theme of the exhibit – feeling the healing presence of the forest. On this basis, he notes that “My selective process for this exhibition has been primarily through my feelings about what each work of art delivered to me. Secondly, the execution of the processes involved in the making of the piece, along with the fundamentals of composition, color, and design. Art created through printmaking is a time-oriented process that allows the work to percolate and evolve with its involvement with the subject matter.”

Greco (above) himself was chosen for the exhibition both to honor his accomplishments as a renowned printmaker and service on the Los Angeles Printmaking Society Board and due to his dedication to the art of printmaking and to the community of artists he’s served. Fiorito adds that “I also chose him to jury this show for his love of the natural world. I knew that he would appreciate the theme.”

Fiorito says it is impossible to choose favorites as the work is all strong; she notes that “I think there is something for everyone in this exhibition, no matter what your tastes may be.”

While many artists are based in California, the Los Angeles Printmaking Society, founded in 1963, has grown into a national artist-run membership organization devoted to presenting state of the art printmaking exhibitions to the public. Exhibiting artists stretch far and wide, including participants from Minnesota and Montana.

Along with beautifully evocative 2D wall works, there are some pieces that are somewhat unconventional in the exhibition, including a sculptural piece, and several wall works that include additional elements beyond the print medium itself. According to Fiorito, “Many of our members are not only talented printmakers but innovative artists as well. The Center often encourages our artists to come up with site specific works for their shows. For this exhibition, we asked that members create new works or submit works that were made within the last year. We always encourage off the wall works, installations, and sculptural printmaking.”

While this Saturday’s show offers an opening reception for the artists and public with light refreshments, an awards ceremony, and of course, lots of beautiful and inspiring art.

On Saturday, April 22nd, there’s another don’t-miss event. “We will have a special Each Day event featuring a Cyanotype workshop by May Roded, one of the artists in the exhibition and a Gelli Plate demonstration by yours truly,” Fiorito relates.

The exhibition runs April 1 – April 27, 2023, with the opening reception and awards ceremony from 3 to 6 p.m. on the 1st; the April 22nd Earth Day event will be held from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

The exhibition is located at:

Center for Arts Eagle Rock (CFAER)

2225 Colorado Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90041

Zimmer Frei at Wonzimer: Journey to Home

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Can an exhibition offer something warm, welcoming, and cutting-edge immersive? Well, yes it can. Curated by Snezana Saraswati Petrovic, Zimmer Frei, now at Wonzimer Gallery brings together a cohesive, fascinating group of artists who explore what home means to them, as well as expressing a rich panoply of the experience of emigrating to the U.S. from a different country.

The word diversity has been too often misused, twisted to mean divisive. Here, its expression is just the opposite: the sum of our many different parts, of the blending of cultures and the unique individuality of each, forms the springboard for relationships, art, love, and hope.

The international creators on display have made Los Angeles their home, but still managed to maintain their sharp, insightful voices as they explore the country and city in which they now live, form connections, retain roots in their heritage, and find a place to set those roots down in the new culture of our polyglot country. There are sculptures and dimensional experiential works, paintings and video art,  and performances.  Every piece is tactile and resonant. The curation also makes good use of Wonzimer’s cavernous new space, including it’s towering ceilings.

Exhibiting artists and their original homelands include:

Adeola Davies-Aiyeloja, Nigeria
Alaia Parhizi, Switzerland
Amanda Maciel Antunes, Brazil
Arezoo Bharthania, Iran
Carsten Bund, Germany
Chenhung Chen, Taiwan
Kalpana Vadnagara, India
Katya Usvitsky, Belarus
Marisa Caichiolo, Argentina
Max Presneill, United Kingdom
Nadir G Gergis, Egypt
Snezana Saraswati Petrovic, Yugoslavia
Tom Dunn, Australia

 

Dunn’s black and white video art pulses with energy, humor, and joy; Presneil’s vivid abstract canvas exudes power and light.

Petrovic’s own vine enclosed haven – replete with a “magic” AI mirror that also forms a terrific selfie spot, is rich and green, while Usvitsky’s fabric sculptures are presented here partially suspended, soft and fecund, like a nest on a cloud.

Gergis offers a dark and deep riff on the Coptic icon that speaks to the inner workings of the soul. Parhizi provides richly colored narrative painting that pairs beautifully next to Gergis work.

Vadnagara, working in a variety of mediums including fabric, gives viewers a vibrant palette and involving textures. On opening night, the artist also gracefully demonstrated the creation of nan bread with the gestures of a potter at a wheel.

Chen’s delicate hanging mesh sculptures contrast beautifully to her more solid metal and parts floor sculpture that recalls the shape of a volcano in form.

Bund’s video work is a resonant, shifting piece that moves, flower like, between face and abstract form.

In the foreground, above, is a scroll, hand embroidered by Antunes.

Caicholo creates a grass and earth miniature landscape along with a video installation that interacts nicely with Petrovic’s Edenic recylable plastic zip tie and fresh hanging orchid garden across the room. Also on view from Caicholo is a collection of silver, an assemblage provocatively filled with and using hair, Caicholo’s commentary on heritage, borders, and their transitory, arbitrary nature.

Antune’s textile sculpture and hanging wall scroll both lend an air of profound mystery and magic to her own travelers story. Antunes also created a tour-de-force performance piece, Memoryhouse, which she presented this past weekend.

Davies-Aiyeloja gives us a haunting, purple-hued image of women travelers in a lustrous painting.

Bharthania has a floor to ceiling stunner as delicate and intricate as the wings of a butterfly or a space kite, seen above.

There is also a singular “collage” of sorts in Zimmer Frei, with objects of signficance to each artist laid out in a mandala-like circle around a robe once worn by Usvitsky’s grandmother.

The exhibition title referes to a German phrase for vacancy, evoking that “welcome” or “vacancy” sign and fond memories of travels during Petrovic’s childhood with stays at private homes or B&Bs. This collection of works allows viewers to explore and move similarly with nomadic joy, being equally welcomed as we recall what we have, had, and want in a home, both physically and metaphorically, through art.

The exhibition runs through April 7th, with an artist dinner March 31st from 5:30 to 7:30 at the gallery, followed by short film screenings of works never before seen in the U.S. by Petrovic, Vojislav Radovanovic, and Neša Paripović.

Go get yourself welcomed!

  • Genie Davis; photos by Genie Davis

 

Some Matters are Sacred – Hung Viet Nguyen at Matter Gallery

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How to describe the work of artist Hung Viet Nguyen? It exudes peace and yet it’s vibrant; it’s meditative and exciting; it pulses with color and texture while exploring natural beauty; it’s resonant of place, yet reminiscent of a world beyond and within our own.

Watching Nguyen’s work over the last decade, he’s evolved into an ever more masterful artist, while maintaining his sense of innocent wonder and sheer delight. Of course, there are darker moments in his work as well, but on the whole, this current body of work, Sacred Matter, now at Matter Gallery in mid-city, is an expression of pure joy. You cannot experience one of his highly detailed landscapes without feeling uplifted.

His latest two series, Sacred Landscape V and Sacred Landscape VI are filled with depth and longing, a pure and transformative travel to a location Nguyen has experienced and wishes to keep present in his heart – as well as that of the viewer.

The show is rich with lovely, fresh work, with pieces culled from Sacred Landscapes III and IV along with the more predominant, recent series. Among my favorites in this exhibition are “Sacred Landscape V #63,” in which a field of golden flowers in the foreground is balanced by what look like glacial mountains across an aqua body of water – a landscape that reminds me of Iceland; and the desert hills landscape behind another field of flowers, these in orange and dark red of “Sacred Landscape VI #5.”

Both may be favorites because they recall locations special to me, or it may be the contrast between floral blooms and rugged mountains.

The vast expanse of “Sacred Landscape V #57” dazzles with waterfalls, volcanos, ocean waters, glaciers, icy bays, flowering trees, a mysterious orange sky, and floating bits of pink clouds.

This is a painting a viewer could study for days, immersing themselves in landscape and form, in the depths of the sea and waterfalls, finding the small, happy figures of swimming humans, watching the small ice masses bobbing on the more distant, obviously colder sea.

There are a number of “Gate” paintings within the works on display. The mosaic-like cavern entrance under a glowing, molten sky in “Gate #1, Sacred Landscape VI #7” in one such work; a diminutive but powerful 12” by 12.”  “Gate #3 Sacred Landscape VI #11” is a considerably larger canvas, with the moon rising behind the gate against a blue-black night sky, and the hills around the gate revealing ribbons of streams and rivers traversing their sides. “Gate #2, Sacred Landscape VI #10, “with the large, scored boulders on either side of it, feels most like a portal, to another dimension, or a new view of our own, or perhaps, a celestial paradise. The gate may be narrow, but strive to enter here.

Newer among Nguyen’s subject matter are night skies, and one stellar example here is the star-speckled navy-black sky reflecting into a far lighter blue, crystalline pool in (first of two images, below) “Sacred Landscape V #22.” Both the stars and a large rock in the center of the water reflect into the clear depths, while the land around it looks like a quilted or mosaic landscape of plants or farms or colorful homes as if viewed from a great distance above. It is easy to sense a grand and peaceful view of our world as seen floating above it in the profound stillness – and yes, sacredness of Nguyen’s art.

Using a palette knife to build up and manipulate his use of oil paint into textures and patterns, Nguyen works spontaneously he says, and while his subjects – his sacred landscapes – may stay the same over time, the colors and compositions vary from bright to pastel, to grays and saturated. His movements and special techniques are evolving as does his palette.

And whatever direction his art may take, whether depicting drifting bits of fog, narrow crevices, or the pink downward curves of a vulvic-like volcano, Nguyen amazes and enchants with a thrillingly original universe comprised of strange yet recognizable beauty.

The exhibition runs through April 2nd; artist talk at the gallery March 19, 2-4.

  • Genie Davis; photos by Genie Davis