Curated by Gloria Plascencia, Kristine Schomaker’s impressive solo exhibition Mirror, Mirror! celebrates the body and soul. From the female form to cultural stereotypes, Schomaker captures both the body politic and a rich palette of color and motion.
Using installation, text, photography, mixed media, video, and performance, Schomaker explores notions of societal expectations, online identity, and society’s judgement and obsession with physical appearance.
What we project on ourselves and others – it can be as ephemeral as a shadow. Schomaker’s work may be at it’s strongest with projected images and installation juxtaposed. Viewers truly enter a different world.
Schomaker’s avatars are part of her process of becoming self-aware.
The artist says her way of painting, using multiple layers, functions as a “metaphorical skin.”
Her vivid color palette grabs the eye while her message of empowerment and identity tug at the heart.
What exactly is being reflected? Our own images? Our own perceptions? Bodies that take on lives of their own, separate from cognizance? Step into another life.
Baby you can drive my car…
Literally and figuratively, Schomaker has created an impressive “body of work.” How we feel about our bodies and the spirit they contain is truly all in the eye of the beholder – often ourselves.
Mirror, Mirror! runs through December 20th at Gallery H Phantom Galleries LA – 12619 Hawthorne Blvd., Hawthorne.
Paintings by Kristine Schomaker – contemporary mixed media- Photo: Jack Burke
MLA Gallery at Brewery Art Walk – a focus on fine art from Latin America – Photo by Jack Burke
Just east of downtown Los Angeles is the Brewery Art Complex, created in 1982 in what was once the Pabst Blue Ribbon Brewery. Hoist a glass in honor of the artist-in-residence code which allowed artists to rent both living and working space in buildings formerly zoned industrial. Renting only to artists, the Brewery is among the world’s largest complexes. The public gets to explore the sprawling spot and enjoy the opened studios of many artist residences twice a year – in spring and fall.
There’s a real steam punk feel to the cavernous space, where the Brewery smoke stack still towers over loading docks and gardens. The complex has evolved into eighteen acres of working artists perched in the northeast corner of the city. Not only is the area huge, so is it’s creative scope – painters, sculptors, photographers, performance artists, multi-media creators, and fashion designers all reside here.
Why should you visit? To experience the diversity and excitement of the art. Over a hundred residents participate, speaking with browsers and buyers about their work. Like no other art walk, the Brewery gives strollers a glimpse into what it means to be an artist, and the space the artists create in, eat, sleep, and dream in. And as an extra bonus, many beautiful, unique pieces are available for purchase, some well under $100. From plastic purses showcasing colorful neon strands to enormous paper mache drumsticks, perfectly crafted landscapes, textured portraits, and brilliant contemporary photography, there’s a wide range of talent.
This fall’s art walk took place Oct. 3rd and 4th. Each year, we have the pleasure of meeting new and unique artists, and visiting with those whose work we’ve come to admire. Here’s a mix of some of the works on view this fall – artists you should definitely check out when the spring open house commences, or visit their websites, follow their Twitter feeds, see their shows now.
Kati V. Milano‘s archival pigment prints capture natural elements both animal and mineral from a recent trek to Iceland. Her photography has a visceral, tangible quality that makes you feel the rough wool on the sheep, the delicate trajectory of a feather, the sharp edges of ice and stone.
In shared studio space with Milano, artist Ryan McIntosh exhibited his photos from the same recent Icelandic trip. Voluptuous ocean waves with the texture of lace, velvet, and satin are alive with motion in pieces such as “Ocean Variants 2014.” McIntosh is also the founder and master-printer of Miscellaneous Press.
Jane Szabo‘s photographs of dresses are beautifully evocative. The dresses themselves are crafted by Szabo from everyday objects like road maps and coffee filters. “They suggest a persona and become a stand-in for myself, who I am, am not, and who I wish to be.” Her conceptual photography is alive with light, filled with metaphor, playful in its mix of fashion, photography, and the human form as sculpture. Szabo’s photographic work is both vividly representational and otherworldly.
Victoria Sebanz is an artist who creates exciting mixed media including evocative, poetic photography – images that evoke another of her art forms: dance. The motion of dance, the subtle and curved shapes that are human forms, flowers, neon curves, the limbs of trees, the torsos of women – all captured in her work. Sebanz says “Movement, texture, shape and shadow are the bones for my work…”
Kristine Schomaker‘s rainbow colors draw the eye, while the provocative social commentary of her collections engage the mind and illuminate the heart. Below, “A Young Girl’s Vanity.”
Schomaker not only creates her own art, she supports other artists in the Los Angeles community through her company, Shoebox PR.
“The painted mannequins are inspired by my Avatar in Second Life. In that virtual world, I used one of my paintings as a skin on my Avatar and it became a brand for me and my work. It was a natural progression to bring her into the real world. Painting a mannequin was the best way at the time to make it happen,” Schomaker says.
Some of Schomaker’s paintings evoke calligraphy. Below: geometric shapes, feathered patterns, and a richness that evokes flight and music notes – a peacock in a painting.
Below, artist Yvonne Beatty with a beautiful fall-colors piece, that is both realistic and as imaginative and detailed as a fairy-tale. “In my drawings and paintings I apply traditional and contemporary media using unconventional techniques. The challenge is to create works that, while static, gain movement in the viewer’s mind.”
Below, Cynthia Friedlob once incarnated art aurally as a jazz singer. You can feel the jazzy rhythm in her pieces here. Her works are both brilliantly hued and meditative, and she says she would like to live in an Edward Hopper painting “with Bill Evans music playing softly in the background.”
Below, Chuka Susan Chesney exhibits at FRESH, a contemporary art exhibition at Lamperouge Gallery, jurored by Jane Szabo, and assembled by the Pasadena Society of Artists. Chesney’s piece “Sister Cancer” proclaims that the disease will not defeat when smothered with love.
Hahn’s images are created with no digital manipulation. The electric feel of her photography unfolds like a spin-art take on the world. She captures her subjects with one exposure, stretching out depth and colors into a complex visual pattern that illuminates and intrigues. Below, she shows off a beautiful creation of an entirely different nature.
Below, artist Chenhung Chen, with pieces in a variety of different media.
Chen focuses her art on the formation of line in drawings, sculptures, and 3D installations. Regardless of medium, her pieces are vibrating with motion, whether wire and metal sculptures, pristine line drawings, or hand-crocheted copper wire. Her work evokes the sea, the ceaseless rhythm of water, air, and life itself.
Chen’s work exudes motion and life. Can inanimate objects be this animate?
Want to walk for yourself? The Brewery art walk will be back in full bloom, come spring.
Curated by Kristine Schomaker, the incredible collection of art on display at Gallery H of Phantom Galleries in Hawthorne was ablaze with magic Saturday night. The opening saw many of the 30-plus artists present.
Kristine Schomaker, left; Dwora Fried right – Photos: Jack Burke
Margaret Ouchida
Works by Susan Melly
Margaret Ouchida presents detailed, intimate pieces in “The Battle” and “T’ode to Klimt.”
The exhibition’s theme, of getting out of one’s comfort zone to that special place where magic can indeed occur – or zen, or power, or enlightenment, however you want to look at it – was fully realized in virtually every piece. This group show has the feeling of celebration, and both in terms of the art created and the means by which it was created and displayed, the feeling was genuine. The exhibit included a wide variety of contemporary Los Angeles artists who go beyond conventional artistic boundaries – the standard gallery system – to establish a vibrant presence in the art community. Presented by Schomaker’s company, Shoebox PR, the artists and their art have created an exciting body of work, and are each showing that work in independent, outside-the-system ways from artist-run galleries to online magazines like this .
From beautifully detailed small scale dioramas to large scale canvases and sculptures crafted from found-materials, there’s something for everyone in this exhibit. Perhaps its the freshness of approach or the freshness of the “we can do it” attitude by these artists, but this is a special show that unfolds the passion of art like the petals of a Georgia O’Keeffe flower.
Terry Arena’s graphite on mixed media piece.
Artists exhibiting include:
Susan Amorde, Terry Arena, JT Burke, Jennifer Celio, Chenhung Chen, Jeanne Dunn, Dwora Fried, Rob Grad, Carlos Grasso, Cie Gumucio, Carla Jay Harris, Teale Hatheway, Cindy Jackson, Echo Lew, Erika Lizée, Susan Lizotte, Dave Lovejoy, Susan Melly, Freyda Miller, Mike M. Mollett, Andrea Monroe, Stacey Moore, Malka Nedivi, Margaret Ouchida, Lori Pond, Linda Sue Price, Lindsey Price, Isabella Kelly-Ramirez, Katherine Rohrbacher, Jane Szabo, Christine Weir
Here’s a closer look at some of the stellar pieces on display.
Cindy Jackson’s “7 Deadly Sins” are crafted from wood, aluminum, urethane, paint, iPods, and fluorescent lights. And with these materials come seven heads, all the same but painted in a rainbow spectrum. “Because these sins are in each of us, the heads are all the same, with pride standing tall above the rest – anger, lust, greed, pride, envy – envy is always looking elsewhere, gluttony, and sloth,” Jackson says.
Suzanne Lizotte blends the classical and contemporary, using aerosol spray and traditional oil-on-canvas painting in her rich “Seeking Treasure.”
Mixed media artist Lindsey Price is a photographer with a vision, here “A Clockwork Orange” offers a stunning digital photo montage.
Andrea Monroe’s stylized “The Harlot” and “The Oiran and Her Pussy” use acrylic on canvas to create full dimensional figures that pulse with life.
Cie Gumicio’s “Fragile” uses mint glass and light to create a wispy, beautiful vision of the planet earth. “It reflects where we are now with our fragility as a planet,” she says. This delicate image shapes not just a planet but the construction of a leaf-like image when viewed from a certain angle – mother nature meets mother earth in a shadow box. “Art, at its best, reminds us that we are human,” Gumucio says.
Dancingly nuanced neon is served up by Linda Sue Price with her pieces “Joy Ride” and “Cynthia Rose.”
Jennifer Cielo’s “Astral Travelers” is an example of the artist’s work which “expresses the effects of human disconnection with the natural world.”
Malka Nedivi’s large scale “Woman in a Box,” evokes her singular style using wood with paper, fabric, acrylic, and glue to create an image of poignant beauty. A painter, sculptor, and collage artist, Nedivi says that all of her work is inspired by her mother, and both her parents’ previously unknown past as Holocaust survivors.
Katherine Rohrbacher’s glittering canvasses “Early One Morning” and “Arcadia” are bright, sparkling, and brilliantly moving all at once. “I draw everything on like a pattern, then comes the glue, and glittle applied with a paint brush. With only a few colors did I have to put paint beneath the glitter itself.” Her “Arcadia” relates the passing of her cat. “She’s entering a glittery cat Heaven,” the artist explains. “Early One Morning signifies the ending of a relationship, but also the passing of a small bird found on a balcony.”
Chenhung Chen continues to amaze with her ever evolving art, crocheted copper with its amoeba like, sinuous shapes, a viewer-participation piece “Connect the Dots” that allows guests to literally do that with colored pencils, and free standing wire sculptures. Her works are fluid, like electronically charged water. Delicate and ephemeral are not often the words associated with recycled materials such as copper wires and components, but Chen’s work provides both. She describes her work as being “about the driving force for inner fulfilment, balance, meditative process…and experiencing the inner power.”
Erika Lizee’s curved and haunting hanging piece is an example of the artist’s propensity to create installations that work as journeys, drawing the viewer down mysterious paths on a pursuit of nature and rebirth.
Mike M. Mollett is the sculptor of large scale pieces created from found art, shaped into balls and bundles. His work provides an outside-in look into a different reality, in which balls and bundles of wires appear animate, hold secrets within secrets.
Dwora Fried creates miniature tableaux, using tiny figures and photographs to create detailed worlds inside glass-topped wood boxes. “I keep re-creating the feeling of what it was like growing up,” the artist says, “the box captures the claustrophobic feeling a painting can’t,” she says.
With so many other artists to admire, grab a hold of the magic now. The show rums through October 17th. Gallery H is located at 12619 Hawthorne Blvd. in Hawthorne.
Friday night marked the opening reception of CA 101 2015, a fantastic exhibition at “The Industrial Cathedral” a.k.a. the AES Power Plant in Redondo Beach. From site specific installations to immersive 3D video to evocative photography, don’t miss this show, on view again next weekend, Friday 8/7 to Sunday 8/9.
A Comfortable Skin – Kristine Schomaker Photo by Jack Burke
Photos by Jack Burke
This is the fourth year for what has become an annual exhibition including a wide variety of cutting edge visual artists from throughout California. Over 126 artists are exhibiting 157 works. It’s hard to say what’s most compelling here. There’s Mike Saijo’s brilliant immersive images, One and Three Parallax Views? Put on your 3D glasses and check it out. Explore Kristine Schomaker’s kaleidoscopic mixed media Bloom, Cie Gumucio’s intense tributes to writers including her Shadows and Light Within spotlighting Emily Dickinson. Listen to the wild caw of peacocks emanating from the doorbell at Patty Grau’s “crime scene,” Peacock Blues. Get dazzled by the raiment displayed by Diane Strack’s Vestament: Reflections on Religion. Yes, there are also stunning, LA-evocative paintings like Lena Moross’ Red Couch #1 and Scott A. Trimble’s Two More in the Bonding Sea. Photography as wide open as the desert it depicts in Cameron Mcintyre’s Out on the Flats. The semi-apocalyptic daydream that is Ariel Swartley’s Beach Town.
Lena Moross – Red Couch #1 – Photo by Jack Burke
But truly, this isn’t about one or even several artists. This is a seminal collective exhibition. The space itself, with it’s surreal, industrial green heights creates an aura half-way between factory and submarine. The mix of art forms, from watercolor to sculpture is simply too good to miss.
All photos by Jack Burke
So what are you waiting for? Take off for a day at the beach coupled with great art, or ruminate on what you’ll see here with an after-art stroll on the sand. For once, driving to DTLA isn’t necessary to experience some of the finest art and artists California has to offer. One caveat: it’s not actually accessible from the 101. You’ll need to take the 405.
