TAM Creates Magic with Three Potent Exhibitions by Genie Davis
There are three powerful art exhibitions at Torrance Art Museum now through May 24th. Each is exciting in use of material, form, and a message at once inclusive and emphasizing both the diversity and promise of human interaction and differences.
In the main gallery, Body Counts adds up to something special, presenting a wide variety of media that highlights figurative art, while also reflecting on representation, trust, group dynamics, alienation and the effects of these on today’s democracy, structure, and civil rights. Artists offer realistically figurative – and less so – paintings as well as more eliptical images through kinetic sculptures that rivet with mysterious motion. Artists in this fascinating group show include Alison Blickle, Danie Cansino, Amir H. Fallah, Lanise Howard, Justine Otto, Duane Paul, Jose Sanchez III, Meghan Smythe, and Haena Yoo, whose sculptural works are richly involving.
In gallery 2, a solo show is visually – and literally – electrifying. David DiMichele’s Envirotechnology is startling combination of technology and nature.
Artist David DiMichelle
Utilizing LED light tubing, DiMichelle literallly and figurative entwines light strips with oak branches, creating what looks like a lightning strike on a tree, while emphasizing the metaphorical idea that nature and technology can co-exist harmoniously. The space shimmers with light as the gallery transforms into one immersive sculpture.
In the museum’s Dark Room, Erin Cooney’s video installation Aire Libre draws viewers into a haunting depiction of environmental disharmony and injustice. Filmed in South LA and made collaboratively with East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, a community advocacy group based in Commerce and Long Beach, the images swirl and seethe. At the exhibition opening March 29, a live performance based on elements of Aire Libre was held in the museum’s courtyard, in which dancers performed live choreography also rendered on screen merging into a collective experience.
Each of these exhibitions are joyous, while offering questions about the importance of community, collective alchemy, and bodily independence. Don’t miss these three wildly inventive and rewarding shows. On view now through May 24th.
Torrance Art Museum hours are 11-5 Tuesday-Saturday; the museum is located at 3320 Civic Center Drive in Torrance.
- Written by Genie Davis; photos: Genie Davis