Swedish painter, Sigrid Sandstrom, exhibits twelve of her newest abstract paintings at The Company in downtown Los Angeles from March 14th through April 18th. Sandstrom’s strength is revealing the paradoxical in both painting and nature. Even the artist’s preferred technique is an oxymoron–the transparent layering of opaque whites. Decision making, editing, working, and reworking are crucial elements of Sandstrom’s finished work. She purposefully leaves behind squeegee smears, paint drips, and brush marks that not only reference her process, but also signifies her work. Milky acrylic washes, often of snowcapped mountains and angular glaciers, sit underneath layers of planar geometric shapes. The polygonal shapes contrast in a variety of ways: irregular vs. regular, convex vs. concave, and rough/torn edges vs. hard/masked edges. Though the shapes are painted, they are made to look as though they are torn paper collage, textured pieces of wood, or see-through strips of masking tape. The shapes’ faux edges are yet another reference to painterly fabrication and thus, process. In her artist statement, Sandstrom mentions ” the cumulative activity of adding layer-upon-layer is the evidential aftermath of mental engagement which, in turn, insinuates and provokes the next painterly response.” By constantly juggling interactive variables, the artist explores the self-reflexive nature of decision-making and the creative process.

In 1997, Sandstrom received her B.F.A. from Academie Minerva in The Netherlands, and in 2001, an M.F.A. in painting and printmaking from Yale University. She is the 2008 recipient of The Joan Mitchell Foundation: Painters and Sculptors Grant as well as the 2008 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship. Sandstrom’s paintings are in permanent collections at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita KS; and Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT. Currently, she lives and works in Stockholm.

Courtesy of Roberts & Tilton, Culver City, CA

The Primitive Electric, Faris McReynolds’s fourth exhibition at Roberts & Tilton in Los Angeles, CA, spurs a compelling conversation between divergent painting styles and assorted perspectives. While he explores social commentaries, McReynolds’s paint application varies in thickness and sensitivity.  Overall, the exhibit attests to the difficulty involved in reconciling society’s ever expanding attitudes and perspectives on popular culture.

In paintings like Speedway, McReynolds uses broad, gestural strokes to describe figures in various throws of action.  He works with a sense of immediacy; his style reminiscent of artists Willem De Kooning and Richard Diebenkorn of the Abstract Expressionist and Bay Area Figurative movements.  Colors resonate, contrasting both in tonality and hue, aiding the flagrant figures’ substantial mass. In these paintings, McReynolds composes panoptic scenes–particularly crude stills from popular culture.  In The Leaving Party, a crowd is crammed onto the platform of a military type vehicle that flees a chaotic, burning backdrop.  One of the main subjects joyously waives a pink and purple striped necktie like a flag while another is victoriously thrusting up a human head.

Courtesy of Roberts & Tilton, Culver City, CA

Conversely, McReynolds’s mixed media pieces, such as It’s No Journey and A World of Reflections are more subtle and softened, lending to a contemplative mood.  The subjects of these cinematic portraits portray emotions that range from disappointment and depression to sheer psychosis.  One can imagine the characters are undergoing a complex set of reactions, perhaps shocked and dismayed by the vulgarities represented in his more expressionistic works.  In other portraits, such as Water Mirror, McReynolds slices up facial features, aggressively distorting the face with impasto, palette knife marks.  Viewers could deduct that the multiple portions of flesh, eyes, nose, and mouth are a metaphor for the complexities involved in seeing various viewpoints at once.

McReynolds was born in Dallas, Texas in 1977 and received his BFA from Otis College of Art and Design in 2000.  He now lives in Los Angeles, showing his work both nationally and internationally at Goff & Rosenthal in Berlin, Gallery Min Min in Tokyo, and the Tim Van Laere Gallery in Antwerp.   The Primitive Electric is on display at Roberts & Tilton until November 14th, 2009.

Infinity, curated by Andrew Schoultz is a collection of 15 contemporary artists’ interpretations of a boundless theme. Scion Space in Los Angeles hosts the exhibit, which opened Saturday, October 10th, and will continue through November 7th, 2009. Prior to the opening, I chatted with some of the artists as well as the curator, who revealed how relative concepts are strategically woven into the pieces, whether through mathematics, metaphor, science, or technique.

Schoultz chose artists who frequently question life’s immeasurability, like Ryan Wallace. During the process of completing oil paintings such as Fulcrum, Wallace explained that he saves pieces of tape used to mask off sharp-edges. Wallace then uses the tape and other appropriate odds and ends in his studio to make pieces like Quest. Throughout his process, Wallace experiments with how variables involved in the chemistry of oils, alkyds, acrylics, mylar, paper, and tape affect the surface of his painting. He enjoys “letting each material have its own voice based on chemical properties.” Further, his imagery questions aspects of physics that might be in play. For example, Fulcrum features two intersecting walls; yet, one cannot determine which wall is acting as the support for the other. Therefore, the walls take on an endless “push-pull” scenario. Similarly, Quest features a central orb created by light tones in the center of the panel surrounded by darker vertical strips. The sphere-like shape hovers and can be seen as an ascending or descending point simultaneously.

Chris Natrop scrutinizes the concept of infinity on a more microscopic level in that he thinks of his cut out shapes as “molecular bombardments.” Infinity features one of Natrop’s first, stand-alone sculptures, different from the room-sized installation pieces he is used to creating. In all of Natrop’s work, he deals with shapes that he has captured from his memory–spindling, interweaving forms he spontaneously cuts with a knife and hangs with transparent string. Also new to his work is the inclusion of two-way, acrylic mirrors that he had fabricated specifically for the piece displayed at Scion.

Contemporary collage artist, Hilary Pecis, is represented in the show by two of her collages. One of her works were created specifically for Infinity, as well as some of her new video installations. Pecis’s collages stay true to her fundamental aesthetics. She continues to entrance viewers with meticulous depictions of angular patterns, whether they are the varying facets of cut gemstones or the repetitive planes of her trademark ink drawings. Pecis pointed out the underlying theme of “limitless combinations” in her work. For example, she sought out multiple sources to represent white in her new collage. In the past, she may have used a single source, like fabric from a wedding dress, to fill the white spaces. Now, however, she has substituted many different magazine images in addition to other white fabrics. As usual, Pecis depicts cosmic landscapes brimming with glimpses of society’s prized commodities. She reiterated that the landscapes are basically the same place, but the seasons are different. Seasons change in her work due to the fact that the countless magazines she uses change intervals from spring, summer, fall or winter. Pecis admitted that her reliance on print media will likely shift as digital media becomes more relevant. Her video installations feature segments of her multi-faceted ink drawings interspersed with translucent, floating, shapes, some of them different types of diamonds. In one of the videos, crows horde a pile of diamonds, CD’s, and other “bling”–metaphorically showing that the “continuum of desire is never fulfilled.”

In addition to curating the show, Schoultz contributed an intricate ink drawing that speaks to “the infinite unraveling of history.” The drawing, which is reminiscent of both Indian miniature painting and 14th century German map-making, is chock full of military symbolism. The upper half of the composition is dominated by a labyrinthine mixture of vertical flags, all emblazoned with the masonic eye, and a variety of unraveling ribbons, culminating into the shape of a horizontal 8–the undeniable symbol of infinity. The lower half of the composition shows a military horse carrying a turban-clad man with his eyes closed and hands raised as if in meditation. To Schoultz, it is important to portray the duality involved, so there are references to peace as well as war, just as the infinite must also contain the finite.

Other artists who participate in the show are Ryan Travis Christian, Richard Colman, N. Dash, Noah Davis, Chris Duncan, Andres Guerrero, Joseph Hart, Andy Diaz Hope, Xylor Jane, Butt Johnson, and Aaron Noble.

Mica-encrusted, ebony swirls weave through Camille Rose Garcia’s most recent body of work, Hydra of Babylon, on display at Merry Karnowsky Gallery in Los Angeles, CA through October 10th, 2009. In addition to her highly calligraphic black lines, Garcia layers translucent hues, silver leaf, and iridescent sheens to depict her usual suspects – winged creatures and desperate divas, all signaling disdain for the world around them. If oozing toxic drips, tear stained eyes, or nonchalant hand gestures don’t fully reveal the artist’s message, viewers can usually find a title written on an embedded coil of ribbon within the piece. Titles include names like Gloom and Doom, Destroying Angels, Poisons for Unthinkable Pains, and The Witch of Silent Spring, to name a few.

Garcia’s most persistent subjects are the illustrative animals that populate her melancholy scenes. In the 60″ x 84″ acrylic on panel painting, The Hydra of Babylon, a nine-headed serpent fatally injures an eagle, which weeps incessantly as it’s strangled with writhing tentacles. Most likely, Babylon is a geographical reference that, in conjunction with the dying eagle, is meant to summon ideas of annihilation, grief, and war in the Middle East.

Sickness and pain are also recurrent themes, seen in doe-eyed fawns that choke on malignancies that thoroughly permeate scenes like The Witch of Silent Spring. Ironically, there are tonics that promise solace and healing, but those solutions are the same deadly ones that infiltrate the animals’ surroundings, subsequently furthering their demise. In the midst of all the malaise are trumpet-like Easter Lilies, the quintessential symbol of virtue and hope. Those same lilies are present in Why Can’t You Just Be Happy, a painting of a quite corpulent vulture stewing in her woeful sorrow.

Occasional splashes of warm color and hopeful metaphors are planted sporadically throughout these psychedelic views, making them more accessible and alluring. Garcia creates a world of her own, yet one that is heavily influenced by the kaleidoscopic realities of Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland, or, perhaps more pertinent to her Orange County upbringing, Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands. It was no surprise to find out that Garcia is currently working on an illustrated Alice In Wonderland book that will be released from Harper/Collins in March of 2010. This will be the fourth published book featuring her work, the others being The Saddest Place on Earth, 2005, The Magic Bottle, 2006, and Tragic Kingdom, 2007.

Other publications that have showcased Garcia’s work are Flaunt Magazine, Nylon, Paper Magazine, Modern Painters, Art Prostitute, Juxtapoz, and Hi-Fructose.

Julie Garner

Tucked away amidst a tranquil, tree-shaded park in North Berkeley is the Berkeley Art Center, currently hosting an exhibition of mostly Bay Area artists who each have a refreshing take on traditional media. Eighteen artists were chosen by distinguished curators Rene de Guzman and Kate Eilersten, who have a wealth of experience in visual arts programming at cultural hubs like the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Oakland Museum of California, and the Museum of Folk and Craft Art. Eilersten and de Guzman chose artists whose technical expertise and conceptual ideas come together as equal factions in a quotient yielding sublimity. Ultimately, the theme of JURIED@BAC: Works on Paper is transcendence–an evasion of the perceived constraints of a two dimensional media.

Leigh Barbier

Leigh Barbier contributed paintings from her series, Mushroomville, an exploration of her fantasy world filled with women and their adolescent daughters on a mission to understand the insidious aspects of reality. The mothers take on a didactic role, using nature, particularly mushrooms, to explain the difference between the harmful and the nutritious. The scenes are absent of housework and other domestic chores, allowing the female characters to fully delve into their surroundings. Barbier’s ground planes are rocky and angular, treacherously winding underfoot, sometimes even extending out into the space of the viewer. Pushing out of the picture plane is a tactic that is reminiscent of the Byzantine painter, Giotto. However, Barbier’s figures are more volumetric and show more emotion than her Medieval predecessor.

Collaging, piercing, and weaving were some of the other techniques artists used to go beyond the flatness inherent to paper. Iris Charabi-Berggren’s piece, Bird Watching-Gyrfalcom literally weaves itself off the wall. Graphite tones describe the bird’s markings, texture, and brain-like headpiece, which flow into an undulating warp and weave. Julie Garner uses a similar technique in her work, Sugar Factory as she weaves multiple images of the same subject into one single image. Buoyant pneumatocysts and algae permeate the surface of Emily Clawson’s pinhole drawings that she creates by puncturing the paper with the sharp point of a needle or pin. Masako Miki demonstrates how shaded planes of patterned paper can indicate linear perspective and bring order to her precariously stacked items.

In addition to the aforementioned artists, works by Henrique Bagulho, Mariet Braakman, Morgan Ford, John Hundt, Lisa Martin, Liz Maxwell, Anthony Lazorko, Camilla Newhagen, Henry Navarro, Sarah Newton, Jonathan Solo, Hyewon Yoon, and Alex Zecca are also exhibited. The show will be on display through September 20th, 2009.

Federal Art Project (FAP) in downtown LA recently hosted Mixtape Volume 1, a show featuring artists who use music subculture as impetus for their work. Shizu Saldamando’s 5′ x 3′ graphite on wood piece, Maria Daniela y su Sonido Lazer Concert, Azusa, CA, was hung in the forefront of the gallery, begging viewers to take a closer look at her skilled draftmanship. With fluid strokes, Saldamando delivers accurate textures of hair, clothing, gestures, and expressions as well as the overall energy of a moment. According to Saldamando, the musician’s role is subsidiary while the collective spirit of the audience is key.

Three of Jacob Rhodes‘ quilt series, Candy Skins, were also included in Mixtape. Candy Skins are Rhode’s fictional characters whose subculture is influenced by that of Skinheads with a heightened fashion sense (Candy Skins make all their own clothing.) Rhodes uses embroidery floss to stitch Candy Skin scenes onto quilts made out of denim, nylon, and gingham–the fabrics of the Candy Skin’s everyday lives.

In some cases, specific songs, lyrics, or rock ‘n’ roll sayings were referenced by the exhibit’s artists. For example, in a 30″ x 30″ piece of steel, Rich Shelton plasma cut the words, “It’s better to burn out than fade away” and seamlessly installed the steel along with the kino flo lights that backlit the script into the gallery’s wall.

In addition to the artists mentioned above, the exhibit included digital installations by Irina Contreras, Marco Dimas Sanchez, and Juan Capistran as well as Xerox and Light Jet Prints by Sandra de la Loza and Hazel Mandujano.

Saturday, July 25th, PERFORM! NOW! commenced on Chung King Road in Los Angeles’s Chinatown. Pendulous rows of scarlet lanterns lit the streets and walkways for spectators who gathered to watch performances by more than 30 artists. It was the area’s first event featuring new visual and sound art performances; a collaborative effort on the part of 12 different Chinatown galleries. One of the more convoluted conceptual performances of the evening was by Lucas Murdiga, who had his art gallery debut in LA with (w)hole at Charlie James Gallery. Murdiga is a San Francisco artist who is known for pieces relating to behavioral science, deconstruction of the 5 senses, and control/submission as it influences or predicts the future. For (w)hole, the artist constructed 2 wooden cabinets resembling refrigerators, inside which were placed the refreshments that accompanied Saturday’s opening. Attached to the refrigerator doors were a rope and pulley system that connected to an apparatus in Murdiga’s mouth. Every time someone opened or closed the cabinet doors to get food, the ropes pulled the corners of Murdiga’s mouth into a smile. As the artist explained, his interest in animal behavior, particularly herding, motivated him to build the installation. Just as trainers use food as a reward for conditioning animals, Murdiga used drinks and hors d’oeuvres to influence audience participation. Further, Murdiga had a direct connection with viewers as their movement through the gallery also had a physical effect upon him whenever their actions forced his grin. Another aspect of the piece that pertained to control/submission was a wooden table on which participants could recline while Murdiga inserted a gloved finger in his or her mouth. The idea was for Murdiga to apply pressure to a point in the roof of the mouth–a spot known to calm a person who holds stress or tension in the jaw. While Murdiga gave the acupressure treatments to volunteers in the gallery, he gave vivid descriptions of other pertinent projects he has completed. He spoke about Muster Retrodiction at 667Shotwell, a project space in a San Francisco residential home. He also gave accounts of other projects, which are documented by large photographs on display at Charlie James Gallery through the 22nd of August.

Another conceptual performance that touched on the self-reflective was Maura Brewer’s Face Transplantation and Depression at Chung King Project. In her performance, Brewer played two characters; a public speaker/psychoanalyst who was holding a seminar on Face Transplantation and Depression, and the speaker’s satellite interviewee, artist Maura Brewer. Brewer projected video clips of herself answering questions asked by the psychoanalyst, who could empathize with her subject’s depression due to her previous experience enduring a face transplant. During the interview, Brewer exhibits all the classic symptoms of depression from binge eating to paranoia and self-destructive tendencies. Brewer’s strength is bringing sarcastic humor to the blunt and abrasive topics of disease and mental health.

Sarcasm was no stranger to PERFORM! NOW! as Aaron Sandnes walked around with his flag that read, IF I RULED THE UNIVERSE I’D KILL TIME SO THIS GENOCIDE WOULD LAST FOREVER and John Kilduff made a statement on multi-tasking with his piece Let’s Paint TV in front of Jancar Gallery. In addition to painting on canvas, Kilduff simultaneously runs on a treadmill, blends drinks, cooks, and answers questions from the public. The show was interrupted by multiple power outages due to overloaded circuits at Jancar, which allowed for impromptu modifications that only a live performance can yield. You can see more live segments of Let’s Paint TV every weekday from 11am-12 noon on Stickam.com and even call in with questions for the artist!