Lisa Adams: Paradise Notwithstanding | The place that Adams conjures through the juxtaposition of decay and possibility is one that comes to terms with the coexistence of the real and the ideal. "It's a vision of imperfection's guiding light," says the artist.
Just as decay and possibility come together in Lisa Adams' work for Paradise Notwithstanding, the new paintings are completely fluent in both the language of abstraction and of representation. This balance, and tension, leads viewers to explore the varied possibilities within each work, with visual iconography including water features, flora elements, atmospheric texture, and color fields.
In writing about her new work Adams says: "Though the paintings could be viewed as a puzzle, I'd rather think of them as a collection of elements that foster our ability to trust a sense of place in the world while they encourage us to question reality. I'm not interested in beauty or non-beauty, hence the title Paradise Notwithstanding. I'm interested in the complexity that won't allow me to define what I'm looking at, and to establish a narrative; a narrative that's shy and hidden from view and with time unpacks itself."
Seung Lee: East (NY) to West (LA) | The exhibition consists of paintings and drawings that reference strangely familiar sites where plant life is at the center of interest -- places where fantastic flora speckles each psychologically and emotionally layered setting. To create these extraordinary environments, Lee reduces the primary subject matter in each of his drawings and paintings to a stripped-down delineation that captures the essence of a single inspiration ready for contemplation. By placing an emphasis on the subject's organic characteristics, Lee's gesture (of stripping down) signals the spiritual delicacy of the choices we make, and how the vulnerabilities we face in daily life are always part of our connection to the natural world. It also points to our collective associations with the environments our ancestors must have faced -- the same ones we squandered and lost. This lost world has become particularly surreal to us, but it is still fundamentally biological in our vast memory nature.
Misc. Pippa Garner: Car Sick | Formerly Philip Garner, Misc. Garner began her career as a performance artist in California in the '70s. She is known both for her restructured automotive sculpture made in the same era as well as her repurposed functional art. A backwards '59 Chevrolet she crafted for Esquire magazine caught the eye of the San Francisco collective Antfarm. Pippa and Chip Lord began collaborating, and they performed Chevrolet Training Film at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1980. Shortly thereafter her pieces were shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles in two shows focusing on the car culture of the city.
In the early '80s Pippa published her most well known work, Philip Garner's Better Living Catalog, a humorous commentary on consumerism. Subsequently she published two more books (Utopia and Gadgets and Gizmos). In the mid-'80s she became her own art project and transitioned from Philip Garner into Pippa Garner. This was an "ongoing performance/ installation" that continued into the mid-'90s and in 1993 she was asked to sign an affidavit not to take her shirt off in public.
Pippa Garner is still a working artist. Car Sick includes both her past and present work, but focuses on the original humorous car drawings she made for Los Angeles Magazine and Car & Driver over the last three decades.
The Popular Art Auction | In contrast to the Fine Art motif of the Santa Monica Auctions, The Popular Art Auction features Illustration, Commercial Art, Original French Lithograph posters, Fine Art prints and posters, Pinup and Sports Art. Here you will find a treasure trove of original works and rare prints by Olivia DeBerardinis, Richard Duardo, Jim Evans, Ronnie Cutrone, as well as unique posters by Keith Haring, David Hockney, Sam Francis, Jasper Johns and more.
The Popular Art Auction takes inspiration from Robert Berman Gallery's "Paid to Play," an exhibition of the oft overlooked work of Southern California artists rooted in illustration, commissioned to create imagery for record albums, magazines, advertisements, et al. A genre dirtily linked to commercialism but nonetheless full of innovation, technique, artistic expression and speed.
In addition to such notable works as a recently added original Alberto Vargas oil painting, the auction features an impressive body of work by renowned artist and master printer, Richard S. Duardo, considered the "West Coast-Warhol." An advocate of the arts in Los Angeles for over 25 years, Duardo, a graduate of UCLA in graphic design, has been prolific in producing a large body of serigraphs:
I consider myself a cultural archivist and look to current events as the primary motivator of my work," notes Duardo. "My worldview is irrelevant...I am more concerned with how I interpret information that is served up to consumers--product and political. My response is visceral and immediate. My motto is 'Appropriate, Deconstruct, and Regurgitate.'
The continually updated catalogue is available at www.smauctions.com.
For the most comprehensive calendar of art events throughout Los Angeles go to Artweek.LA.