Continuing through June 20, 2015
People live in highly individualized spaces, even though overall we might understand a room to consist of a simple four walls, a floor and a ceiling. Our experiences, our sensibilities and our emotions are reflected in the spaces we make for ourselves. In the delightful group show “re/Constructed” 11 artists riff on that idea, inventing loosely defined architecture through drawing, painting, photography and sculpture. Guest curator Corinne Chaix is herself is an LA-based artist who excels in moody Surrealism and has included one of her paintings in the show, “Virtual World,” a portrait of a man sitting inside an oblong cube, coolly observant and isolated from the world. Of course, houses, buildings and rooms appear throughout the show, but the similarities end there. Photographer Anna Carey builds her own models and photographs them, producing large prints in saturated colors. They are interiors and exteriors in a kind of dilapidated midcentury style, clearly models and places that Barbie and Ken might live in. “New Galaxy” depicts a motel in the desert, replete with three cactus trees, a desert setting and blue sky. "Reception” takes us into the interior of a swank lobby, with a cool cantilevered staircase coming down one wall. Others among my personal favorites are the house sculptures of Michael Jantzen that are miniaturized enough to be placed on small, individual shelves. In their white finish and reductive forms, they become iconic metaphors. In "Rocking House" two houses stuck together bottom-to-bottom are mounted between two wheels, their fates tied together by the Wheel of Fortune. In "Dream House," there is a single bed, with tightly tucked sheets, that sits in the abode's open doorway. The pillow end is just inside the house; one imagines lying in that bed, looking out to the world. Indeed, the magic of these pieces lies in being able to transport oneself into the space of the artwork, as if one were there.
Published Courtesy of ArtSceneCal ©2015
