The subject and the style is entirely personal in “Personal Narrative,” now at the Annenberg Beach House. The group exhibition is varied and stunning - taken visually, viewers see a collective tapestry of art from the neon of Linda Sue Price to the beautiful boxed dioramas of Dwora Fried. Taken thematically, the works each represent the inspiration and resilience of the human spirit. Individually, each piece is like a unique bead in an interlocking necklace of art, as personal and different it is connected. Artists in this lush and lovely exhibition include Mardi De Veuve Alexis, Susan Amorde, Terry Arena, Chenhung Chen, Rick Dallago, Bibi Davidson, Dwora Fried, Leonard Greco Jr., JJ L’heureux, Tom Lasley, Erika Lizee, Randi Matushevitz, Malka Nedivi, Robert Nelson, Linda Sue Price, Kristine Schomaker, Sheli Silverio, Robert Soffian, Diane Williams.
Within each artist’s work, the materials are vividly textural, chosen to promote what curators Diane Williams and Sheli Silverio describe as creating a “sensory experience and visual narrative.” The subject matter is as diverse as the artists who have created it, each sharing social and cultural issues, their own heritage as immigrants, their gender identity, their emotional and moral compass. This is a show that exceeds expectations, with each piece a uniquely beautiful work with an “outsider” perspective, in that the idea of artist as outsider means the artist as an uncategorized creator. View Robert Nelson’s “Lady Standing,” a vividly hued classical figure, its heart tossed up literally and figuratively by a pair of hands. Then view the deceptively simple, graceful lines of the compelling red-dressed girl calling out in Bibi Davidson’s vivid “Come” – both uncategorically wonderful.
