At first glance Paul Donald’s sculptures are brightly colored, cheerful and toy-like. Yet, they are a little odd, inviting you to take a closer inspection. Shapes that resemble animals and machinery at the same time, even phallic. Are they some strange creatures? weapons? someone’s trophies? I watched over these sculptures during November’s Downtown LA Art Walk. The most asked question was, “what are they made of?”

They are wood sculptures made by whittling with the exception of the shield-like components. Small pieces assembled together to give more reference to toys that children assemble at play. Spray painted in bright colors, they have a sheen that confuses people into thinking they are made of plastic, or some other material. Only one person at Art Walk recognized the marks left by whittling.

Paul invites people to examine and question what these pieces are, challenging our perception, how we recognize objects, letting our imagination do the work. These deceptively simple objects are packed with symbolic meanings. For example the whittled pieces look organic, resembling a creature out of our wild fantasies. Yet, they are combined with these meticulously crafted shields (or crests,) sometimes like a collar, sometimes like a trophy. Crests were used to show the heritage and power of a family or kingdom. These neatly crafted shields also strongly display human attention. This combination of the wild and a show of human strength brings a degree of sadness to the toy-like creatures. Domesticating the nature.

Paul Donald
Woulden
October 29 – December 4, 2011

Read the press release. Hey, see, even the show title invites to wonder what it means. Wouldn’t, wooden?

Our summer group shows have been up for almost 2 weeks! We are very excited about them. Both are curated by guest curators, John Souza and our very own Alexander Kroll. Artists also include long time friends Roy Dowell, Renee Petropoulos and Carter Potter. Below are the links to the show pages and slideshow of the opening reception. Shows are up until August 20, 2011.

The Haunted Word, curated by John Souza

painting. design. speculation. generosity., curated by Alexander Kroll

Their humble, down-to-earth demeanors make a virtue of ambiguity. Each seems to be an expansive landscape and a tabletop still life. “Untitled (15)” evokes Morandi and sand castles. “Untitled (12)” brings together the beauty of the Taj Mahal and the pleasure of a long hot bath. Others turn tiny details — four blades of grass, three lime-green lumps and a slithering pink line — into worlds of possibility.

– David Pagel

Read the entire review on Los Angeles Times.

Added at 11:52 AM, and I forgot about this article in the local Bunker Hill Magazine. It talks about the gallery, about CB and HK’s show. The printed copy is quite nice, pick one up if you can get to them.

Today, Sunday, May 29, 2011, a formal ceremony will be performed to place the holy relics of the Buddha in the center of the pagoda. I am really looking forward to this event!

HK Zamani

In-between Air, Land and Sea

May 22, 2011 – July 2, 2011
Opening Reception: Sunday, May 22, 5 – 7 p.m.

CB1 Gallery is pleased to announce its first solo exhibition of the work of Los Angeles-based artist HK Zamani, In-between Air, Land and Sea. Zamani’s work over the past 20 years can be located within the extended field of painting, ranging from paintings and objects to site specific, multi-media installations—often including performances. The artist’s new paintings will be on view from May 22 through July 2, 2011. A reception for the artist will take place on Sunday, May 22, 2011 from 5 p.m. – 7 p.m.

HK Zamani’s images in this series of new paintings grow out of or away from their predecessors—they are sometimes devils, then angels. Some are on land, in the air or sea, occasional remnants, reformed or transformed over multiple applications of paint. The artist’s dome paintings from recent past exhibitions were portraits, perhaps even self-portraits, fragile portrayals. Some were ruins, some were vessels that transport— chrome and against corrosion—DeLorean, stellar. Many of the artist’s dome/tent paintings were more about the image than paint. The artist’s new paintings over the past 2 years, including the paintings in his current CB1 Gallery exhibition, are most definitely about paint.

In an LA Times review of For Your Pleasure, CB1 Gallery’s August 2010 group exhibition, David Pagel wrote that “Zamani’s meaty paintings come from the no-man’s- land between sleep and wakefulness, when consciousness is not fully functional and every little detail is more mysterious than usual. Cartoons form the backstory of his boiled-down compositions, but abstraction comes to the forefront in his idiosyncratic pictures that hover on the cusp of recognizablity.”

Iranian-born American HK Zamani (Habib Kheradyar Zamani) is a Los Angeles based artist and curator. His work is guided by multi-cultural influences ranging from ascetic Islam to psychedelia. He performed in the 2006 Prague Quadrennial and has exhibited at venues such as Kulturzentrum bei den Minoriten, Graz, Austria; Hohenthal und Bergen, Berlin; Pierogi, New York; W139, Amsterdam; ARC, Vienna; Kampa Museum, Prague; and Lincart, San Francisco. His work is in the permanent collections of LA County Museum and Berkeley Museum of Art. He received a C.O.L.A. Grant in 2004, and a California Foundation Getty Grant in 2005. Zamani is the founder and director of POST (1995-2005), and its recent renewal, PØST, a subversive venue for contemporary art in Los Angeles, where he has hosted over three hundred exhibitions.

The abandonment of explicit imagery or words and a reliance on the expressiveness of the paint itself to communicate leave us searching for clues, meditating on the paintings’ secrets. It appears as if Schor is finally, truly, “painting paint.”
–Constance Mallinson, Art in America

Read the entire review here.

Mira Schor, Portrat of My Brain, 2007

Also, Larry Mantello got a review in ArtScene’s April Continuing and Recommended list. It looked the show from a different angle.

His deliberately over-saturated boldness finally comes across as an attempt to exorcise the demons of pop-cultural overstimulation for our collective well-being.
–MS, ArtScene

Read the entire review on ArtScene. You have to scroll down pass halfway point of the page.

Tomorrow will be the opening reception of our new exhibitions by artist Susan Silas. “eyes wide shut” in the East Gallery shows a series of photographs found dead birds. “A child of sixties television sing songs that got stuck in her head” in the West Gallery shows a video performance of Susan, plus a series of self-portraits. The dates are:

April 9 – May 15, 2011

Opening Reception: Saturday, April 9, 5 – 7 p.m.

Artist Talk: Saturday, April 23, 2011, 3 p.m.

Excerpt from our press release:

The series found birds, 2000 – the present is a collection of portfolios developed by Silas during the past decade. The series began serendipitously, when a small sparrow fell dead on the sidewalk at the artist’s feet. Silas documents with patient and focused resolve the irreversible transition from being to matter. Revealing aspects of decay and transformation, death and renewal, Silas simultaneously examines the continuum and resilience of life, self-consciously enlisting her photographs to do what photography does best  —  mining the medium’s ability to expose exactly what existed in front of the lens  —   conveying the unique fragility of sentient beings and their inevitable loss.

Her video performance, A child of sixties television singing songs that got stuck in her head, depicts Silas singing popular opening theme songs from late 50s and 60s television shows. Her isolated serenade is captured as she sings to her reflection in a large mirror. In Silas’ renditions of Bat Masterson, Rawhide, Yogi Bear, The Mickey Mouse Club, and other once popular melodies, she enacts rituals of self-intimacy and creates a commentary on aging, memory and the inevitable advancement of time, while reminding us of the peculiar cultural productions that hold us together generationally and mark the movement from one generation to the next. Accompanying this video are suites of self-portraits in which her two selves inhabit the same frame. Each image juxtaposes a stark self-portrait in the foreground against a softer idealized portrait reflected in the mirror; a literal reminder of the divide between one’s self and one’s self-perception.

Read the entire press release here.

Come join us for the opening reception and the artist talk on April 23. Here are a couple of more articles about Susan Silas and her work:

• Charlie Finch, I Love Susan Silas, artnet Magazine
• Roger Denson, Holocost and Redemption in the Photography of Susan Silas, Huffington Post, April 5, 2011
• Peter Clothier, Art Notes, The Buddha Diaries, April 9, 2011 added on 4/9/2011 2:06pm

I am fascinated by many things Japanese. Their culture, philosophy, language, art, etc. I also fancy myself having a Japanese dog as a pet. (That won’t happen for a while.) So I did some research on the Japanese canine breeds. Shiba, Akita, Kishu, Kai Ken, etc. I came across the story of Hachiko, which sounded familiar to me. Maybe I read stories about the famous dog as a child. I don’t know. Then I found out that the story (true story by the way) was made into a movie starring Richard Gere. Richard Gere? That sounded odd, but I rented it anyway. As it turned out, it was a remake of another movie made in Japan in 1987. Anyway, I watched the remake, it was a lot of cheesiness, but the ending had me in tears big time. THEN, as if I needed another good cry, I had to google and find the original movie. Found it, watched it and YEP, tears!

I would definitely recommend skipping the remake and just watch the original. Much more nuanced, giving you a peek at the culture. Also more character building. Before I share the link to the movie, here’s an excerpt from Wikipedia about Hachiko:

In 1924, Hidesaburo Ueno, a professor in the agriculture department at the University of Tokyo, took in Hachiko as a pet. During his owner’s life, Hachiko greeted him at the end of each day at the nearby Shibuya Station. The pair continued their daily routine until May 1925, when Professor Ueno did not return. The professor had suffered from a cerebral hemorrhage and died, never returning to the train station where Hachiko was waiting. Every day for the next nine years the golden brown Akita waited at Shibuya station.

Hachiko was given away after his master’s death, but he routinely escaped, returning again and again to his old home. Eventually, Hachiko apparently realized that Professor Ueno no longer lived at the house. So he went to look for his master at the train station where he had accompanied him so many times before. Each day, Hachiko waited for the return of his owner.

The permanent fixture at the train station that was Hachiko attracted the attention of other commuters. Many of the people who frequented the Shibuya train station had seen Hachiko and Professor Ueno together each day. They brought Hachiko treats and food to nourish him during his wait.

This continued for nine years with Hachiko appearing precisely when the train was due at the station.

Read a more detailed account of Hachiko’s life here.

Here’s the link to the movie on YouTube. The movie is broken up into 8 segments and with English subtitle. You might need tissue!