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.

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

One of the most fun moments was when the Muppets used the big entrance next to our gallery as a police station entrance. They filmed the Muppets exiting the station, walked pass the gallery to Broadway, then broke out a musical number. At first they changed the name of our gallery to, wait for it, OB1 Gallery (may the force be with you.) But CB told them we really wouldn’t mind our real name being used, they changed it back. So, look out for a cameo appearance of CB1 Gallery in The Muppets, in movie theaters this November.

Another fun moment was when they filmed a video game commercial, setting up the outside of the gallery as a cafe. The game’s name is da Blob, with strange colorful characters. Lots of bluescreen with this one.

And, just a few days ago, they transformed the sidewalk in front of the gallery into a New York street scene for this season’s finale of CSI: NY. They forgot to take the fake bus stop signs with them! The signs were still up the next day. How confusing was that for the bus riders!

Added: just found this Law & Order: Los Angeles promo that was partly filmed in front of the gallery.

SLIDESHOW

Larry Mantello’s second solo show in Los Angeles picks up where his last one left off: using cheap souvenirs and tacky novelties to tell a story whose high points revolve around love, loss and redemption and whose low points look toward meaninglessness as a welcome release from the despair of self-loathing.

Mantello’s first solo show in L.A. was 18 years ago. Back then, his installation stuck out like a sore thumb on steroids. At a time of hyper-serious identity politicking, his mind-scrambling extravaganza threw its lot in with pleasure and excess to herald a new era, which has gone a long way to define the present.

At CB1Gallery, “Together Again” is tighter, more focused and loaded. It reveals an artist whose vision and delivery have matured, growing more complex and nuanced while losing none of the youthful insouciance — and cheeky verve — of Mantello’s earlier works.

Read the entire review.

Edith Beaucage also had a couple of interviews. One was featured on Huffington Post.

Edith Beaucage’s “hurluberlu” paintings, which feature idiosyncratic figures and architectural references are about the rich interaction of the imagination and social spaces. Beaucage’s new series has a Rococo energy, and is peopled by an engaging cast of lusciously painted faux-naif characters. The paintings are sweet, challenging, and utterly original.

To better understand the artist’s ideas, I sent her a set of questions, and also asked her husband, Glen Irani, if he would add his perspective.

Read the entire interview.

She also did an interview with blogger Jeff Tutt. Here’s an excerpt:

Q: You speak of painting in terms of language – signs of abstraction or portraiture – and of the characters that inhabit your paintings as narrative ‘types’. Do you see painting as a literary or theatrical operation?

A: The paintings are just images, but the process that takes place in my mind while I am painting is closer to a literary composition. I built the sign of a figure that is next of kin to a character. I use the character as a way to make the image more interesting to me and to the viewer. The abstractions are also signs and characters. I am not using photographs or models to build the  figures. They come from my mind: a memory image repertoire. I consider the image development as a similar exercise as if I was building a character for a literary text.

The entire interview can be downloaded as PDF.

A local art blogger Tracey Harnish also wrote a review each for Larry and Edith. Click on the links to read them.