Jason Knits

We are very happy that Los Angeles Times published a wonderful review on Larry Mantello’s show.

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.