EMS Nude Survey #4- This Is A Way to Run a Country

EMS Nude Survey #4
 curated by: Eric Minh Swenson
February 5-March 5, 2016

featuring artists: Ben Brough, Simone Gad, Wyatt Mills, Lilli Muller, Dante Orphilla
                              Ammon Rost, Diedre Sullivan-Beeman & Chuck Swenson

Jai & Jai Gallery
648 N. Spring St.
Chinatown, Los Angeles, CA

Tues-Sat 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM 

This Is The Way To Run a Country- EMS Nude Survey #4

The fourth installment of Eric Minh Swenson's curatorial journey flashbacks to the late l970's through the mid l980's when Chinatown welcomed and safeguarded many young creatives to experiment.  The excitement for long-time art veteranos/anas like me is seeing artists of various ages harmoniously exhibiting together.  There seemed to be a sharing of wisdom, knowledge of the art world, visions, memories, desires-all equally valid.

Wyatt Mills and Ammon Rost share gestural styles and dynamic figures designed with fervent  investigating marks.  Mills' "nude figure" consists of transparent marks that rush upward creating an image of a woman thrusting through shredded ribbons of colors highlighting the prideful stance of a woman's form. Mills reminds us of the vital contribution of the female image to the world of art.  The" Venus of Willendorf" in perpetual motion.  Additionally, 
Rost's painting-Internal Dialogue and print-Print Observer, are influenced by his Japanese heritage via his intentional use of gold, red, and black as foundations for his work.  Rost mentioned that he was inspired by the work of Picasso and Kandinsky; that also appears evidently by the delineating black marks.

Lay Lady Lay, 2016 Wyatt Mills

The Observer 2016, Ammon Rost

Ammon Rost

Notably addressed, in the exhibition, is pornography as art and art as pornography by Lilli Muller and Simone Gad.  These seminal artists are altruistic women who heroically contribute to the local, national, and international art world. Lilli Muller's exhibits two plaster sculptural forms of a woman's breasts (breastplate) and vulva.  These works are called Braille Porn because of the textural Braille dots throughout the sculptures.  Muller has been involved in creating art to support women who have experienced the pain of breast cancer.  She selflessly  invites women to dignify their heroic experiences by immortalizing their bodies through the art of sculpture  The braille pulsates on the surface of the forms.  It isn't necessary to understand the translation, the viewers are open to interpret their own storyboard.  I personalized it by remembering my aunt Aurora, an avid reader, that developed severe arthritis that caused blindness.  She learned to read braille with her gnarled- almost desensitized fingers. The braille is an additional layer of defining diligence, options, and alternatives.

Braille Porn - Lilli Muller

Simone Gad's collage installation consists of provocative female pinup photographs of women from the l850's, to l960's and l970's, who are saved  by rescued pets. Inter-species relationships can provide comfort for the human and the animal. However, these collages politically stand for women's rights to use their bodies in alternative livelihoods.  The collages can also be viewed with 3-D glasses to remind the viewers that these captured images were real women.

Chat Orange Avec pinup 3-D 2016 (oil, pastel, collage) (c)2016 Simone Gad

Eric Minh Swenson, the " peripatetic photographer", continues to create "neo-art happenings", with his Nude Survey Series.  He said that his nude theme comes from his personal interest in the study and portrayal of the nude.  Because of his ubiquitous-Delorean-. time traveling energy, Swenson's life is surrounded by artists traveling at different speeds of

light. In one evening he can self-propel from an exhibit at LACMA to a fledgling show at "My Mother's Garage Gallery".  All exhibits and artists are equally treated with respect and acknowledgement.  This sentiment is obvious by the roster of artists that contributed to the exhibition through their art and presence to the "art for art's sake" environment.

Live model, April Flores was a bonus to remind us of the beauty of a sensuous, voluptuous, courageous female. Participating artist, Chuck Swenson created a cautiously descriptive and respectful painting of April.  The live model was also reminiscent of the art performances of the 70's and 80's in Los Angeles.

The exhibitions runs through March 5, 2016.

Contributing artists of Nude Survey #4

Chuck Swenson at the easel...

April Flores, Jai & Jai Gallery  2/5/16-Opening night
in front of Simone Gad's 3-d Nude Pinup Collage Installation (c) 2016