G Billie Quijano- Tapping Into the World

 G Billie Quijano

Tascots: Talisman of Fashion

April 8- May 6, 2023

Curated by Kene J. Rosa

Ave 50 Studio

131 N Avenue 50, Los Angeles, CA 90042

ARTIST'S TALK: Sat. May 6, 2023 at 4 pm / Ave 50 Studio

Tapping Into the World

by Sandra Vista

                     

 

Quijano mixed media sculptural weavings are grabbing bits of spiritual mysticism with interwoven zarape patterned fabrics. Quijano's talismans create their defined magical energy.  The woven ribbons provide warmth of color designed to reach the heart.  Each piece has intentional spiritual symbols such as third eye beads, the Virgin of Guadalupe imagery and various "La Loteria" images such as " La Sirena" (the Siren's call).  The tactile and familiar quality of each work is also a reminder of an artist as a messenger of love and understanding. 

     G Billie Quijano *(center) with Louis Jacinto  and Kene J. Rosa (curator)

 

                                      

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Susan Feldman- Moving Through Matter

 Matter Studio Gallery

5080 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA

July 24, 2022- August 21, 2022

Susan Feldman's current exhibition at Matter Studio Gallery was conceived during the past two years of the Covid-19 pandemic.  Many artists are beginning to exhibit their work that resulted from their quarantine.  Fortunately, as an artist, Feldman has been able to channel and support our global apprehension by creating assemblages of medicinal architecture.  These structures, derived from found materials, converse with each other to provide harmonious energy that is healing for Feldman in her creative environment. 

Some of the totem-like structures are reminiscent of the life guard towers and multi-story beach homes along the Santa Monica, California coastline which may have influenced Feldman. Additionally, the structures suggest the object-like paintings of Frank Stella's "Indian Bird" Series.  Each of Feldman's assemblages becomes a three-dimensional painting with multiple layers of investigation.

"Same But Different" 36"x 28"

"No Looking Back" 22"x 8"

 

Louis Jacinto Photography -June 9-July 17, 2022- Casa 0101 Theatre Gallery

Louis Jacinto and Jimmy Centano (curator)

Louis Jacinto Photography

Casa 0101 Theatre Gallery

Jean Deleage Art Gallery

2102 E. lst Street

Los Angeles, CA 90033

Coffee At 5 a.m. 1984

Maria Serrano 1978

"History is not just about time..." stated Angela Davis.  Louis Jacinto's current photography exhibit at Casa 0101 Theatre Gallery exemplifies this quote.  His photographs from the seventies and eighties define the fluidity of time and how human rights and our family descendants are a paradise of personal declarations.  Louis is a product of the "baby-boomer" generation who was organically surrounded by the importance of respecting individual differences and the self-determination to participate in civil rights from various factions. During the artist's reception, Louis spoke about how at times his life he has felt overwhelmed by having to define his racial and sexual identity. The photographs chosen for the exhibit, by Jimmy Centano, represent the strength of his ancestry and the roots of his political visions through photography. His family's strength, vigor, loyalty and commitment, to name a few virtues, are captured in the photographs of his paternal grandmother, Maria Serrano l978 and his father in Coffee at 5 a.m. l984. Maria Serrano, regally donning her prosaic apron, looks directly into the camera with the proud stature of a woman managing her own home.  Louis' father and mother in Coffee at 5 a .m. are an example of a couple committed to supporting each other moment by moment.  Louis' caption of this photograph states that they had coffee together everyday at 5 a.m. before his father went to work.  Here's an example of "quality time" before it was fashionable. The labeled lunchbox is a personal acknowledgement of C S JACINTO's existence in his community and the world. 

         

U.S. Out Of El Salvador 1983

Louis is a vigilant advocate of the LGBTQ+ community and the value of this community being a part of other people in need of support.  The U.S. Out Of El Salvador 1983 speaks of importance of people getting together in peaceful protest.  This photograph demonstrates the power of words on simple banner paper carried by a Gay and Lesbian community to lend their universal support for freedom, civil, and personal rights. And with time being all the same, this photograph could have been taken in 2022.  

 Artists' fingerprints can exist in every piece of their artwork.  Sometimes the work can be considered a self-portrait.  Angela Davis 1978, appears to contain significant characteristics of Louis' creative voice and life purpose.  As he captions in this photograph: "I guess her "fashion" sense had gone out of favor.  This image shows her continued determination even if she is the only one left fighting."  Louis is that kind of person, ensconced in ancestral determination exhibited in his photographs and much more. 

Angela Davis 1978

 

           

 

           

 

 

 

 

 

Stevie Love -Terra Firma

Stevie Love
"Fantascapes" 
June 8- July 5, 2019

Metro Gallery
119 W. 2nd St.
Pomona, CA 91766

Stevie Love is a Los Angelino from start to finish.  Her art work embraces the essence of the southern California landscape with its traditions of her family's Italian ancestry combined with the existing Mexican and Native American sensibilities.  The warm, sensuous hues soaked in Latin history, pass through the landscapes-their flora and fauna.  Love creates from her subconscious and brings it forth into non-traditional landscapes and quilts.  Love is a strong feminist growing up in the l960's when civil rights and women's rights were in the forefront.  Her work is influenced by women that came before her such as Eve Hesse's inclusion of viscosity and Miriam Schapiro's quilts and irregular formats.  

Forest Bathing / Shinrin Yoku

Loren Philip and Tomoaki Shibata

Year One
November 9-27, 2018

Curated by: Peter Frank

Castelli Art Space
5428 W. Washington Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 

by: Sandra Vista

Forest Bathing/ Shinrin Yoku

The twelve large scale collaborative paintings, on drop cloth, are installed to envelop and bathe the participants in a forest of barrier free sensations.  Philip said that most of the paintings began with intersecting lines of black ink.  The broad gestural movements defer to previous abstract expressionists like Franz Kline and Jackson Pollack and Automatists/Surrealists like Joan Miro and Max Ernst.  

For the past two years Philip and Shibata have worked in Philip's studio between four and eight hour sessions.   They riffed on each other's unconscious- dynamic marks until they felt each painting was complete.  The cooperative paintings still allow for each artist's personal marks and palettes to be represented.  Philip's signature, cobalt/ultramarine, lavish slathers float throughout the paintings.  Shibata's delicate line drawings of caricature-like figures appear at varied scales.  Notably, Shibata's marks are poetry and music that have been developing throughout his creative lifetime.  

Forest bathing / Shinrin Yoku is a form of forest therapy medicine that allows for people to simply bask in the atmosphere of a forest.  When I saw a photograph of myself at the exhibition, I recalled what it felt like to breathe the healing air with trees that have existed for many human lifetimes.  The psychic emotional exchange that the artists shared during the development of each painting is a taste of this experience. 

John Valadez - Los Angeleno Artist Treasure "Tesoro"- Puro de Verdad

John Valadez - No One More Magical
November 1-7, 2018 

Castelli Art Space
5428 Washington Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90016

curated by: Isabel Rojas-Williams

by Sandra Vista


Los Angeleno Artist Treasure "Tesoro"- Puro de Verdad

"Piernas Anime" 2017 oil on canvas 108"x 70"

Valadez is a ceremonial "keeper of the flame"- an artist who documents the sky and the earth of people of Los Angeles.  Primarily, Valadez focuses on the communities of East Los Angeles-the Los Angelenos with a defined Mexican-American style.  He says he is never going to retire.  It would be impossible for him stop the fire from burning.  His insightful, heart wrenching, art work, serves to feed him, the community he represents, and the art devotees privileged to experience his art work.  In "Piernas Anime", (Legs Anime), the "beach girls" are walking off the canvas, plopping their high heels and wedges into the wet sand.  West side surfer girls have particular styles-perhaps Roxy and Vans.  These girls, that appear to vacillate from the past and the future, give us a glimpse of an alternative beach attire that is puro Los Angeles tambien.

Valadez' current exhibit invites us to see varied mixed-media, collages, digital prints and paintings.  There are collages, on faux newsprint, of "pulp Mexican novellas" with traditional Mexican iconography of Dia de Los Muertos.  Additionally, there are digital prints of downtown Los Angeles bodegas, Pop-graffiti on doors and buildings, and illuminating deference for the Native American and Chicano culture.  

John Valadez, Isabel Rojas-Williams (curator), Carlos Iglesias (director)

One of Us

GLITTER B A N G...

GLITTER
Group Show
Curators: Kelly Thompson and Stephanie Allespach
Jan 13-Feb 3, 2018

Cactus Gallery
3001 N. Coolidge Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90039
www.cactusgalleryla.com

 

Trix by Ted Meyer

"Trix are for kids..." When I heard that expression it was okay to eat sugary morning cereal.  The GLITTER GROUP SHOW is a whimsical, fanciful exhibition designed to bring a smile for the new year.  Many of the pieces, as with Ted Meyer's "Trix" and "Frosted Flakes" are Pop Art based. The element of glitter itself is part of popular culture in children's crafts, make-up, and costumes.  Glitter is known to exist in cave paintings, and the ceremonial makeup of the Native Americans.  

Sandra Mastroianni, director of Cactus Gallery says she exhibits art for the people.  Much of art is designed for the fledgling art collectors.  

Douglas Alvarez

Terri Berman  (Wildcat)

 L to R : Love is Possible-Martina Moreno, Jill Emery-Sallygotsthe Emery, Baha H. Danesh, Holly Topping, Carolyn Castano, Denise Bledsoe, Douglas Alvarez & Opal Unicorn - Laura Castellanos

Stephanie Allespach- co-curator and Glitter piece

from L to R: Andrea Bogdan, Kelly Brumfield-Woods, Eden Folwell, Stephanie Allespach, Evad Art and Sue Zola, Kelly Thompson, Sydney Croskery and Ted Meyer

ABSTRACT POWER- IDIOSYNCRASIES

Idiosyncrasies

by: Sandra Vista

Loren Philip is a Los Angeles based abstract artist who is part of Coagula Curatorial's "New Curator's Series".  After sessions with Mat Gleason, art director, the artists have an opportunity for a hands-on experience of curating their own exhibitions.  When I visited Philip's studio last month, he described the method in which he was designing his own abstract art group exhibition.  He has been a "fan" and supporter of the artists he chose for his exhibition.  He mentioned discovering Jimi Gleason's illuminating paintings and meeting him at William Turner Gallery.  Philip was overwhelmed and honored when Gleason was open to being in his group show.  

Jimi Gleason

Philip's selection of abstract artists is defined by their idiosyncrasies.  Jimi Gleason's abstract painting with a metallic scalene triangle, no lines are equal,  shines like glitter from ancient Egyptian beetles.  The metallic form invites memories of using colors from nature.   As an abstract artist he allows for the viewers to make up their story.  The placement of  metallic collage and stained canvas release a sacramental image which is an idiosyncratic element of abstract art and connections with spiritual realms.

Philip designed the placement of the paintings into a quasi-color wheel that begins in the entry of the gallery.  To the right is Philip's painting which consists of various shades of oceanic cool blues.  Proceeding clockwise is Gleason's painting with earth tones and complementary orange to Philip's blue.  The strong contrasts, the production of afterimages, support the title of "Abstract Power".  

 Steve Seleska's painting continues the connection with magenta-blue hues marbleized and interwoven on the surface of his work.  With Philip's devotion to the ocean in his art work and lifestyle, he would obviously be attracted to Seleska's textural plankton forms cautiously emerging from the depths.   

Steve Seleska

Farzad Kohan has two paintings in the show that combine an abstracted " language of the heart" as the primary element of the color field.  The haptic, lachrymose, marks of Crazy for You exude passion and sensuality.  Kohan's stains of purple and blue become an extension of Seleska's painting and Philip's palette of fluid blues and white gestural marks.  Kohan's My Love consisting of magenta and pink hues is reminiscent of the romantic side of  Philip's paintings.  Philip attributes the love of his wife and daughter as a vital component for his painting practice.

Farzad Kohan Crazy for You

Farzad Kohan My Love

Emily Elisa Halpern's mossy green hues-a glimpse of nature and its lyrical dance, also relate to Philip's poetic and romantic nature in his art.  Halpern's painting also complements Kohan's pastel pinks and engages Michael Torquato DeNicola's two dynamic paintings of bold warm hues. 

DeNicola's stated that he works and reworks his paintings which are evident in the mosaic-like forms that ascend and descend.  His creative diligence is an architectural fete of alchemy.  DeNicola and Philip are brothers in arms in their allegiance, medicinal and spiritual realm of surfing and the purification of the ocean. 

Philip's maiden voyage combined artists whose creative idiosyncrasies are independent voices that became an extension of his artistic practice and fervor.

Emily Elisa Halpern

P I N K is Primordial

PINK- POP UP SHOW
32 Artists 
Curated by William Wray and Carlos Iglesias

Castelli Art Space
5428 W. Washington Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90016
www.castelliartspace.com

310-204-6830

Nov.30  - Dec 10, 2017  (extended dates)

by Sandra Vista

PINK is Primordial 

ARON WIESENFELD, ASHLEY WOOD, ANDREA BOGDAN, BILL BARMINSKI, BRADFORD J. SALAMON, CHRIS RECCARDI, DAVID BUCKINGHAM, DAVE COOPER, DAVID LIPSON, DAVID SHARPE, ESCOTO + CARRARA, GIG DEPIO, GLENN BARR, GORDON SMEDT, GRONK, JENNIFER POCHINSKI, JOHN BROSIO, JORGE PINZON CASAS-BUENAS, LOIC ZIMMERMAN, MARK ENGLISH, MICHAEL FLECHTNER, NOAH BECKER, PABLO LLANA, PAT RIOT, RAFAEL SERRANO, ROBERT SOFFIAN, SEONNA HONG, SHEPARD FAIREY, SEAN CHEETHAM, STEVEN SKOLLAR, WILLIAM WRAY, WYATT MILLS

Michael Flechtner  "PINK" neon on plywood

The curators' theme of using "pink" as a color or concept opened up a personality of art works.  The color pink is delicious, friendly, a valentine, love, romance, lust, and whimsy to name a few.  Many of these pieces combine whimsy with topical messages such as birth control, homelessness, entrepreneurial feats, immigration, racism, evolution of pop art, and neo-surrealism.

During my visit to the gallery I was able to get some personal insight from Carlos Iglesias, one of the curators.  Poignant moments are William Wray's  Pretty and Pink Superman.  A weary-gaunt superman is portrayed defeated and collapsed against an undefined corner somewhere in West Hollywood.  This man is in league with other street entertainers whose livelihood depends on tourists photographing them in their superhero costumes.  Batmans, Chewbaccas, Wonder Women, and Darth Vaders are entrepreneurs by necessity on the streets of  West Hollywood and  Hollywood near Grumman's Chinese Theatre.  The man behind the mask is dealing with economic challenges that affect his physical and mental well-being. Iglesias said that this was an actual person who possibly had shelter but was struggling for daily existence. The white space equates his homelessness and his pain.  It seems like his only possession is the superman costume.  Lichtenstein's comic book dots introduce the pop quality of the superman image.  

Gordon Smedt's  Super Pink  also uses a familiar pop fashion staple of  a superman t-shirt with  pink hoodie sweatshirt. The hoodie and t-shirt are a current uniform of the Millennials usurped from  Gen-Xers etc.  Super Pink exalts America's unique way of abstracting fashion from popular culture and the sports world.  Super Pink is a true-blue American portrait that Americans try to imitate and other parts of the world see as freedom.

Pretty In Pink by William Wray

Super Pink by Gordon Smedt

Mouthful by Pablo Ilana

Mouthful by Pablo Ilana combines pop imagery reminiscent of Claus Oldenburg's sculptures from The Store 1961-62.  Ilana, an artist from Tijuana, Mexico, created this piece specifically for the show.  The sculpture is collaged with candy wrappers from American candies like Kit Kat and Mounds.  Iglesias stated that some of the Mexican candy actually is imported from the United States to Mexico under the guise of Mexican products.  He said there was an irony with America producing and sharing sweets topped off with wanting to build a wall.   Ilana's whimsical, childhood pinata-style sculpture uses the pink theme to make a powerful statement about the conflicting messages and practices that occur on a daily basis on the Mexican border with people trying to survive and also enjoy simple joys like sweets. 

Stealth "Pink" slipped in condoms for $5. with donations going to Planned Parenthood.  Also, a monolithic "S" shaped sculpture by Pat Riot, Fertility_Futility Totem 1,  contained pattern grids created by rows of nailed pink condoms.  The advertising of condoms for protection against STD's is possibly being placed at the bottom of the health care pile.  Condoms used to be available in large bowls in night clubs in the 1980's and early 1990's.  This sculpture reminds us to protect our health, that we have choices with our bodies and sardonically, is it worth the fight. 

Fertility_Futility Totem 1 by Pat Riot

The non-literal-PINK-artists created works that were competing magnetically.   Viewers seemed to curiously yield to art work that did not scream PINK.  Hera of the New World by Glenn Barr portrays various rusting , colliding, vehicles that play a part in an apocalyptic experience.  The overall painting reflects pinkish hues, a bi-product of nature's corrosion. The painting by Rafael Serrano, Untitled, and the drawing by Robert Soffian, World of Letters, created ethereal works that say: PINK is primordial. Soffian's work appears like a primeval topography indicating life forms from the beginning of time.  Serrano devotes his images to natural flora forms combined with geometrical drawings that exist parallel to nature.  Serrano's painting is also a map to finding the answers in nature. 

  

The expansive exhibit also contains three dimensional assemblage robots, such as Mallory by David Lipson, 3-D portrait, Pink Head of William Wray by Bradford J. Salamon, and personal portraiture like Jennifer Pochinski's Jackie, which depicts a PINK girl and her dog.   

Hera of the New World by Glenn Barr

World of Letters by Robert Soffian

Untitled by Rafael Serrano

Jackie by Jennifer Pochinski

Pink Head of William Wray by Bradford  J. Salamon

Untitled  by Noah Becker with Shana Nys Dambort