New James Jean Works, in Los Angeles Thru April 30th

We peeked into the Martha Otero Gallery in LA for James Jean's new exhibit, titled "Rebus". 
From the web - "A rebus (Latin: "by things") is a kind of word puzzle that uses pictures to represent words or parts of words. The term rebus also refers to the use of a pictogram to represent a syllabic sound."


Hadn't been to this gallery before, it is a nice space kinda tucked away on Fairfax, right above Melrose. James had painted most of the walls, before installing his works, with a wonderful light whimsy of free flowing organic narratives. The images made me feel like I was in Tolkien's hobbit land. Most of the large paintings are more abstract and symbolic; less representational than his prior works. They crossed over into a wonderful, dreamlike surrealism with a more ambiguous nature; a daring and ballsy exhibit, straying far from his more commercial earlier works.

Of the paintings, the mainly black and white -"Recumbent" (below) was my favorite by far, a masterpiece of sensuous smears of paint and emotions.

The drawings (below) were our overall favorites from the show, we stood in front of them for a good long time and enjoyed every errant graphite stroke. They had a warmer, fun freedom the paintings didn't convey. The show is up thru the end of April, 2011, so check it out if you can. 

For all the pictures from the gallery click here.

Eclectix Volume 7 On "Paper & Art"

Paper & Art

Eclectix, Volume 7

This issue is all about paper and art. Torn, sliced and/or diced. Books, sheets, cardboard, scrolls and objects. Glued, molded,  drawn on, folded, collaged and sculpted.

For the ongoing exhibition and gallery click here. 

For new homepage related posts, updated weekly, click here.

Our Top Picks From "Light/Dark" at the Berkeley Art Center

Eclectix visited the packed opening of "Light/Dark" at the Berkeley Art Center. There are a large number of really nice pieces in this show, we selected only our favorites here. ( Of course, favorites are once again edited by the ability to get a good photo.) From the Center's info for the show - "Chosen from a submission pool of nearly 100 members of the California Society of Printmakers and selected by renowned Bay Area printmaker Enrique Chagoya, this exhibition features 53 works from 53 artists encompassing a range of styles and approaches based in the print medium." There were images representing almost all printmaking techniques - etchings, woodblocks, mono prints, lithographs, silkscreens and so much more. This eclectic and worth-seeing show is up thru May 29th, check the website for hours.

Artists Exhibiting: David Avery, Peter Baczek, Priscilla Birge, Karen Brussat Butler, Gary Comoglio, Noriko Constant, Jessica Dunne, Beth Fein, Peter Foley, Barbara Foster, Linda Fribley, Dan Harrison, Art Hazelwood, Maj Britt Hilstrom, Nif Hodgson, Jack Jacobson, Elizabeth Jameson, Debra Jewel, Mike Kimball, K. Kuster, Dixie Laws, Anthony Lazorko, Peter Leone McCormick, Roberta Loach, Leslie Lowinger, Janet Mackaig, Valerie Magee, Maggie Malloy, Luz Marina Ruiz, Barbara Milman, Julia Nelson-Gal, Russell Pachman, Adam Pitt, Carrie Ann Plank, Pat Prosek, Jenny Robinson, Deborah Sibony, Robynn Smith, Maryly Snow, Sylvia Solochek Walters, Herlinde Spahr, Barbara Strikker, Toru Sugita, Elizabeth Tana, Susana Terrell, Jerry Theobald, Susan Trubow, Fran Valesco, Katherine Venturelli, Peter Villasenor, Mark Welschmeyer, George Woodward, Mark Zaffron.

NEW INTERVIEW: With Delphyne Veyrat D' Urbet

Floored by a random piece of Dephyne’s art on FaceBook one day - I had to immediately “friend” her to see more. She lives in Paris, France and just visited the States and the surreal “Dystopia” show in LA. Was very surprised to not see her work in that show,  she would have been my first pick!  Dephyne paints incredible modern surrealist imagery - part morbid Goth, part Max Ernst, part Dali, part Yves Tanguy - but with a woman’s touch. In mainly black and white and some vivid reds, they feel like twisted, struggling Valentines gone awry. Changing, designing and molding body parts into fluid, volumes of dislocated anatomic parts - beautiful in their graceful dances. Delphyne kindly consented to do an interview with Eclectix and struggled to translate our questions and her answers. She has a fantastic grasp of English, (a very good thing) because we know zilch French. After a bit of re-wording to convey her thoughts, here is the final product, sometimes a bit different in phrasing than normal - but that makes it all the more wonderful.

1. My favorite art memory from my childhood is ... I'll choose my very first one, which had a powerful impact. It's a memory of sounds and floating images -  my first movie ever, (that I saw at the cinema)- "Fantasia".

I remember how strongly the classical music affected me. Riveting me to the bottom of my seat, my eyes wide open staring up at the screen. I was scared yet fascinated - by the darkness fighting with blinding brightness, the  messy, flying liquids, the bubbles emulating with crazy stars and, most importantly - the huge lightness of everything...  I was 5 year's old.

For the rest of the interview, please go here.

MUST SEE L.A.: Camille Rose Garcia Show Ends This Saturday! Eclectix Took Some Detail Shots To Share

Camille's current exhibit at the Michael Kohn Gallery in Los Angeles, is not to be missed. I was left stunned and gasping by the quality, imagination and execution of her latest body of works - "Snow White and the Black Lagoon".  These works can take the wind out of any artist's sails by their sheer magnificence. Not to say that I am not a HUGE fan of all her prior works, but this show exceeded all expectations and was just incredibly beautiful and moving.


Really loved her ink and paper works, as well as the larger paintings, the flow and ease of her stroke just kidnaps the viewer down a river of imagination. In the paintings - she detailed and pimped out every square inch, nothing was left wanting more. I am not sure but I think she actually painted in the wood grain in the backgrounds! To top it all off they glistened and sparkled with thick layers of glossy marine resin. Since there are a lot of images of the entire paintings out there on the web, I thought I would just share a lot of cropped, detail shots with you.  The web often lacks a close enough look at artist's works to see technique and Camille's eye candy deserves a scrumptious study. Go see this show if it's the only one you go to this year! It closes Saturday - April 9th, 2011.

Wood grain detail

And her elegant paper works, below...

New Art: JennyBird Alcantara's Glass House Girls

Had to share this friggin' utterly fantastic new piece by JennyBird Alcantara. It is for the upcoming La Luz de Jesus Gallery, 25 year anniversary show in Oct. and Nov., 2011. They will be creating a book of all the work for this extraordinary show and Eclectix thinks this should be the cover! What do you think?

It is oil on wood and titled 'Glass House Girls Make Good Warriors" The unframed size is 15"x23" Please contact the gallery if you are interested in this work.

http://www.laluzdejesus.com/

Love Rabbit Art? A Twisted Spring In Your Step? The INLE Show Is For You...

The INLE Exhibit at 1988 Gallery (Melrose Ave.) in L.A. is one of the best art events going on right now. It is a show based on the novel "Watership Down" and the anti-hero, a rabbit named "Inle". There are over a hundred works in this show, cannot begin to name all the fantastic artists here - most familiar and some not. The walls are stacked salon style - spend at least an hour if not two, let your eyes feast on the candy. Check the gallery's site for all the artist's names, please. You will be astonished at the caliber of work in this show. The show is curated very well by Greg Simkins (who also has a killer piece in the show.) Even with the huge amount of wonderful art and eclectic styles and medias - there are only a few I personally wouldn't have hung. This is saying a lot, folks! All the art is online here .
You can see it in person, highly recommended,  thru April 8th - don't miss this one! A great spring thing to do with friends and a phenomenal selection of originals to select from, for your own walls.