Opening tonight at Marcas Contemporary Art, whose exhibits we’ve been covering a lot lately, is “Smoke & Mirrors” curated by artist Steven Daily and Dana Jazayeri. The intention is to share “trending” themes among known and unknown contemporary artists of varying aesthetics. Rarely do you see pairings like Fumi Nakamura, known for her delicate figurative illustrations (covered here), alongside the pop-culture infused work of street artist Tristan Eaton (here). Other artists like Andrew Hem, Tom Garner, and Grady Gordon, credit inspiration as wide ranging as Italian classical painting and Japanese Anime, which might sound miss-matched. However, collectively, they provide a sense of the future. There is a cleverless that owes to the show’s title, a metaphor for something that isn’t what it seems. Daily adds, “Smoke and mirrors is a term that is used in an un-said way to describe the way disinformation is used to promote or gain hype.” Based on this preview, the place their generation is going is full of personal symbolism mixed with references to modern issues, all with elements of fantasy.
“Smoke & Mirrors opens Saturday, September 6th at Marcas Contemporary Art’s new Santa Ana gallery.
Tristan Eaton
Tom Garner
Tim Musso
Tim Musso (detail)
Andrew Hem
JeanPaul Malozzi
CT Nelson
