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The New Contemporary Art Magazine
In a show titled "Posthumorous / Post Mort ’em," La Luz de Jesus looks back at the work of Click Mort, who passed away last year. Mort, known for his “recapitated figures,” crafted humorous, hybrid ceramic sculptures from existing pieces. He was featured in Hi-Fructose Vol. 34 and was last featured on our site here.
Hi-Fructose co-founder Annie Owens assembles a new body of work in "A Place Worth Knowing," a new show at La Luz De Jesus Gallery in Los Angeles. The title of this collection of watercolor works comes from Algernon Blackwood, a favorite author of the artist: “No place worth knowing yields itself at sight, and those the least inviting on first view may leave the most haunting pictures upon the walls of memory.” In her statement, Owens offers some insight on the figures found across her pieces. The show kicks off Aug. 4 and runs through Aug. 28.
Daria Theodora
The 31st annual group show at La Luz De Jesus Gallery, titled Laluzapalooza 2017, brings 130 pieces from 64 artists into the space. There's no theme to the enormous salon-style show, just a broad Post-Pop experience. The gallery says it sorted through thousands of submissions from “commercial illustrators, graphic designers, tattooists, scenics, students, street taggers, animators, and working gallery artists” to get to the final line-up.
American artist Renée French draws endearing portraits of bizarre creatures that look like dark versions of fairytale characters. First featured in an insert for Hi-Fructose Vol. 35, French considers herself a "graphite addict", who keeps a child-like innocence about her adult graphic novelist and comics rooted works. Her fantastical imagery is in part inspired by Netherlandish painter Hieronymus Bosch, especially the macabre and nightmarish depictions within his fanciful world. She will debut her latest series at La Luz de Jesus gallery in Los Angeles on October 2nd.
Scott Hove's (Hi-Fructose Collected 3) art is much more than just three dimensional cake- it also tells story. His former studio in San Francisco, better known as "Cakeland", featured a funhouse made of sweet, yet nightmarish cake sculptures. Now living and working in Los Angeles, Hove brings a piece of Cakeland to his current exhibition, "Pussy Jihad" at La Luz de Jesus Gallery. This exhibit plays with opposing ideals in society, while taking a look at the ethos of masculinity and femininity.
Closing this weekend is La Luz de Jesus gallery's juried show, "Laluzapalooza", which sets out to find and highlight new names from the LA art scene each year. Since the '80s, this exhibition has seen several iterations and thousands of submissions spanning kitsch to pop culture and La Luz's claim to fame, Pop Surrealism. This year's installment is as eclectic as ever with a focus on labor-intensive work of all mediums. Take a look at our photos from the show after the jump!
Some of you may be familiar with the creepy-cute paintings of Miso- she spent the majority of last year exhibiting under her real name, Karen Hsiao (featured here). To accomodate her variety of styles, Hsiao created her "Miso" namesake, under which she exhibits surrealistic works inspired by biology and the unkown. Her upcoming solo show at La Luz de Jesus, "Cornucopia", reduces her already tiny paintings to an even smaller scale.
On Friday, La Luz de Jesus gallery invited viewers to reflect on how we see ourselves with their group exhibit, "Temple of Art". The evening also celebrated the Baby Tattoo book release of the same name, the brain-child of photographer Allan Amato who has taken interest in photographing over 50 fine artists. Many of them have been featured on our blog recently, and will be familiar to Hi-Fructose readers; Christine Wu, Dan Quintana, Hueman, Junko Mizuno, Karen Hsiao, Ken Garduno, Kent Williams, Shaun Berke, Stephanie Inagaki, just to name a few.
Photographer Allan Amato's "Temple of Art" is a series of portraits of fine artists over two years in the making. His black and white images provided the canvas onto which the subject was encouraged to interpret his or her likeness. You could say these are artists who look like their art; Jasmine Worth shares the regal quality of her Madonnas, Danni Shinya Luo has the grace of her watercolors, and so on. Opening December 5th at La Luz de Jesus, their collaborative exhibition enhances their personal characteristics and quirks.
Stephanie Inagaki truly is a reflection of her art, and her art imitates the eclectic life around her. She is a Japanese artist living and working in Los Angeles, who we’ve previously featured here, and a well traveled individual with influences borrowed from various world cultures. Her charming studio is like a temple filled with these souvenirs, photographs of friends, her favorite art books, even her furniture has a deeply personal history. All of it provides the inspiration for her revealing and abstract charcoal self portraits. We caught up with her to learn more about why she exposes herself this way.
Nothing ever remains the same. That is the theme of “Seasons Change”, a new body of work by Philadelphia based artist Chris B. Murray (previously featured here) on view at La Luz de Jesus gallery. Murray’s style lies in his eclectic creative influence and color palette. Never predictable, Murray is always testing his own personal boundaries. “If change or growth doesn’t take place than it dies,” Murray shares. “To be alive and to truly experience life as it’s meant to be experienced I feel that people must always challenge themselves and evaluate their choices and how they affect people and their surroundings.” Read more after the jump.
Like it or not, taxidermy art has been around for generations and is a fascinating genre. Now on view at La Luz de Jesus Gallery is their 3rd Biennial Taxidermy Show which honors these surprisingly opulent and sometimes horrific specimens. It’s important to note that they were sourced ethically, meaning no animals were killed during the creation of the artwork. Don’t be quick to assume that these artists are glamorizing death. Ironically, they breathe new life into the form and capture a moment in time.