My Personal Picks of the 2016 LA Art Show - By Cindy Yeoman
The beauty of the Los Angeles Art Show is its accessibility to a wide range of investors and visitors. Despite a significant showing of international galleries, this years show was distinctly LA in all its eclectic glory. Visitors reveled in over the top performance art played out in all corners of the venue. Artists were on hand to generously share their artistic process and gallery directors were affable and welcoming. It was essentially an LA party with some pretty decent art on show. With that in mind my picks this year are distinctly SoCal* with my star pick of the show being the only exception.
No piece spells SoCal more than California artist, Jason Avery’s Xanax and Cola. As mid century styling takes center stage in design circles, this piece captures the low-slung California ranch house with the confidently cool LA girl taking center stage. It was no surprise seeing a sold sticker on this piece early in the show.
Mexican born LA import, Miguel Osuna’s ‘Suggested Serving’ is a beautifully kinetic work painted in a pearlescent blue oil pigment. There is fluidity to his brushwork that is hypnotic as the reflections of light play on the shapes he creates. Alongside other exhibiting artists, he was on hand to interact with his audience, a valuable an oft-missing element at these shows.
Julio Reyes is an important artist who creates important work. LA born and raised, many of his works capture the soul of the city’s residents, people who persevere through adversity, sorrow and uncertainty. ‘The Falconer’ is a stunningly crafted work with its mix of realism and abstract, its balance of color and a narrative evoked by its subject matter. This work took center stage in a quality lineup at Arcadia Contemporary this year. Good news for LA is that Arcadia is in the process of migrating to the city from New York.
Los Angeles is the beneficiary to a vast diaspora of immigrant artists in and around the city. One such artist is Russian born Zhenya Gershman. Her large-scale portraiture is created with the perfect blend of classical technique and modern attitude. Her exquisite use of light and shadow in ‘Bereshit’ speaks to her vast knowledge and study of the Dutch master, Rembrandt.
Andy Burgess drew in the crowds with his group of hard edge, graphic studies of California homes. In 'California Cool' (as in all his works) each color is carefully rendered in vivid brights alongside meticulously assigned neutrals. His color vocabulary is impressive especially in his depiction of water.
The work of Malcolm T. Liepke has graced the LA art scene for many years. A prolific artist, he is a fixture at the show every year. The gesture, flow and mastery of color in ‘Cover Up’ had this artist resisting a powerful urge to bring the work home.
Set apart and on the periphery of the exhibit, as if somehow disconnected from the show was ‘The Poacher’, a large-scale work by Swedish born, Odd Nerdrum. I have studied his work for years. So it was with immense pleasure that I got to study one up close. In my opinion he is the closest artist we have to a modern day Rembrandt. For me, from a purely artist’s point of view and differentiated from the SoCal vein of this blog, it was the star of the show.
The beauty of the LA Art Show is that it has something for everyone. In many ways it echoes the diversity and inclusivity of its host city, as it seamlessly blends modern/contemporary and vintage art in one venue. The Show exhibits both marginal and skillful artworks alongside the other and keeps crowds of all ages coming back for more each year.
* SoCal – (Southern California)