“Artist David Orr is engrossed in the pursuit of knowledge, seeking through study and experiment the mandalic systems that form the natural order of the universe. Like a host of artists, musicians, philosophers, and scientists whose investigations into everything from the atom to the psyche to the weather have progressed human insight for millennia, Orr is omnivorous in his curiosity and eclectic in his expressions. At the heart of his visual art is a layered process of observation and interpretive design that yields compelling patterns giving shape to invisible forces—mandala-like and meditative, responsive to sacred geometry, and availing of digital cosmology. An exhibition of Orr’s new work in photography and video opens this week in Santa Monica, offering a space of wonderment and reset at the start of a new year.” — Shana Nys Dambrot, LA Weekly
Read moreMeet an Artist Monday: Benjamin Lowder (LA Weekly)
“Benjamin Lowder is known for a unique sculptural and wall-works practice metamorphosing repurposed salvaged materials like vintage signs and weathered barn-wood into complex patterns expressing celestial sacred geometry and deconstructing the visual mechanics of language. The objects are tactile, emotionally warm and rich with nostalgia, even as they actively rearrange the energy patterns of the spaces they occupy. A new show of way-finding totems opens this weekend at Open Mind Art Space in Santa Monica.”
- Shana Nys Dambrot for LA Weekly
Read moreMeet an Artist Monday: Mixed Media by Andre Yi (LA Weekly)
“‘Meet an Artist Monday’ is an ongoing series of mini Q&As with some of L.A.’s most active and eclectic contemporary artists, introducing themselves to you in their own words. This week, we meet mixed-media artist Andre Yi, whose practice involves aspects of sculpture, painting, drawing, assemblage and collage.” - Shana Nys Dambrot for LA Weekly
Read moreExhibition Review: Andre Yi, "Obliterate" (Art and Cake)
“Before turning to sculpture, Andre Yi created delicate paintings and drawings. His early works were detailed renderings of natural and architectural elements centered in large expanses of soft color, often juxtaposed with swirling ribbon shaped white lines that suggested flowing rivers… Imagining a progression, it is possible to see the trajectory from Yi’s paintings which were becoming more abstracted while remaining two-dimensional, to his current constructions. It is as if the trees and the background disappeared leaving just the geometric shapes.” - Jody Zellen for Art and Cake
Read more7 Artists Reinventing the Ancient Art of Mosaics (Artsy)
Rather than the traditional glass or stone, Lowder’s mosaics are composed of reclaimed wood, often sourced from barns, and metal signage—materials that reflect his Midwestern milieu. In some, bits of hand-lettered typography appear in a reorganized jumble. It’s like looking at an old country store through a kaleidoscope. And yet, references to religious icons and celestial phenomena suggest a sort of spiritual geometry, taking Lowder’s compositions beyond remixed Americana. They’re more reminiscent of the diagrams in illuminated medieval manuscripts.
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