The Birds and the Beasts

Comments (0) By Shana Nys Dambrot Thursday, Dec 22 2011

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CB1 Gallery

207 W. Fifth St.
Los Angeles, CA 90013

Category: Galleries

Region: Downtown

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Two concurrent exhibitions, "Lisa Adams: Paradise Notwithstanding" and "Osvaldo Trujillo: Someplace Else," are powerful solo shows on their own, but their pairing at downtown's CB1 Gallery is an inspired choice that brings out the best in both. Trujillo's drawings using graphite, color pencil and sometimes ink on paper have a magical quality that simultaneously recalls medieval illuminations and psychedelic folk art. A series of meticulously rendered mandala-like abstractions and metaphysical geometrics are paired with a few remarkably large drawings that contain universes in their swaths of fine detail. Two larger figurative drawings in particular, one of a dragon devouring a castle, add a note of humor and delight without letting go of any of that obsessive style. The new paintings by Lisa Adams also use animals — birds in this case — and they also combine elements of the abstract with meaningful imagery; they've got their fair share of magic, too. Her mixing of materials and styles results in compositions rich in detail and gesture, with aspects of humor and story and more than a little magic. She creates a world in which green and peach squares, spray-painted graffiti, trees with painted bark as thick as the real thing, softly pixelated and slightly nuked skies, and finely painted songbirds gracefully coexist as if in a dream. CB1 Gallery, 207 W. Fifth St., downtwn.; Wed.-Sat., 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Sun., 1-6 p.m., thru Jan. 15. (213) 806.7889, cb1gallery.com.
Wednesdays-Sundays. Starts: Dec. 11. Continues through Jan. 15, 2011