Susanne Vielmetter’s Gallery

Susanne Vielmetter’s Gallery located in the heart of Los Angeles is small and quaint. The building shares the same qualities as what a warehouse looks like, and the roof looks as if it is under some kind of construction. There are a total of two rooms each with different shows inside. The first room was dark and had almost a gloomy feel. This room held the exhibit created by Edgar Arceneaux called “A Book and a Medal: Disentanglement Equals Homogenous Abstractions”. All of these works in the first room were black and white, whereas the second room had the complete opposite look and feel. 

The second show room was bright in light and colors. This room carried the exhibit created by Ryan Mosley called “Band of None”. The paintings were vibrant in a rainbow of variety of colors and the walls were pure white unlike the first room, which was shadowed by the darkness of the room.

The placement of the paintings and works in the first room were wacky. There was a barn like box covering a TV on the floor. One can barely make out the video underneath the box. The feel of the first room felt like dehumanization. There was a video of a gorilla person crawling through a mass of city destruction and in the background was a speech from Martin Luther King. In the front room some of the pieces were eye level, but a good majority were either on the floor or high up off the ground. 

Viewing the exhibitions from online one can get a sense of feeling of how the actual show feels like. It is very accessible and easy to find the different exhibits to look at online. When you get to Edgar’s show the first three photos shown give the sense of darkness feeling in the room and it shows a great perspective of what the actual gallery looks like. Although, the pictures following those are definitely lightened and do not look like that in person. The first room has a much darker tone and feel than that is portrayed online. Unlike Edgar’s exhibit, Ryan Mosley’s exhibit was presented exactly how it looks in person as it is shown online. The colors are vibrant and the lightness of the room is depicted perfectly through the photos shown online.

The meaning behind these exhibits and shows cannot easily be understood either in the gallery or online. There isn’t any background information behind the artists in the gallery next to the pieces or online, which enables the viewer online and the audience in the gallery to try and interpret the meanings behind the pieces on their own. Overall, it was a very compelling gallery to visit with though-provoking artwork.

A Not So Scary Halloween

The piece titled Halloween is an incredible composition created by the artist Max Maslansky. Max has two works in the “Sniff The Space Flat On Your Face” gallery show at Chapman University. He produced this work of art on a queen-sized bed and the surface was made up of bed sheet and silk measured by 80 x 60 inches. Similarly, Max’s other piece, Carry-On, which is also in the show, was created on a 75 x 38 inch twin bed with the bed sheet as the surface. The medium for both paintings is acrylic.

The painting Halloween which is shown above is going to be the main focus of this review. The tone of this piece is very calming due to the soft cool colors that are flourishing within the whole painting. The colors are very watered down and opaque causing an emphasis of a soothing feeling for the audience. The painting consists of two ghost-like individuals in very sensual outfits. They appear to be women and are wearing pure white high heals with black stockings. The top of their body looks as if it’s just a white sheet covering them. Over where the breasts would be are two see through parts of fabric that Max decided not to paint over. The bodies are outlined in yellow, which happens to be the only warm color that is in the painting. In the middle there is an unidentified individual with no shirt on and only a cool colored violet skirt on. The face of this person could either be considered male or female, and the expressions on the three faces are neutral and up for one’s own interpretation. The individual in the middle is wearing similar high heals, but in the same cool violet color as the skirt. On the very top there is what seems to resemble a witches hat in black. This person is also outlined in yellow just like the ghosts besides her. The background is abstract and colored in the same cool blue, purple, and green tones as the rest of the painting.

The placement of this work is on the back left wall of the gallery and low enough for the top of your head to be in line with the middle of the painting giving the audience a clear view to admire the whole piece. The wall behind it is white, therefore giving this piece the attention it rightfully deserves.

Halloween is a unique piece in many different aspects. With some reasons being why did the artist chose to paint this piece on bed sheets, and the reasons why he left two parts of it see through or otherwise could be thought to be as incomplete. Max Maslansky is definitely an abstract and conceptual artist. The meaning behind this very painting is, in my opinion, difficult to understand and one can make up many different meanings behind what this piece is supposed to represent. Due to this, I believe that Max Maslansky did a very successful job of capturing the audience’s attention in this show.