Crucifixion Variations

Detail of Financial Sacrifice American Depress by Ron English

Over half a year has passed since last I wrote about an exhibit at the Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City, which is an inexcusably long time, especially since they have had so many awesome shows on exhibit. Well, I made a trip over to see their current show, Crucifixion, which presents works by a selection of their artists on the topic of sacrifice and sacred iconography. The variations were extremely interesting.

Although the images ranged from the haunting to the humorous, the theme was tightly represented by the artists, each in their own unique way. So, Ron English delivers upon the theme of sacrifice, while keeping true to his distinct imagery of social criticism. Likewise, Buff Monster subverts traditional Christian symbolism with anthropomorphic pink ice cream cones, turning a scene of devotion into one of humor.

Across the board, this show presents the unique vision of the gallery, coherent in theme but so wonderfully diverse in implementation.

Detail of Stigmata by Ray Caesar

I highly recommend paying this show a visit.

Objects in Motion

Detail of The Shallows (2012) by Korin Faught

I had the opportunity to visit the Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City, where the current exhibit is a group show, "Motion: The Art of Movement", which runs until June 30. This blog has featured many of the artists on display in this show, including Eric Joyner, Korin Faught, Ray Caesar, and Sylvia Ji. So, it was a pleasure to see new works from them.

Although I definitely enjoyed the show, I can't say that the theme of "movement" was compellingly explored. Certainly, in some works, there was some sort of obvious physical motion, a rocket ship zooming through space or the wind blowing through the subject's hair. In other works, the movement was psychological, represented by multiple figures or ghostly trailing images. And then there were works that featured compositional techniques that put the eye into a sense of motion, with radiating lines of color or stretched and distorted figures.

Detail of Cold Spell by Billy Norrby

For certain, each piece contained motion, be it physical, psychological, or technical. My question regards premise; is the movement central or incidental to the composition? For me, in too many pieces, the work contained, but was not about, motion.

But that doesn't mean it was a weak show, not by any means. The art was every bit as awesome as I've come to expect at Corey Helford's. Although the ostensible theme is not very compelling, I highly recommend this exhibit; the individual works are strong.

Detail of Space Patrol by Eric Joyner


Of course, I'm always in support of any showcasing of robots and doughnuts. ;-)