Amalia Pica at Tanya Bonakdar

Amalia Pica’s exhibition Accumulations and Overlaps, on view at Tanya Bonakdar, was made during the pandemic. The exhibition captures the clash of family, work, and leisure compressed into domestic space during that time. The main gallery houses Pica’s Stacker series, sculptures that mimic children’s stacking toys, with the wood bases of each stacker mimicking the height of a toddler. But from there, the familiar toy becomes co-opted by an array of household objects, stacked into haphazard yet beautifully balanced arrangements.

In one, a bicycle is turned on its side and strung onto the central pole alongside work clamps, a small shovel, and a watering can. Other materials include a Rolodex, a tambourine, a tennis racket, a springform pan, and a garden hose. The other galleries contain a series of cast bronze paperweights, installed on stacks of computer paper that act as pedestals. Each paperweight is comprised of a mix of objects both domestic and work-related, mixed in with children’s toys. Small animals elegantly balance on tennis balls or rolls of blue tape, made cohesive by the bronze materiality, and suggesting the possibility of balance amidst the juggling of so many things that take place under one roof.

(To receive the full weekly coverage from Lindsay Preston Zappas, subscribe to our Art Insider Newsletter at kcrw.com/newsletters.)

Photo: Amalia Pica, Accumulations and Overlaps (installation view) (2021). Image courtesy of Amalia Pica and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery New York/Los Angeles. Photo: Jeff Mclane.