Brian Randolph at Odd Ark LA

Brian Randolph’s drawings, on view at Odd Ark in his solo show “The Septum,” contain palpable energy. The artist begins by drawing grids onto white paper that he then fills with serpentine filigrees that wind and overlap in methodical columns. The deeply-hued colors backgrounding his linework are applied corner to corner with colored pencils, which the artist buffs out to create a subtle sheen. The curvaceous lines have the density and precision of op art, yet there is a subtle intimacy that can be felt through the slight inconsistencies and gentle color gradations. It’s as if the artist’s own meditative and focused energy while creating these works gets transferred to the viewer via some alchemical magic.

The artist explains in the press release that he chose the split composition for this show to represent “the connection between two people, and the sense of our ever-forking path, the choice we are presented with each moment. … Our experience is a binary of hemispheres, always bonded and facing each other in a critical feedback relationship with one another, amounting to what we mostly experience as a unified whole.”