December 2019
MASZKIEWICZ WOOLSEY | ZAPPAS Y ‘M P L N T at Ochi Projects
On view: November 15–December 21, 2019 At Ochi Projects in Mid-City, Karolina Maszkiewicz’s sculptural Woolsey series begins with burnt wood pieces she salvaged from the recent Woolsey Fire in Malibu. Each piece then undergoes sanding and staining before becoming incorporated into idiosyncratic mobiles that seem to echo a fire’s lyric movements. Paired with these in this two-person show are John Zappas’ Y ‘M P L N T works, a series of oil stick drawings on table tops and panels that were sourced from Ikea’s…
Find out more »January 2020
Nick McPhail at Ochi Projects
On view: January 11–February 15, 2020 At Ochi Projects in Mid City, Nick McPhail’s paintings depict neighborhoods of a different sort — the ones nestled high on the hills of L.A. with views that sweep across the landscape. McPhail, who was employed for a time by a landscape architect, depicts the meeting of nature and architecture. These are not scenes of gritty urban L.A. Alluring underpainted colors demarcate and outline McPhail’s modernist structures and landscapes, each possessing a buzzy internal…
Find out more »August 2020
Devin Farrand at Ochi Projects
From KCRW's Lindsay Preston Zappas: Stepping off of busy Washington Boulevard and into Devin Farrand’s exhibition, at Ochi Gallery is like entering a hush-filled chapel. In “Felled Forms,” three large aluminum panels dominate the space with gold hues that subtly give way to pinks and greens as you move past them. The scale of the work creates a meditative field that encompasses your field of vision, while the minimal aesthetic becomes a mechanism for highlighting the subtle variances between each…
Find out more »December 2020
Ben Sanders at Ochi Projects
At Ochi Projects in Mid-City, Ben Sanders’ colorful paintings make a vibrant statement. Flowers splash across the graphic and airbrushed works, petals and stems coiling into complex configurations. Sanders’ graphic style recalls Memphis design (think Peter Shire) or perhaps a beachy tropical shirt from the 1980s — he’s not afraid to playfully arrange colors and pattern to create ecstatic compositions, all while maintaining razor-sharp edges and seamless gradients. While delighting in these details, the symbology of the work begins to…
Find out more »February 2021
Joanna Brieding at Ochi Projects
At Ochi Projects, a string of small photographs span the walls, arranged in a line as if to read them linearly like text. (The pictures are grouped into sets of one, two, or three, little sentences within a larger paragraph.) The imagery is evocative, pictorial, ephemeral — like small unseen moments that were secretly captured. In one set of images, a man’s bald head is seen emerging from a rippling pool of water. This is paired with an image of…
Find out more »May 2021
Ring Down the Curtain at Ochi Projects
A group show at Ochi Projects calls forth an optimistic spirit as our city begins to reopen (“ring down the curtain” is a phrase borrowed from theatre, meaning “show’s over”). The six female artists featured exude a tangled and exuberant sensuality. A large, soft sculpture by Isabel Yellin, painted in camouflage green, seems to be hugging itself with long, plushy tendrils that wrap around its center. Sarah Zapata’s colorful textile works are similarly lush, like a joyful celebration of form,…
Find out more »June 2021
Rakeem Cunningham at Ochi Projects
At Ochi Projects, Rakeem Cunningham creates empowered self-portraits that blend ad hoc props and costumes with anime fantasy. The back wall contains a large collage of wigs, fabrics, and anime screengrabs, like a mood board from which Cunningham pulls to create his photographic portraits. Rainbow piñatas sit next to cut-outs of the artist, preening for the camera, collaged near Cup O’ Noodles and action figures. Cunningham’s own costumes are hodgepodge and scrappy (pool noodles are used to great effect), yet…
Find out more »August 2021
Rakeem Cunningham in Conversation with Uri McMillan
Ochi Projects presents Round Table: Rakeem Cunningham in Conversation with Uri McMillan, to take place in conjunction with the final day of Cunningham’s solo exhibition, Hero. Photo courtesy of artillerymag.com
Find out more »March 2022
Lydia Maria Pfeffer at OCHI Projects
Lydia Maria Pfeffer’s solo show Lily of the Valley dives headfirst into fantasy. In her large-scale paintings, a whimsical cast of characters mingles and struts. Belle of the Fertility Spring Ball, for example, features a hybrid creature with a grinning frog head, a feathering plume of hair, a bumble-bee midsection, and a pair of fuzzy pink rabbit trousers, wears a crown and extends its arms out in a victorious stance. This self-assured ethos is maintained across Pfeffer’s humanoids, ghosts, and…
Find out more »September 2022
Young Joo Lee at OCHI
Walking into Young Joo Lee’s exhibition at OCHI’s Aux space off Washington Blvd. is like stepping into some kind of tech retail experience: sculptural iPhones sit on blue pedestals around the space, carpet underfoot; video monitors around the room play a hopeful commercial for “RENEW Corporation,” promising a better life for its workers (and regenerated limbs for those who may have lost them on the job). A closer look reveals the iPhones to be hand-glazed and painted with portraits of…
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