October 2020
Milano Chow at Bel Ami
From KCRW's Art Insider, Lindsay Preston Zappas: At Bel Ami in Chinatown, Milano Chow’s drawings are detailed architectural compositions delicately rendered in graphite. The artist pulls references from a hodge-podge of architectural sources, and at first, her facades feel faithfully reproduced with precision. Though meticulously drawn, it’s only upon a closer inspection that impossible details begin to emerge: doors are as big as windows, stairs feel strangely small, windows begin where a new story of the building should. Chow distorts…
Find out more »December 2020
Lauren Satlowski at Bel Ami
Lauren Satlowski’s solo show of new paintings at Bel Ami titled “Watch the Bouncing Ball,” captures some of the deeply felt resonances of 2020. Even the title of the show elicits an idea of being stuck — watching the world bounce by while waiting for what will come next. Leering shadows appear across the paintings, which are rendered in Satlowski’s photo-realistic yet imaginative style, capturing the pandemic’s overall feeling of isolation. In one work, a small sticker with the word…
Find out more »March 2021
Ben Sakoguchi at Bel Ami
Ben Sakoguchi spent several years of his childhood in Japanese internment camps during World War II. His current exhibition at Bel Ami in Chinatown, titled “Chinatown,” charts harrowing examples of violence and prejudice enacted on the Asian American community throughout the last couple hundred years — a potent reminder that violence and xenophobia against the AAPI community is nothing new. The eponymous work in the exhibition consists of small paintings, hung to create a large assemblage. The central one focuses…
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