Blum & Poe

At Blum & Poe, São Paulo-based artist Sonia Gomes’ first U.S. solo exhibition, When the Sun Rises in Blue, uses fabric and found media to create idiosyncratic sculptural objects that speak to memory, soul, and connection. Found materials such as bird cages, driftwood, and fishnets ground the sculptures physically, while also providing nuanced links to the individuals whose lives these objects have passed through. In one untitled sculpture, a low tree branch acts as the armature for the work, its…

A new group show at Blum & Poe, curated by the gallery’s co-owner/founder Jeff Poe, begins with a story of a man’s death. As the press release tells us, recently a man died while getting a brain scan, allowing the doctors to see that memories truly do flash before us as we pass. Poe relates this notion to memories of his own late brother, and takes a hopeful stance that the scenes passing by us in those final seconds are…

In 2017, Alma Allen moved from Joshua Tree to Topoztlán, Mexico. His practice previously consisted primarily of carved wood sculptures (made often with the aid of a bespoke robotic arm), the material readily abundant in California. Yet, upon moving to Mexico, Allen’s sculptures have shifted in both material and form — his new studio contains a bronze foundry and is in close proximity to stone quarries.  Allen’s current exhibition at Blum & Poe is small (in the garden gallery), but…

Acaye Kerunen’s exhibition of sculptures and dimensional wall works, presented at Blum & Poe, is her first in the United States. The Ugandan artist utilizes traditional materials alongside natural ones — like banana fiber, palm leaf, and raffia — to create detailed and sculptural woven pieces. Pink and purple patterning fashioned in tightly-woven banana leaf cascades across twinned raffia and basket forms. Although each work is an eruption of abstract color and pattern, the artist gives figurative titles (The Matriarch,…