October 2019
Moffat Takadiwa at Nicodim Gallery
On View: September 7 – October 19, 2019 Did you know that your trash and plastic recyclables can end up in the landfills of poorer nations like Malaysia, India, and South Africa? Artist Moffat Takadiwa, who lives in Harare, Zimbabwe—a city that houses one of the largest landfills in the country—mines landfills for plastic trash, much of which contains labels and logos of American brands. He then meticulously sorts and weaves together the found bottle caps, toothpaste tubes, toothbrushes, and…
Find out more »May 2020
Dominique Fung at Nicodim Gallery
From Lindsay Preston Zappas, KCRW's Art Insider: "Dominique Fung’s exhibition at Nicodim was a particular joy after long weeks of viewing art digitally. Her paintings are an uncanny blend of figuration, abstraction, and surrealist objects that merge together in harmonious locomotion across the canvas. Disembodied limbs — animal and human — merge with teapots that are decorated with traditional Chinese embellishments. Her dense compositions create scenes that feel dream-like in their storytelling. They are rooted in reality, but acted out…
Find out more »October 2020
Georgina Gratrix at Nicodim
At Nicodim, Georgina Gratrix’s figures and still-lifes with a gloopy impasto paint application. The faces of her figures ride a line between comical and slightly disturbing. Swabs of thick paint fold into disfigured personhood: melting noses, multiple sets of eyes, large textural gashes across cheeks. Some even have googly eyes embedded in the thick paint. Many of the paintings are intimate self-portraits or paintings of loved ones, but unlikely celebrities, politicians, and athletes including Scottie Pippen — appear in the…
Find out more »February 2021
Devendra Banhart: The Grief I Have Caused You
The Grief I Have Caused You, Banhart’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles, is a survey of recent paintings and drawings mostly completed during a year when the Grand Pendulum neglected to swing back to “having suffered.” Though they were sowed in a moment of near-universal hurt, each composition manifests an equal, harmonic measure of joy: grotesque figurations of comedy and tragedy embrace and approach fellatio in “Nyima & Dawa,” 2021; a fat-bottomed, high-heeled hiker rejoices at a finally flat…
Find out more »July 2021
Jorge Peris at Nicodim Gallery
At Nicodim gallery, wooden sculptures overtake the space. Many are made from found tables, dressers, pianos, and armoires that Jorge Peris hodge-podges together into strange assemblages that defy gravity. The artist then sands and carves selectively onto the surfaces of his sculptures, creating surprising patterns and nubby edges. In “Fuga para organo y mesa,” for example, the right half of a piano is inexplicably worn down while the other half remains intact, the piano careening precariously at a 45 degree…
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