Gallery: Cerasoli
Artists: Jennifer Davis, Kristen Schiele, Jill Simonsen
Opening: Saturday May 16
Date: Saturday May 16, 6-9pm
Location: C E R A S O L I gallery 8530- b Washington Blvd. Culver City,CA 90232
Hours: Tuesday – Saturday 11am – 6pm
Website: www.cerasoligallery.com
C E R A S O L I Gallery presents three artists representing a cross-section of ideas exploring our relationships with nature and each other:
In Gallery One, whimsical and folksy on the surface, Jennifer Davis’ dreamlike scenes of animal children and insect-like plants hint at the darkside of nature and the inevitable passage of time. A sagging bloom drops its last petal as summer fades to winter. Moon-faced creatures, half-animal and half-child, gather in shy circles in a clearing in the woods. A wistful girl with sagging hair ribbons balances an unexpectedly robust houseplant on her hip. Davis’ fantastic imagery is somehow familiar and, at times, sad. Her intimate works quietly capture the melancholy of evaporating daydreams and passing childhood fancy.
Print-maker, painter, and stop-animation artist, Kristen Schiele draws from a combination of influences to create her collaged, cut-out 3D shadow boxes and paintings on view in Gallery Two. Developed by a layering of silkscreen and acrylic to oil paint, Schiele’s paintings feature detailed, sculptural surfaces. Treating the stylized and erotic B-horror movies of the sixties and seventies like a giant prop-house from which to borrow items that strike her fancy, Schiele’s exaggerated scenarios feature shameless sirens who turn the tables on sexual stereotypes of weakness and victimhood while challenging outdated notions of gender.
On view in Gallery Three, inspired by how people interact with each other and our environments, Jill Simonsen renders scenes of isolation with a curious mix of excess and emptiness. Antennas fight for space on an undersized roof, ubiquitous powerlines crosshatch dusky pastel skies into plaid. In many of her works, a pale orb looks on blindly, an indistinguishable sun or moon, unblinking in the haze. Simonsen utilizes her graphic style, recognizable and inorganic imagery to create works that are both realistic and hopeful as they attempt to understand the means by which people communicate and, despite these interactions, become isolated.
