While another mugging took place across town, I was having dinner with an artist...

Two evenings prior to the opening of her show at the McLoughlin Gallery last week, I was having dinner with Christy Lee Rogers and her companion. After we left the restaurant and I was escorting them back to their hotel,  we spoke of the lovely weather of this particular evening and what a pleasant rarity it was, among other things.  It was only later I discovered that while we were seated at dinner, the Femme Fatale was busy enacting a vicious mugging of Penelope. The perverse nature of the revulsive attack, and its aftermath, brings the long-running subplot of the bizarre love tetrahedron to an ugly denouement, both here and in reality. I write of it only to tie the final knot in the thread.

Now, back to dinner.

Christy and I have maintained a loose correspondence since we first met a couple of years ago in Los Angeles and this  was our first chance to have an extended conversation, which took place over Thai food at Ler Ros. When I first saw Christy's Sirens collection I was deeply moved by the beauty and mystery of the images, so it took me a little by surprise to discover the artist behind them was an open, warm and engaging personality. For some reason I expected her to be more elusive, guarded perhaps, about who she is and how she approached her art. She was neither, and during dinner we had a long, revealing conversation, touching down in numerous places.

Add caption

Two nights later I went to the opening of the show, which coincided with the monthly First Thursday Art walk. There were plenty of people about the entrance of 49 Geary and milling through the corridors of the building, which contains seventeen or eighteen different galleries, but soon I entered owner Joan McLoughlin's warm, well-lighted space, and saw Christy standing in front of the triptych Sackcloth and Ashes, talking with a couple of people while others stood around apparently eavesdropping. I espied her companion, went over to say hello and he led me through the exhibit, entitled "Odyssey," which makes sense as the palette of her work has expanded beyond Sirens to include images with more color, male subjects, subjects whose gender is hard to determine, and the one in Battle of the Flesh looks an otherworldly feline.

Battle of the Flesh

Her new work presses further into ambiguous territory while looking back with deliberation toward the Renaissance in its use of color and depiction of cloth, though the view is submerged underwater and seen with a contemporary eye. Though she claims it was just a fortuitous result, the green spectre haunting the subject of Innocence evokes an infralapsarian nightmare.

Innocence

Also on exhibit in the gallery is the delirious work of Dalia Nosratabadi, a globe-trotting Iranian woman who lives in Belgium. Her images are also created from water- in this case reflections viewed in puddles, which she photographs and then turns upside down to creating a disorienting vision of the world that's recognizable yet looks like a parallel universe. The exhibit is called Eau La La!, which nicely captures its energy and sense of playfulness.  Imagine Narcissus, armed with a passport and a camera, found the world reflected around him a much more interesting subject. Dalia, her husband, and their baby were present and I asked if she was doing any local shooting while she was here. She hadn't yet found any satisfactory puddles, so I suggested some corners downtown where she might have some luck. I would love to see what she could create here. The exhibit contains large digital images she's shot around the globe- it's compelling work that really captures the energy, confusion, and chaos of urban life.

1010 Xiang Hao

Viewed together in one space, the work of these two artists creates an irresistible juxtaposition- Joan McLoughlin has a keen eye. You can see for yourself until December 3rd.

Bend Over Times Square

Afterwards, we headed off for another meal and conversation, this time to Morac, where I found myself stimulated by the conversation taking place, the incongruous blonde Sirens floating through the room, and the décolletage of one in particular. Thankfully, no one was mugged that night, but crime season is now over- there's no one left to victimize.

The Odyssey of Christy Lee Rogers

Rapture

I first encountered the stunning photography of Christy Lee Rogers during the Spring Street Art Walk in L.A. a couple of years ago. She was showing her "Sirens" collection- massive ethereal photographs of women taken underwater, they were beautifully alluring and faintly terrifying at the same time. Sirens indeed, they drew a tremendous crowd of admirers and now Rogers' work is presented in eight galleries worldwide.

Sackcloth and Ashes (Middle Panel)

This month San Francisco finally gets to see her work- a moment I've been waiting for ever since that night in L.A., when the McLoughlin Gallery presents her new collection "Odyssey" this month, beginning Thursday, November 3rd. The panel above is from a triptych titled Sackcloth and Ashes, which promises to be one of the highlights of the show.

The Swan

With light refraction as the technical foundation of her work, Rogers utilizes the phenomenon of light as it passes from the air, which has a lower optical density, into water, with a higher optical density, to capture in-camera images, without post-production manipulation.

Upon the Cheek of Night

Resembling Baroque paintings from another dimension, she's mastered the use of lighting to create beautiful chiaroscuro images.

Ascencion

Rogers, who splits her time between Hawaii (where she was born) and Los Angeles, will be in attendance on the opening night.The gallery is at 49 Geary St., open 10:30-6:00, Tues- Sat.

Christy Rogers interview on Pix Feed LA blog

Readers of the A Beast in Jungle know I'm a tremendous admirer of photographer Christy Rogers. The blog Pix Feed LA features an interesting interview with her where she mentions she's starting to do video "Sirens," an idea that sounds beautiful yet terrifying to actually think about.

Christy will have shows running in LA through October 16th. Check out the work at the A & I Hollywood until 09/04 and then at A & I Santa Monica from 09/11-10/16.

Christy Rogers opening tonight in Hollywood...

Photographer Christy Rogers has an opening and book
signing tonight in Hollywood from 7PM til 10PM at
A&I located at 933 N. Highland. Her work is beautiful and unique. Go take a look if you can.

http://www.christyrogers.com/ (possibly NSFW)

Parting Shots from LA

The following two pictures were taken in a mobbed gallery during the Spring Street Art Walk, which is a completely hot event that takes place downtown at night and the streets (and galleries and restaurants and bars) were full of people.

These large, beautiful and compelling photographs are by Christy Rogers . The models are underwater and the shooting is often done at night. These are just meant to give you and idea of what they look like- the picture are approximately 3'x4'. I don't want to rip-off Christy's work and I couldn't do it justice to try to accurately give you an idea of how gorgeous her work is, go check out her website. The exhibit is appropriately called SIRENS.

I spoke with Christy briefly about the picture below because it has a Gerhard Richter beautiful but scary as hell quality to it and I wanted to know how she achieved the effect of the torn-looking flesh. It's all in the lighting and the water movement. Stunning.



Christy was really kind and very straightforward, answering all of our questions with disarming warmth and openness. After thinking about that for awhile, I wasn't really surprised by that because you can see those qualities in the work.

The picture below made my friend Karin want to pose for her.


I'm ignorant on many aspects of contemporary art, so I don't pretend to get it, but I do know what I like and the art below was particularly interesting to me because it thrills at first sight. Unfortunately I've misplaced the notes with the artist's names. Please post a comment if you can identify them (these are relatively accurate representations):






We had to agree to be patted down and have our belongings gone through before we could enter this bar with the keyhole doorway. Couldn't figure out why once we were in. Everyone seemed pretty low key. I love bars filled with well thought-out kitsch. What I couldn't figure was why the this bar had not one but two televisions in it, which reason enough to leave, but both were tuned to sports. So we left without even ordering a drink. I hate bars with TVs in them. Not cool.



This painting actually includes asphalt on the canvas- I guess that's an appropriate medium for LA art.


Below is Morganne, Universal Chanteuse- who was the most fabulously dressed woman I saw all night. Naturally she was in the French gallery. Amazing outfit. I even got to write on her beige suede boots that matched her hat and the lining of her tres cool jacket. Her whole ensemble just rocked it. I wish she lived in San Francisco, because the only women around here that look this great are usually trannies.

My own addition to the cybersphere of what must by now be one of the world's most photographed buildings but there is something about Walt Disney hall that makes one want to touch it and take pictures of it. It's like a beautiful woman. This building is perfect- inside and out.

The Mistress of Malibu, Ms. Tracy Testin

The coolest man in LA via Detroit, Mr. Jeffrey Malinowski

This is the North Hollywood Metro station at mid-day on a Saturday. Notice how nice and clean and shiny it is. Rides are $1.25 for a nice clean, fast train that actually takes you places you want to go. That this might actually exist one day was unthinkable when I was growing up and living here and is probably the single greatest sign that LA has really evolved into an amazing and forward-looking city. BART/ MUNI riders, yes, it is okay to weep at the realization that Los Angeles has superior forms of mass transit than the Bay Area. Who would have ever believed it?

And yet here is the proof. Once they get the line to make it all the way to the beach... well, I may have to move back.

Really- Saturday- 3 in the afternoon! Can you believe it?