Three-Artist Show at Corey Helford Gallery
Three incredibly talented and unique artists come together at the Corey Helford Gallery as Jon Ching, Lori Nelson, and Susanne Apgar present their own mini solo exhibitions at their three-artist show in Los Angeles. While each artist has their own style and approach to painting, they all tackle issues of human existence in their work.
Succession
Jon Ching is a self taught Hawaiian painter. As one can tell by looking at any of Ching’s paintings, he is fascinated by the interconnectedness of nature. Ching’s latest exhibition, Succession, consists of paintings in the style of detailed realism that show animals interacting with the elements and plants in open landscapes. Ching’s painting, “Reciprocity,” depicts an owl with a face surrounded by tiny pale flowers. A hummingbird and a bee are surrounding the flowers on the owls head, representing the cycle of dependence that exists within nature. As the owl, flowers, hummingbird, and bee are all connected in the cycle of nature, Ching is able to show the way in which nature overlaps and lines between different organisms are blurred, as each element comes together in harmony.
Betwixt
Lori Nelson, a Brooklyn based artist, utilizes subtle cold tones of color with highlights of warmer colors in order to create paintings centered around the ideas of anxiety, change, fear of technology, and isolation in her newest exhibition, Betwixt. Betwixt is inspired by Nelson’s own experiences as they are compared with her children’s experiences. Nelson felt that she was reliving the cringey moments of her adolescence as she watched her children go through their own adolescent experiences. Betwixt is able to capture the awkward transition between childhood and adulthood with muted colors, melancholy expressions, and thick brushstrokes. Nelson’s painting, “Saddy Jam,” captures a freckle-faced girl against a patterned background, who is listening to music while gripping her big headphones. The expression on the girl is cold, which makes the viewer feel the isolation that the girl in the painting is experiencing as she shuts the rest of the world out with her music – a feeling in which we can all relate to.
Course Correction
Susanne Apgar’s newest exhibit, Course Correction, focuses on the nature and trajectory of personal and romantic relationships. Apgar does not shy away from what many would consider the “bad” aspects of a relationship. Instead, Apgar carefully expresses the natural progression of relationships starting with hope and ending with disposal. Apgar’s painting, “Red Flags,” depicts a skull made of flowers, exploring the idea of looking for life in something that is already dead. The concept of searching for life within death can be related to the idea of only seeing the good elements in an otherwise toxic relationship. Apgar uses Course Correction to further explore the combination of beauty and pain that is relationships, while also commenting on how relationships are disposable. The flowers in “Red Flags” can then serve as a reminder that relationships can bloom, but just like flowers, they can perish without proper care.
To see more from each artist, one can view the three-artist show from January 25 – February 29 at the Corey Helford Gallery Los Angeles.
