Nuero Girl, 2016, By Desire Obtain Cherish All Photos By Gail)
The contemporary fine artist known as Desire Obtain Cherish (real name: Jonathan Paul) has a new exhibit at Unix Gallery, which is called Servant to Infinite Distraction, and it is pretty sweet.
In previous DOC exhibits, we have mostly seen the artist’s iconic, Pop Art sculptures, such as his oversized Blow Pops, but while the new exhibit does feature new sculptures, here DOC experiments with abstract canvases that mix black and white prints with thick swathes of brightly-colored oil paints, for a very cerebrally compelling visual impact. Tablets of the anticonvulsant medication Klonopin are a reoccurring motif.
Pills show up on other canvases as well, such as the “painting” above, which creates a classic floral still life from pharmaceutical capsules filed with colored pigment.
Detail from Above Painting
Here’s another Still Life with Pills, and a detail shot below.
Nuero Boy, 2016
The pair of white, child-scale, mannequin-like sculptures called Nuero Girl and Nuero Boy have what looks like velvet-covered, amorphous masses enveloping their heads, feet and hands. Very fun!
Installation View
Desire Obtain Cherish, Servant to Infinite Distraction will be on Exhibit Through June 18, 2016 at UNIX Gallery, located at 532 West 24th Street in the Chelsea Gallery District.
Nothing says it’s Summer in the Chelsea Gallery District quite like the ubiquitous Summer Group Show. So many are doing it, with varying degrees of success. And while we’ve seen a few galleries (that shall remain nameless) totally phone it in, Unix Gallery maintains their high standard of showing provocative, quality contemporary art with its group show, Efflorescence, which is up now.
Efflorescence features new works from Zhuang Hong Yi, Machiko Edmondson, Ellen de Meijer, Gavin Rain, Pino Manos, KwangHo Shin, and Alexi Torres, plus a few assorted piece from artists, such as Desire Obtain Cherish, who’ve previously exhibited in solo shows at the gallery.
A Trio of Works By Pino Manos
Sincronico Rosso
I hadn’t seen the work of Pino Manos before, but I really loved his three pieces in this show, which are created Acrylic on Extroflexed Canvas — an exciting aesthetic twist on minimalism.
Zhuang Hong Yi, Untitled 38
Zhuang Hong Yi’s Chinese training combined with Western Impressionist elements produces a vast collection of work. With studios in Beijing and Amsterdam, this cross-cultural artist brings traditional Chinese motifs such as rice paper and ink into the modern era, fusing contemporary form and culturally significant media.
Ellen de Meijer’s paints a unique contrast of tension and pathos. Her portraits show figures of successful repute, yet vulnerable with an empty gaze. They are armed with digital gadgets, which refer to our zeitgeist of access to information and power. This proliferation of technology becomes a point of dependency while human instincts docilely move to the background. Often they brandish small, bizarre objects or wear gloves symbolic of a societal obsession with sterilization and unattainable perfection.
Gavin Rain draws from traditional pointillist studies with a mix of the Russian avant-garde of the early 1900’s and modern digital images. His layering of styles communicates a particular message: “I usually dislike art that doesn’t communicate anything.” (Note:I fee similarly about works that are titled “Untitled”).
Detail From Above Work
Rain’s works aims to stimulate the eye and mind simultaneously, creating a constant fluctuation of information being transmitted between the work and the viewer.
Art By Justin Bower
Art By Desire Obtain Cherish
Detail of the Above Portrait
Intensive Care Unit By DOC
It was fun to see a few works by Desire Obtain Cherish — who had such a fun show at the gallery in back in May of 2014 — mixed in with the new stuff. His art is so clever.
Jewel Pacifier, By DOC from his Married to Success Series
Efflorescence will be on Exhibit through August 22nd, 2015 at UNIX Gallery, Located at 532 W 24th Street in the Chelsea Gallery District.
If the new standard of originality in the arts is based on how cleverly you appropriate and reinvent images and ideas from other well known sources, then LA based pop art sculptor known as Desire Obtain Cherish (real name Jonathan Paul) is a genius. We Are Known By The Company We Keep is his new solo show at Unix Gallery, and it is a mind blower.
On a recent art crawl I spotted Pink Poodle sculptures in two different exhibits – crazy! The Poodle above is from the Desire Obtain Cherish exhibit at Unix Gallery and the Pink Poodle below was part of The Last Brucennial on Washington Street and West 13th. Full reviews of both exhibits posting any day now!
The Sunset Strip and Gibson Guitar have announced the addition of a new guitar to GuitarTown on The Sunset Strip, a public art project launched in August 2010 featuring more than twenty-five 10-foot tall fiberglass Gibson Les Paul model guitars strategically placed on the legendary Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. Well-known Los Angeles street artists have collaborated for this one-of-a-kind piece. The guitar will be on display as part of Maximillian Gallery and prominent art blog Melrose and Fairfax’s collaborative exhibit “What Graffiti is to New York – Street Art is to Los Angeles.”Continue reading GuitarTown Sunset Strip Art Project Adds New Street Art Guitar!→
