tentenAs gallery spaces began reopening to visitors, both Blum & Poe’s Los Angeles and Tokyo spaces opened their doors (by appointment only of course). To mark this hopeful yet unfamiliar milestone, the gallery launched a pair of tandem exhibitions, focusing on the work of artists working mostly in each city. It is 5,471 miles from L.A. to Tokyo. In essence a really strong summer group show, there is an undercurrent of melancholy and mystery that pervades the selections.
Darren Bader, CS15, 2020. Greg Lake’s treadmill; Phyllis Diller’s sheet music; Elizabeth Taylor’s hand towel; Bob Keeshan’s trench coat; Eartha Kitt’s coin purse; Raymond Burr’s stamp album (Courtesy of Blum & Poe)
“The curatorial theme is a paradox,” states the gallery materials, “in that it is both an internationally minded twin-city exhibition but is also inherently restricted [because] of the pandemic. The exhibition in each city is defined equally by the works that are there as by those that are not there.” Blum & Poe, 2727 S. La Cienega Blvd., Culver City; by appointment, Tuesday-Saturday, 10am-6pm; through August 15; blumandpoe.com.
Dave Muller, Try Meditation, 2020. Acrylic and sign enamel on plywood panel Two parts; 58 1:2 (diameter) x 1 1:4 inches (Courtesy of Blum & Poe)