Greg Rose makes paintings that lie
somewhere on the spectrum between
landscape and abstraction. Organic shapes and architectural structures
commingle in jarring color combinations, both pleasing and shocking.
Textured
decal-like forms sit atop flat, pristinely smooth surfaces. The
Los Angeles-based
artist's graphic, stylized imagery seems like a mutant outgrowth
of Disney ani-
mation or Japanese anime.
There is, indeed, a cinematic quality to the work. Out-of-context
pieces of
nature are presented in windows, like edited viewpoints. These
frames and
isolated details create a beginning and end to the overall image,
a certain
narrative structure. Colors fade into one another like a cliched
sunset, or tran-
sitions between movie scenes.
Rose's work draws from Eastern art forms, including Chinese scholar's
stones
and Japanese ikebana. These traditions emphasize the arbitrariness
of nature
and the aesthetics of the organic, where eccentricity is highly
prized. But in fact,
many scholar's stones were altered by their owners to heighten
their aesthetic
qualities, and certainly flower arranging involves human intervention.
Rose ex-
plores our attempts to reconnect with nature by controlling and
manipulating it.
His paintings depict the order we crave amidst the appearance
of naturalness:
the ultimate codification of natural beauty.
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Junky Fado, 2004
oil and alkyd on canvas on panel
48" x 48"
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Lordy Rodriguez was born in the Philippines, raised in Louisiana
and Texas, and
currently lives in Los Angeles. For several years he has been working
on a series
of ink drawings that reinterpret the United States of America as
delineated by
geographic, civic and state boundaries. These handmade maps, drawn
in fine
Technicolor detail, represent his take on the ideal reconfiguration
of our country.
Using the precise language of mapmaking, which is defined by borders,
limits, and
'reality,' Rodriguez creates places that defy existing boundaries
and rules.
Washington State, for instance, is situated on the East rather than
West Coast
and is surrounded by Oklahoma, Maine, and Hollywood, which is itself
a state. The
playful aspects of these works, however, belie a deeper sense of
displacement.
Being of Chinese, Filipino, Spanish, and French descent, and having
moved
throughout his life, Rodriguez has never been able to claim any
homeland as truly
his own. Larger issues of 21st century navigation—of different
cultures, the
information super highway, the latest technology or software program—are
brought to bear in the artist's invented worlds.
Eventually, Rodriguez intends to remap the entire United States,
adding 5 new
states of his own creation (Territory State—which includes
parts of the Philippines,
Samoa, and Puerto Rico; Disney World; Hollywood; The Internet and
Monopoly), to
bring the total to 55, the national speed limit at the start of
the project. An apt
metaphor for our car-centered culture, where urban planning revolves
around the
automobile, and navigation as we know it wouldn't exist without
the highway.
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California, 2004
ink on paper
38" x 52"
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