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Shana Nys Dambrot, Arts Editor at L.A. Weekly, converses with artists Amir Fallah, Alexandra Grant, Bettina Hubby and Gregory Siff. Each of these artists draws references from history, memory and popular culture in exciting, diverse ways in their works — from elements of personal and literary text and a celebration of life’s small details, to larger themes of knowledge, love and enlightenment. Grant’s meditations on chaos and control, Fallah’s interest in systems of becoming one’s self, Hubby’s witty mindfulness in community culture, and Siff’s emotional poetry of Americana all speak to the charms and frights of human experience.
Considering himself primarily a painter despite also working in sculpture, installation, and photography, Amir H. Fallah produces deeply personal figurative work steeped in childhood memories, formative experiences, and cultural legacies. He describes his range of subjects as including “punk rock, falling in love, the similarities between cacti and love, first kisses, Persian miniature painting, psychedelic imagery, skid row tents, Al-Qaida bunkers, collaboration, refugee camps, gardening, space…” Twelve years of graffiti art informs Fallah’s additive approach to painting and sculpting, which leads him to “put things on top of one another instead of forming objects or blending paint.” The resulting forts, miniatures, murals, narrative portraits, and phantasmagoric landscapes comment on the fragility of memory, destiny, and dreams, as exemplified by Watch Tower (2009), a two-story hand-constructed installation adorned with memorabilia, potted plants, documents, and trinkets representing Fallah’s personal history.
Infirmary, 2015
Edition of 5,
Unique colorway
Aquaresin and fiberglass
Signed recto
5.5 x 13 x 12”
Describing herself as “a writer who writes with materials,” Alexandra Grant produces paintings, drawings, sculptures, and installations based on language. She is interested in how we engage with words, through reading, writing, speaking, and translation, and how it shapes our perception of others, the world, and ourselves. Her ongoing collaborations with philosophers, linguists, and actors, including Michael Joyce, Hélène Cixous, and Keanu Reeves, have earned her the designation, “radical collaborator.” Beginning with a text by or conversation with these collaborators, she transforms words into art. In her ongoing, multifaceted series, “Century of the Self” (begun 2010)—encompassing, for example, boldly colored paintings shaped like Rorschach tests and full of phrases like, “I see myself in you”—Grant presents the self as a collage of bodily drives and external influences, from mass market advertising to psychoanalysis.
Prints;
Love Chakras, Team Power, L.L.L. (Lunar Love Lady), Rainbow Mood, 2020
Edition 15/100
Screen prints on Fedrigoni Freelife Vellum 320gsm
Premium White paper
12 x 16.5” per print
Bettina Hubby’s practice is wide-ranging, including collage, painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, video, VR, photography, soft works, and art happenings. While humor is what grounds her practice, she explores themes of ritual, construction, identity, community, and the constantly changing notion of self and other. In addition to her individual practice, Hubby is known for her extensive collaborative projects and curatorial work—engaging diverse communities and often existing in settings that challenge the conventions of exhibition spaces, celebrating collaboration and resisting easy categorization.
Be Here Now…, 2020
Acrylic on linen
Signed verso
10 x 8”
American artist Gregory Siff is best known for his highly emotive style that merges abstraction, pop and action painting. By using inks, acrylic and spray-paint, he creates iconic elements in the form of storyboards, capturing time and nostalgia. His works have been included in MoMA PS1’s “Rockaway!”, “Vans Custom Culture” at the Whitney Museum of American Art and in luxury fashion house Saint Laurent’s F/W 2018 Collection. Gregory also collaborated with revolutionary fashion brand, Pyer Moss, painting pieces live on the runway that are now archived by The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Artburger, 2021
Watercolor, ink and spraypaint on paper
4AM Gallery
Signed recto
Unframed Dimensions: 19″ x 14”
Framed Dimensions: 24 x 18”
Shana Nys Dambrot is an art critic, curator, and author based in Downtown LA. She is the Arts Editor for the L.A. Weekly, and a contributor to Flaunt, Art & Cake, and Artillery. She studied Art History at Vassar College, writes book and catalog essays, curates and juries exhibitions, is a dedicated Instagram photographer and is the author of the experimental novella Zen PSYCHOSIS (2020, Griffith Moon). She speaks at galleries, schools, and cultural institutions nationally, and is a member of ArtTable and the LA Press Club, and sits on the Boards of Art Share-LA and the Venice Institute of Contemporary Art, the Advisory Council of Building Bridges Art Exchange, and the Brain Trust of Some Serious Business.
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