Disasterland

Jose Rodolfo Loaiza Ontiveros latest works were presented at an opening at La Luz de Jesus Gallery on Hollywood Blvd on August 3rd. The show titled "Disasterland" consists of paintings best described as "R-Rated" images. Based on iconic Disney characters the princesses and villainesses in these paintings depict Walt's world in a different light. Sex, drugs and crime aren't topics that Disney would ever tackle but they do make fun paintings. "Disasterland" is a fun show guaranteed to elicit a laugh or two. Jose Rodolfo Loaiza Ontiveros is a Mexican artist working in acrylic paint and a campy sense of humor. These paintings are true kitsch.

Alex Prager Show

Eyes! Look into my eyes. Yes, eyes; now look through Alex Prager's eyes and see what she sees. "Compulsion" is Alex Prager's latest show at West Hollywood's M & B Gallery  and the eyes have it. Between her portraits of eyes and only eyes are large format photo prints of things you wouldn't actually want to see.

Scary, nerve wracking images of falling, burning and near if not actual death experiences. This is Hollywood after all and nothing is really real right. Alex Prager's images have a surealality making the images not only compelling but comfortably cinematic. These are the images Hitchcock meant to create. Dark and scary situations surrounded by close ups of eyes. Just the eye nothing else fill the frame. Look deep into them. Eyes are the gateway to the soul n'est pas?
Alex Prager's show runs through May 12th and it is a must see if you like eyes or seeing.

Shag

Shag @ Corey Helford Gallery

Groovy groovin’ LA groovsters grooved. Shag was in town and showing his work at the Corey Helford gallery in the up and grooving Culver City. Kats and cats and Kittens dominate his paintings as per usual but this time minotaurs and insects have joined the party. The name of the show was “Animal Kingdom”. The paintings are slick smooth and eclectically colored and not cheap. The prices run between $4,000 and $12,000 but if that is out of your price range there are lithographs available for anyone’s check book.

The party in the gallery was almost as fabu as the parties in Shag’s paintings. No party will ever be better than the parties in Shag’s paintings but this one tried! Boys in mouse ears abounded guzzling free cocktails with girls dressed in vintage leopard. The swinging confirmed bachelors and bachelorettes babbled and blogged via smart phone about dream interiors and penthouse hilarity rendered in acrylic paint.

Josh Agle, better known as Shag is a southern California artist known for his mid-century modern fantasy world of Camelot era decadence and fun. Curvy women and snappily dressed men drink cocktails and frug by biomorphic coffee tables in a Neutra-esque world that would have should have could have been. It’s a world everyone wants to exist.

As they should be cocktails were free and flowing and the music was swinging drawing the crowd into the paintings bringing them to life. You were in the paintings if you were at the opening. The work and the happening were as one. Paintings came to life and life was a Shag painting for one brief groovy moment.