Art LA Contemporary|Peter Stichbury

Stichbury renders his subjects as distant, cool and slightly surreal. Though if you look at the last painting, the real person (Zach Klein) looks pretty lifeless in that photo.

Art LA Contemporary|Matthew Brandt

Guess what Brandt used to create these works?

It's guuuummmm! How did he do that? Did he melt the gum and then silkscreen with it? That's my best guess. Check out his other works created with edibles and other materials here. I especially like the image of honeybees created with honeybees.

Art LA Contemporary|Thomas Glassford

Glassford has used anodized aluminum to create a lot of his recent work. I like that he creates a quilt-like painting out of a very masculine, cold, architectural material like aluminum siding.

Art LA Contemporary|Ian Burns

This contraption uses light bulbs and magnifying glasses to write out this mantra. I love how low-tech it is...he even uses a tupperware box to hold the wires in!

Art LA Contemporary|Holton Rower

These colorful poured paintings look like some crazy topographical map. Check out the video below to see the process of how these are created.

Art LA Contemporary|Adam Belt

This piece is called "Down the Rabbit Hole." At first it may seem merely to be a suggestion to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. However when you look at the rest of Belt's work, he explores ideas of space, telescopes, light, the big bang, planets...etc. His piece feel more cosmic in context of the rest of his work.

It felt like looking into a bottomless hole in the exhibition wall...bottomless hole or infinite space...same thing i guess.

Check out Adam's site to see more of his work.

Art LA Contemporary|Ed Moses: Garden of Forking Tongues

I'm not really sure what these paintings are about. Here are a few references and clues that I picked up on though...

1. His cartoonish figures remind me of Kara Walker... something about the black cut-outs.

2. His patterns feel tribal.

3. Speaking with a "forked tongue" means to say one thing and mean another. It also reminds me of the serpent in the Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden story.

Hmmm... what do you make of this?

Check out the opening reception at Ace Gallery on Feb 25th, 2012 at 7pm.

Montgomery Perry Smith at Sabina Lee Gallery

Smith's soft sculptures have a subtle feeling of sexuality in the way that a flower with a long pistil might remind you of sex. Well, maybe it's not that subtle but it feels innocent and biological.

Except this one which reminds me of the "vagina dentata." This piece is called "tease" which totally makes sense. Did you know that the #1 feature of a girl that men find attractive is long hair? Guys, don't be fooled- take a closer look at the glass "teeth."

Go Tell it on the Mountain

This show at the Charlie James Gallery focuses on Christianity in minority communities. The show seemed like a commentary on the many ways religion is exploited. It also offers views about religion becoming such a cultural part of communities that it almost becomes ineffectual as a spiritual component of peoples' live. The exhibit is up until Feb 18, 2012.