:reviews
conjecture. There’s infinite latitude for the
artistic supposition of subatomic, theoretical
particles, which are virtually invisible. As the
artist has observed, she has carte blanche to
come up with visual renditions of these natu-
ral phenomena, seeing that even scientists
don’t know what they look like. Resembling
continents drifting in uncharted waters,
Helmer’s nebula-like forms are multi-colored,
often thick with milky applications of pigment
and subtle nuance under layers peaking
through. Using acrylic and spray paint, the
artist achieves the effect of crusted cracking
on some sections of the surface —like fis-
sures on the face of the moon—creating
striking visual contrast. Given the fact that
the source material of Helmer’s paintings is
a marriage of science and the psyche, the
exhibit might have been titled “Imagined,”
rather than “Observed.” Viewed as a body
of work, the paintings convey a mood of
intrigue, and offer nuanced visions of
enthralling hidden worlds.
—MEGAN ABRAHAMSLOS ANGELES
Chris Ballantyne: “Transcendental Divide/
Transitory Space” at Zevitas Marcus
A curious sense of dislocation permeates
the works on view by Chris Ballantyne in the
recent exhibition titled “Transcendental Di-
vide/Transitory Space” at Zevitas Marcus.
Just inside the front door to the gallery—
a newer addition to La Cienega Blvd since
this past fall—the entryway is freshly painted
to depict an abstracted landscape as seen
from a bird’s eye point of view. The forms
are simplified: the grass is a single shade of
not-quite Kelly Green bisected with an arced
gray highway curve, capped off with a solid
Cornflower Blue sky. Once inside, the gallery
presents hauntingly melancholic, almostHopper-esque, paintings in which signs of
human life frequently abound in the form of
houses, parking lots, billboards, pools, even
a barge on the open sea, but the human fig-
ure itself is noticeably absent. The works
are similarly reductive and the perspective
is slightly askew, just enough to cause a bit
of unease in viewing the variety of land-
scapes—natural, urban and sea—that
Ballantyne puts forth. As a result, the paint-
ings act as poignant reminders of the fragility
of the human condition, touching topics as
varied as political, environmental, financial
or all of the above.The Brooklyn-based artist is not heavy-
handed in this endeavor; the stoicism of the
compositions is often paired with off-kilter,
dry-witted titles. Ziggurat (Cul de Sac) and
Over the Falls(both 2015), among the largest
works on view, each present what may at
first seem to follow the familiar mantra of
the real estate market: location, location,
location. The prime position at the top of
the hill carved into future housing plots,
the space once occupied by the cella of
the ziggurat now appears the future site of
a ticky-tacky housing development. In the
latter work, three isolated structures occupy
an expansive desert vista, with one—a mod-
ernist-style residence—sits on the precipice
of “the falls.” The painting seems prescient;
echoing the tragic nightly broadcast running
concurrent with the exhibition documenting
the plight of homes and apartments on
the verge of similar fate in Pacifica, CA.
“Transitory space,” indeed, though hardly
“transcendental” in consequence. An earlier
painting titled Parking Lot with Standing
Water(2014), presents a cacophony of
parking spaces adjoining at impossibly acuteangles to navigate—a purgatory for evil and
impatient drivers everywhere. A solitary
structure, reminiscent of the once-familiar,
now-obsolete Fotomats, sit awash in one
of the parking lot puddles. As with the earlier
works, this quick nod to the past points
toward the unanticipated consequence
of progress
.—MOLLY ENHOLMLOS ANGELES
Julian Wasser:
“Duchamp In Pasadena Redux”
at Robert Berman Gallery
One of the most intriguing factors about
appropriation art is the way it calls into ques-
tion issues of authorship. So it seems only
apt to go back to the source and apply those
questions to the inventor of the “ready-
made” himself, conceptual art pioneer
Marcel Duchamp. Unsurprisingly, issues
of authorship abound in the invigorating
show at Robert Berman Gallery, “Duchamp
in PasadenaRedux,” which celebrates, and
partially recreates, Duchamp’s historic 1963
retrospective at the Pasadena Art Museum.
Beyond its seemingly straightforward con-
cept, the Berman Gallery’s restaging
essentially presents a hall of mirrors,
offering multiple levels of appropriation
spanning back over a century, to the
conception of the works themselves.The original Duchamp retrospective was the
brainchild of famed LA curator Walter Hopps,
who had co-founded the influential Ferus
Gallery before moving to the Pasadena Art
Museum, and in 1962 had curated the first
major survey of Pop Art, “New Paintings of
Common Objects.” In bringing the iconoclas-
tic conceptualist to Southern California for26 art ltd - March / April 2016“Over the Falls,” 2015, Chris Ballantyne
Acrylic on panel, 48" x 64"
Photo: courtesy Zevitas Marcus“Suspension II,” 2015, Bonita Helmer
Acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 36" x 36"
Photo: courtesy George Billis Gallery