L.A. Louver Gallery, Los Angeles is exhibiting Alex “Defer” Kizu’s “Skyroom” through January 5, 2019.
“Skyroom” takes the artist’s graffiti work to the next level. He is one of the premier OG West Coast graffiti writers who has been pushing for years his unique style in both the streets and galleries. On seeing these pieces, the viewer will immediately be thinking “Los Angeles.” The artist’s new series of work is flipped with a Japanese flavor, to celebrate his heritage, and it speaks to a broader audience.
The well known graffiti artist has created “sanctioned” works for exterior facades as well as interior gallery walls. He has also been a part of the Los Angeles street art scene since the mid 1980s and is one of a handful of artists who has also embraced a gallery career. One of the unique qualities of the artist is that he moves easily between the worlds of street art and contemporary art, painting with a fluid style that juxtaposes colorful abstract gestures with his personal typography — visually akin to gangster Cholo writing.
In the current exhibition, he brings the outside in, or perhaps it could be said, the inside out. His installation “Immersive” fills the walls and floor with an all over pattern in predominantly blue and white tones, augmented by bits of green and ochre.
What strikes the viewer most about the installation is not only how it melds with the actual sky, which happened to be a cloudless blue when I visited, but how Defer painted the walls to capture the gradation of the space in both sun and shade. The “Skyroom” is a modest-sized enclosed balcony on the gallery’s second floor with high walls that cast dramatic and ever changing shadows as the sun moves from east to west. Taking advantage of the shadows tonal variations, Defer created a complex work that balances the relationships between light and dark.
The exhibition is on view through January 5, 2019 at L.A. Louver Gallery, 45 N Venice Blvd, Venice, CA 90291, USA.
For details, visit: https://www.blouinartinfo.com/galleryguide/l.a.-louver/overview
Click on the slideshow for a sneak peek at the exhibition.
Source: “Los Angeles” – Google News