31 Aug 2017

Apocalypse Summer

ltd los angeles

Reviewed by Jeff Hansen

"Apocalypse Summer," a group show at ltd los angeles, reflects on social collapse and environmental decline through paintings, sculptures, and video works.

A large painting by Ian Davis depicts a desert landscape flattened by a network of leaking oil pipelines. The high vantage point over the toy-like landscape recalls the birds-eye-view universes seen in the work of Jules de Balincourt and Mernet Larsen. Similarly, Anton Lieberman's otherworldly sculpture Goblin, a network of inflatable tubes cast in resin, resembles a coat of arms. Its glassy, red and black geometry could be mistaken for menacing technologies seen in The Matrix.

Materials throughout the exhibition vary as widely as the landscape of Los Angeles, including leather, volcanic ash, threaded yarn, spray paint, aluminum, and neon. Utopian wasteland or dystopian Promised Land, the works illustrate with great cohesion a complex cultural landscape.