Andrea Nakhla Reviews The Panacea Project on Society6 9.22.17
One Night, Seven Shows: An Artist’s Guide To An LA Art Crawl
LA-based artist, Andrea Nakhla takes us on a truly epic art crawl in LA’s Chinatown and downtown Arts District. Hitting up 7 shows in one night, she walks us through LA’s vibrant art scene and shares some of the highlights of the night. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can plan out your own art crawl too. Andrea shows you how, below.
As someone who is always DMing art opening invites to my friends with good intentions that we both know will never follow through, this past Saturday I finally made an itinerary for us with the goal of seeing 8 shows in one night. We made it to 7/8. CB1 closed too early, but if you want to steal my route and go during a weekday you can catch them all. We just went to openings but there are also lots of other great shows currently happening in the same area, the ArtForum App and Curate.La are great resources for making your own map of maximum art, minimum driving.
4. Werkartz, “The Panacea Project”, Bettina Hubby, Adrienne Adar, Michael G Bauer, Nancy Barber, Carl Berg, Agnes Bolt, Cal Clements, Michael Dee, Bob Dornberger, Amanda Yates Garcia, Emma Gray, Alex Miller, Jeremy Shockley, Joe Sola, William Stone and Nicola Vruwink.
“This show is a conscious choice, a treasure hunt for some bliss, a bit of calm, a jolt of laughter, an ooooh, an ahhhhh, or a nervous chuckle at the way things are. It’s an admission that our world is full of strife and contrast and whilst aware, to throw out this open-armed hug – a palliative gesture. There is a great power in collective pursuits of Cheer.
Therefore there are plenty of hugs in this show, and unpredictable rainbows. There are ebullient Guston-ian ballooning ceramics whilst others erupt with fantastical solidity and more with happy glazes and twisted smiles. There are drawings with a hurricane of mantras, collages of cosmic reminders of space and time, a humorous painting with literal heart, as well as heat-beating poetic furniture and paintings that bathe you with light and streaker freedom. You’ll be virtually surrounded by ridiculously beautiful animals getting along with each other despite their differences, and confronted with the undeniable beauty of the natural world. There is work here that will attempt to dunk you in the sublime, surround you with cozy comforts, and fully immersive reminders that our companion flora are alive and humming,I chose to douse you with humor, both direct and sly, beauty, animals and a barrage of positivity to overwhelm your senses, soothe, repair and amuse you…or at the very least allow you to escape for a while.”
-Betina Hubby, show curator + artist