The current show at the Corey Helford Gallery in Culvert City is Literartistry, a group show that brings together the work of a large number of amazing contemporary artists. The theme is a literary one and the artists have been inspired by books, books, books. Some of the pieces are easy to guess, but others are extremely original interpretations. The visual arts and writing make for interesting couplings and it is well worth taking a look at all of the paintings on the website, if not at the show itself. Till September 1.

Artists: various (above painting by Greg Clarke)
+ coreyhelfordgallery.com

Kegan Fisher’s architectural landscapes are an interpretation of the world around the artist, broken down into the design elements of planes, volume, lines and colour. The perspective of the canvas is important, but one must not forget that the viewer’s perspective is also being played with, forced to deal with the artist’s deconstructions of time and space around her, as she serves up a world that is “an onslaught of visual stimuli”.

Artist: Kegan Fisher
+ keganfisher.com

Approaching Nowhere: The Franchised Landscape is a series of bleak photographs by Jeff Brouws. This collection shows an ever-changing landscape as farmland and country spaces are taken over by big box commercial development that have no guarantee of success. The glare of the fluorescent light and empty cashiers’ stations of a closing store is a sad image of an “I told you so” moment, yet the construction takes place over and over again, so that soon, all blue skies and green spaces will be bisected by the golden arches.

Artist: Jeff Brouws
+ jeffbrouws.com

Marie E.V.B. Gibbons creates ceramics that are poetic in nature, pods and people that bear resemblance to every day life, yet are magical at the same time. Remembering the Dance is such a lovely piece, its meaning interpreted so literally that the viewer wonders how the artist would represent other thoughts and memories. The Float installation is equally wonderful with its multitude of swimming capped heads holding their own above water – exactly the type of exhibit one would have to circle several times over.

Artist: Marie E.V.B. Gibbons
+ mariegibbons.com

The topic of women and food can be a touchy one, so it is fascinating to see painter Samantha Hahn approach the subject. Hahn’s works are bold statements with very clear visuals, yet there is, at the same time, room for interpretation. Examining why and how we eat is key, and there is no shortage of emotion and reasoning involved. No doubt viewers will see these three provocative paintings quite differently. Some will question their own relationships with food, others will be cynical, or perhaps disgusted, some will sigh and wish we could all simply enjoy our food – but all will react in some way.

Artist: Samantha Hahn
+ samanthahahn.com

1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die by Stephen Farthing is a handy guide to a wide variety of styles and periods. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, since choice is so very subjective, but it certainly makes for a decent place to start, especially in conjunction with trip planning. A brief history of the painting and its artist is provided, along with its current location and a bit about the artistic movement. Of course, one need not any further than a comfortable chair to take this extensive tour from 4000 BC to the present at a leisurely pace.

Hardcover, 960 pages. Universe, 2007. $23.07 at Amazon.

+ 1001 Paintings at Amazon

The Feather Gallery is an on-line gallery that features exhibitions and offers the pieces for auction. Works by Western Australian artist Cynthia Ellis (details from two pieces above) are currently on show, until August 29. Murko is the latest release from 10.Deep, produced by Thunderdog Studios, a knuckle-duster vinyl collectible with many teeth apparently “low on mental capacity” and “perfect for administering beatings to your outdated dolls”.

Jackie Tileston’s paintings are rich tapestries of form, flow, colour and style. The artist mixes eastern and western aesthetics, having lived in Manila, India, London, Paris and the U.S. Tileston sources abstraction, classic Chinese landscapes, Hindu deities and computer images, creating a fascinating panorama. Her upcoming exhibit is entitled Adventures of the Semionauts and this quote sums up some of these ideas quite nicely: "The activities of DJs, Web Surfers, and postproduction artists imply a similar configuration of knowledge, which is characterized by the invention of paths through culture. All three are "semionauts" who produce original pathways through signs.....The semionaut imagines the links, the likely relations between disparate sites". - Nicholas Bourriaud, “PostProduction” (p.18), 2005

Artist: Jackie Tileston
+ zggallery.com

Australian artist Tracy Saroff uses a variety of media to express herself, and light is something that figures strongly in many of her installations and photographs. The effects of daylight and electrical light upon the space that surrounds them is something Saroff likes to study, using different translucent materials as a vehicle. Light is used to mark change and the passage of time, as well as science and man’s effects on his world – one comment she makes in reference to her Cyber Plants installation is that “In the future we may come home from work at the end of the day and turn our plants on… pulsing with energy as if they had been transformed from toxic pollution.”

Artist: Tracy Saroff
+ tracysarroff.com

Paulin Paris is an artist and designer based in LA who has been focusing his painting on a series of canvases that express the form and movement of acrobats in motion. One series is particularly delightful in that it bears the additional artwork of his five-year-old daughter, Sabine. The artist’s goal is to create a mental space through his work where he combines the acrobats with abstract shapes and the essence of balance.

Artist: Paulin Paris
+ paulin-paris.com

Jenny Hart brings contemporary verve to the traditional art of embroidery. An artist first and foremost, to Hart embroidery is a type of very-focused drawing. She grew up influenced by her brother’s comics, inspiration that finds itself on her works of cotton. Hart’s embroidery may be old school, but her subjects are anything but: Iggy Pop, the White Stripes or the lovely ladies pictured here are just a few of her hand-stitched gallery. In addition, Hart’s company, Sublime Stitching, offers an incredible array of embroidery patterns of the here and now. Uh-oh, we feel a new hobby coming on …

Artist: Jenny Hart
+ jennyhart.net
+ sublimestitching.com