Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA) , Costa Mesa, California Continues through May 25, 2025 February 22, 2025 Su Yu-Xin, “Searching the Sky for Gold,” installation view. Walking into Su Yu-Xin’s exhibition is to enter a magical display of dozens of large, colorful semi-abstract paintings. Yet look closely and the works evoke a variety of ephemeral scenes, including clouds moving through the sky, sunlight reflecting large landscapes, volcanoes in action, rain-soaked mountain scenes, exotic fires smoldering beneath the earth, mushroom shaped clouds emanating from bombs that were just dropped, and more. Even more impressive are the descriptions of the materials and techniques used to create these artworks, along with the artist’s intentions of what her imagery will hopefully convey to viewers. Materials in her paints — that she laboriously collects from disparate parts of our planet — include earthbound matter derived from soil, natural ores, shells, corals, semiprecious stones and plants, all applied to flax-based canvasses. To create her various homemade pigments, which number in the hundreds, Su gathers raw materials from landscapes that she says have undergone transformation. This ranges widely, from coastal and volcanic terrains to railways at “precarious places in the Pacific regions.” Su Yu-Xin, “Heaven's Sigh (Mount Merapi),” 2024, various colors of volcanic rocks, pyrite (fool's gold), ochre, soil, oyster shell fossil, iwa-enogu, sandstone, and other handmade pigments on flax stretched over wooden frame, 99 3/16 x 83 7/8 x 2 3/16”. All images courtesy the artist. Su has great reverence for the pigments that she makes and uses in her artworks, believing that colors carry the weight of their histories. Far more than just paint, embedded in them are legacies of trade and extraction, and with that an implicit narrative of human exploitation. Her flax-infused canvasses facilitate diffusion and the random spreading out of the paints, which she welcomes and has increasingly mastered. Su Yu-Xin was born in Hualien, Taiwan in 1991, and studied Chinese ink painting and Japanese Nihonga  painting in Taipei. She earned an MFA from London’s Slade School of Fine Art. Her techniques have evolved gradually, having been derived from her studies that may be centered on aesthetics but go well beyond, and also from her sheer creative talent, which transcends the narrowness of traditional painting practices. She regards her imaginary landscapes as, “dynamic, interconnected systems, where sky, earth and substance are fluidly entwined,” creating an expansive approach to our environment that can be seen in the body of work that makes up “Searching the Sky for Gold.” Su Yu-Xin, “A Detonation, and the Time It Spent with the World (Atomic Bomb Test, New Mexico),” 2024, cinnabarite, synthetic cinnabarite, realgar, orpiment, sulfur, soot, gofun, coal cinder, clay, and other handmade pigments on flax stretched over wooden frame and wooden stands, 93 11/16 x 59 1/16 x 2 3/16”. The titles of Su’s artworks are provocative, while reflecting the images they describe. “Heaven’s Sigh (Mount Merapi)” (2024) depicts a cone-shaped volcano, painted with swirling strokes, with the black and red hues fashioned from volcanic rocks and soil. The volcano is enhanced by a thin veil of cloud in greenish metallic tones. “A Detonation, and the Time It Spent with the World (Atomic Bomb Test, New Mexico)” (2024) renders a mushroom-shaped cloud from an A-bomb, an image painted and photographed ad nauseam. What sets it apart is the addition of the falling debris and dying flames that occur moments after the bomb’s detonation. The colors of this painting, suggestive of the deadly forces unleashed from the bomb, are deep red from cinnabar and orange-yellow from the sulfide-based mineral realgar. It is among the best examples of how media and the depicted image resonate synergistically. Su Yu-Xin, “Heart of Darkness (Underground Burning, Utah),” 2024, realgar, orpiment, sulfur, cinnabarite, soot, Chinese fir charcoal, purple shale, black tourmaline, red agate, organ pipe coral (Tubipora musica), soil, hematite, lapis lazuli, amazonite, red garnet, Dupont titanium dioxide, and other handmade pigments on flax stretched over wooden frame and wooden stands, 63 x 94 1/2 x 2 3/16”. “Heart of Darkness (Underground Burning, Utah)” (2024) is a vivid interpretation of coal smoldering underground so energetically that the flames — painted with red, yellow and black pigments derived from realgar, sulfur, and cinnabar — come to life, behaving like hungry serpents. “Dust Crown (Mount St. Helens)” (2024) is an illustration of an eruption at Mount St. Helens in Washington, an event that in 1980 reshaped the northwest landscape and produced the gemstone known as Helenite, which resembles an emerald. The eruption is portrayed here is an exotic dancing figure, while research reveals that the pigment used for the piece is that selfsame Helenite. Su Yu-Xin, “Strange Remedy (Mount Kuju Hot Spring),” 2024, soil, orpiment, silica malachite, chrysocolla, black marble, iwa-enogu, gofun, and other handmade pigments on flax stretched over wooden frame. 55 1/8 x 87 13/16 x 2 3/16”. “Strange Remedy (Mount Kuju Hot Spring)” (2024) is a landscape style painting, illustrating the power of curative waters, based on Buddhist teachings. Employing the minerals malachite and chrysocolla produce the bluish mud undertones, to which is added the element known as orpiment, along with soil, that produces a layer of yellow that floats on the top of the mud. The artist employs materials that are both aesthetically illuminating and which have a therapeutic effect. Su Yu-Xin’s paintings are amalgams of her well-trained artistry, combined with her profound knowledge of earth, air, fire and water, the four base elements recognized in the ancient world. Her empathetic use of the earth elements that she collects are crucial to what distinguishes this exhibition. To immerse yourself in them is to experience a foretaste of the kind of harmonious world that we yearn to inhabit. Liz Goldner  is an award-winning art writer based in Laguna Beach. She has contributed to the LA Times, LA Weekly, KCET Artbound, Artillery, AICA-USA Magazine, Orange County Register, Art Ltd. and several other print and online publications. She has written reviews for ArtScene and Visual Art Source since 2009.  Liz Goldner’s Website .

Shoshana Wayne Gallery , Los Angeles, California Continues through March 22, 2025 February 8, 2025 Visiting Jeanne Silverthorne's exhibition “They Will Be Like Shadows” as the recent Los Angeles wildfires burned influenced my response to and interpretation of the works. Silverthorne’s platinum silicone rubber and mixed media sculptures — some figurative, others referencing the body — alluded to the death and destruction of real time events. Seeing “Banshee (Self-Portrait at 73)” (2023), a life-like, off white sculpture of a woman (the artist) stretched out on the gallery floor sent shivers down my spine. Silverthorne recreates her aging body, devoid of color but full of detail: untied sneakers on crossed feet, gray synthetic hair and black rimmed glasses flanking her complacent face. Jeanne Silverthorne, “Banshee (Self-Portrait at 73),” 2023, platinum silicone rubber, synthetic hair, glasses, 16 x 30 x 70”. All images courtesy of Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Los Angeles. In “Too Dumbly in My Being Pent” (2023) she presents the same figure, now in fragments and stuffed into a cardboard box lined with bubble wrap, suggesting the sculpture will be shipped and/or stored somewhere hidden from sight. In keeping with Silverthorne's practice, the figure as well as the box and wrappings are all intricately fabricated casts. Silverthorne is a master of her chosen material (platinum silicone rubber) and can fabricate and transform just about anything of any size with acute veracity. Jeanne Silverthorne, “Too Dumbly in My Being Pent,” 2023, platinum silicone rubber, 36 x 36 x 24”. The exhibition unfolds as a narrative on life and loss, as well as on an artist's practice as it relates to the rest of the world. The pieces simultaneously feel fragile and sturdy. Because Silverthorne has such a command of her materials, the works are also minimal and maximal: they feel alive though they are fabricated. In the disconcerting “And the Unfathomable Night of Dreams Began” (2022), a tiny, sleeping baby wearing a knitted cap rests on a billowing white cloud that also resembles an enlarged wad of chewing gum or cake frosting.  Jeanne Silverthorne, “Double Sneakers (‘The Three Sillies’),” 2023, platinum silicone rubber, figure: 11 x 40 x 9”, crate: 14 1/2 x 51 x 26 1/2”. Silverthorne describes a trajectory of maturation as the infant grows and becomes a child. Children's sneakers appear in “Crate with Sneaker,” “In My Mother's House,” and “Double Sneakers ('The Three Sillies’)” (all 2023). In “Crate with Sneaker” Silverthorne fashions, completely from rubber, a four-foot-high wooden crate. The otherwise empty container holds one small black sneaker at its base. As the footwear is its only contents, the piece suggests the unsettling idea that there could be a disembodied foot inside. The narrative progresses: the child becomes an adult. Silverthorne depicts not only herself in the aforementioned “Banshee (Self-Portrait at 73),” but also her mother in two other richly impactful works, the evocative small-scale table top sculptures “Mom Under a Cloud II” (2024) and “Mom on Book” (2023). In “Mom Under a Cloud II,” Silverthorne's mother is seated on top of a pile of crates that are suggestive of coffins. This exacting figure leans forward, one arm across her lap, the other below her chin as if lost in thought. A floating cloud magically hovers above her head. Jeanne Silverthorne, “Quotes,” 2021, platinum silicone rubber, 1 1/2 x 2 x 1/2”. For “Mom on Book” Silverthorne's mother stands on a hardcover volume of a book of fairy tales. The closed book sits on a pedestal. It has white pages and a black cover. Its title (“365 Fairy Tales”) appears as raised letters on the book’s spine. The implication in this quasi-narrative could be a mother reading from the book to her growing child before the mother is consumed by the clouds (referencing “Mom Under a Cloud II”). Jeanne Silverthorne, “Mom Under a Cloud II,” 2024, platinum silicone rubber, 20 x 10 x 5”. “Hanging Question Mark” (2020) in many ways sums up the overall experience of the exhibition. Here, Silverthorne suspends a large, black, three-dimensional rubber question mark from the ceiling so that the circular punctuation point sits on top of a tall rubber crate. The excess rubber rope loops over pipes in the ceiling and rests on the floor behind the crate. As we try to decipher the various elements, the work appears ambiguous and absurd. When seen in relation to the empty quotation marks of “Quotes” (2021), which bracket empty space on the wall, it becomes evident that Silverthorne is playing with language, enticing us to think metaphorically as we weave our way through the various elements of the installation. Jody Zellen  is a LA based writer and artist who creates interactive installations, mobile apps, net art, animations, drawings, paintings, photographs, public art, and artist’s books. Zellen received a BA from Wesleyan University (1983), a MFA from CalArts (1989) and a MPS from NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program (2009). She has exhibited nationally and internationally since 1989. For more information please visit  www.jodyzellen.com .

James Leong, “In and Out,” 1972-73, mixed media on canvas, 45 x 57”. All images courtesy of Chatwin Arts Gallery, Seattle. James Leong (1929-2011) moved to Seattle in 1990 after a storied career in San Francisco, Oslo, Rome, and New York, and boasting a raft of awards including Fulbright, Guggenheim, and Whitney fellowships. By then, Leong’s saga mirrored that of other postwar American artists of color who had exiled themselves to Europe — James Baldwin, Miles Davis — as a result of lifestyle choice or, in Leong’s and Baldwin’s cases, racial discrimination. The artist, educated at California College of Arts and Crafts and San Francisco State College, contributed considerably to the Seattle art community. He was invited, for example, to advise the Museum of History and Industry, Wing Luke Museum, and Seattle Arts Commission. Sadly, his art was not as readily recognized or appreciated, with only one show at Lasater Gallery in 1994. This survey goes a long way to correcting that embarrassing neglect, especially for an artist once included in the prestigious Whitney, Brooklyn, and Rome biennials and who showed at the legendary Downtown Gallery in New York, as well as at other significant European venues with an important show of American painters that toured Germany. James Leong, “Eight,” 1970, mixed media on canvas, 24 x 32”. Leong is a classic case of an artist transitioning from representational to abstract art, a common shift in postwar art both in the U.S. and in Europe. Examples of Leong’s figurative work are included here, and affirm his reason for rejecting that style as “too propagandistic” — appropriate for a public art mural in San Francisco’s Chinatown (and attacked by Chinese-American neighbors) — and later abandoning awkward mythic-narrative paintings he made in the Bay Area before his relocations. It was abroad where Leong found his formalist voice between 1959 and 1984. With several successful shows in Rome, praised by prickly Roman art critics, he was befriended by Cy Twombly, Vincent Price, Isamu Noguchi, and Buckminster Fuller. Before Rome, however, the artist’s move to Norway on a Fulbright in 1957 pushed him closer to Edvard Munch’s bright sense of color and toward the overwhelming majesty of Scandinavian landscapes — and weather. Many of the abstractions seem like rain scattered across a window, or colored flurries of snow. James Leong, “Stretch,” 1970, mixed media on canvas, 10 1/2 x 14”. Gradually, the abstract paintings in Italy came to depict unusual irregular geometric forms against monochromatic backgrounds, as in “In and Out” (1971-72) and “Little Theatre” (1970). Haunting and enigmatic, they are unlike any other advanced painting of that period. Gradually optical effects came to dominate, connecting the artist to parallel trends throughout Europe, and in advance of American artists discovering Op Art. “Eight” (1970) set up a symmetrical grid followed by “Untitled” (1972), with its whorls of bending linear elements leading to a central circle. “Echo” (1978) imposes the same curves but over cloudy and rocky shapes in the distance. Interestingly, Leong was struck and lost sight in one eye as a child, the result of a hate crime and doctors unwilling to treat him. As he later put it, his space became “one-dimensional,” yet there are paintings, such as “Omen” (1978) that include window-like frames for the viewer to peer deep into and beyond the wide marginal areas. James Leong, “Monied Mountain,” 1999, mixed media on paper on synthetic canvas, 31 1/2 x 23 1/2”. Leong repeatedly stressed color as the motivating factor in his evolution of styles and periods. The extraordinary chromatic subtlety of his canvases is beautifully demonstrated in the survey. By the end of his Roman sojourn, optical explorations gave way to all-over spatter paintings that juxtapose muted tones beneath vertical, horizontal or diagonal drips and streaks in works such as “Source” (1976), “Pulse” and “Set Jade” (both 1978). These are smaller, more intimate in size, averaging 24 by 18 inches, closer to Mark Tobey, whom Leong acknowledged as an influence and who pushed him toward an Asian “look” of sensitive, all-over brushwork, a look that would dominate his last works. In Seattle, as he put it in an unpublished autobiography, Leong found the full measure of his peronal identity. “I never really felt Chinese until I came to Seattle. It is so multi-cultural; you are not forced to take a stand … I came back as a mature artist … the problems are now aesthetic … Seattle provides the comfort of landscape … to work on my own.” James Leong, “Discovery,” 2000, acrylic, casein, gesso on paper on synthetic canvas, 45 x 57 1/2”. The results, to be seen in the upcoming Part II of the retrospective, are impressive, perhaps a climax to the stylistic divagations of his European exile. “Lijiang” (1998), “Monied Mountain,” “Guilian Three” (both 1999) and “Discovery” (2000) could fairly be called Leong’s “late period,” final breakthroughs of glistening color spatters that cohere into classical Chinese mountain-and-river landscapes. Seen with the other works in Part II, they affirm that all Leong’s travel, exile and stylistic transitions fed into a culmination of abstract painting that embodies rich cultural implications.

Iván Argote, “Turistas: King Charles III of Spain,” 2013, C-print, 63 x 47 1/4”. All images courtesy of Perrotin Los Angeles. Born and raised in Colombia in a family of political militants, Paris-based Iván Argote has spent more than a decade enacting performative inter ventions that question the rationale behind public monuments of powerful historical figures. It’s a timely topic in the United States and abroad, where statues steeped in the legacies of colonialism or slavery have been removed or relocated to museums from public squares. Such structures are, in Argote’s opinion, symbols of dominance that tell, at best, narrow versions of the histories of colonization, versions that tend to overlook the plights of those who were enslaved or displaced. In his current exhibition, a provocative sampling of projects undertaken since 2012 is presented in the form of photographic documentation, a sculptural installation, and a three-part video. Los Angeles was the setting for one of Argote’s earliest interventions, which involved altering a statue of King Charles III of Spain located in downtown’s El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Park. According to the inscription on the sculpture’s plaque, the Spanish king “ordered the founding of El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles in 1781,” i.e. took credit for “discovering” Los Angeles. Argote’s reaction to the sculpture was to dress it in a colorful poncho as a reference to the pre-colonial populations who lived here prior to the arrival of Spaniards. Centrally positioned in the photograph on view, the garment is an emblematic symbol. It contrasts sharply with the statue’s monochromatic bronze surface, while also standing out emphatically against the grayish atmosphere of an overcast day. In a related recent work, “Turistas: Roma, Villa Borghese, October 12” (2024), Argote adorned a statue of Christopher Columbus in similar fashion on Columbus Day, which is also celebrated in the artist’s native Colombia. Once regarded as the heroic discoverer of America, Columbus has become a controversial figure, as greater attention has been paid to his evident mistreatment of slaves and indigenous peoples. Iván Argote, “Etcetera: Covering with Mirrors Francisco de Orellana, the So-Called Discoverer of the Amazon,” 2012-18, C-print, 63 x 63”. In addressing the effects of historical colonialism, Argote does not limit himself only to considering the impact on displaced people. As reflected in his “Etcetera” and “Wild Flowers” series, he also calls attention to authoritarian leaders’ neglect and destruction of the environment. Growing up not that far from the Amazon basin, he is particularly sensitive to the disappearance of rainforests and their inhabitants. For “Etcetera” (2012-18), which took place in Bogotá, Argote altered a statue of Spaniard Francisco de Orellana, the so-called discoverer of the Amazon. Here he placed a mirrored box over the sculpture’s head, camouflaging it with reflections of surrounding tree foliage and thereby honoring the land itself. “Wild Flowers” is an ongoing series of installations in which the artist fabricates a replica of a public sculpture of a powerful figure and then deconstructs it and repurposes the body parts as planters for flowers that are native to the region where they are exhibited. For the newest incarnation, the artist created a bronze copy of the “Augustus of Prima Porta” (1st century AD), dismembered it, and filled the resultant vessels with soil and wildflowers. Conceptually, the installation contrasts an embodiment of violence and aggression (Augustus) with the vibrancy and splendor of natural, organic growth. Lyrically rhythmic against a bare white wall, the bustling plants also remind us of nature’s beauty, preciousness, and resilience. Iván Argote, “Wild Flowers: Augustus” series, 2024, bronze, plants and soil, installation view. Argote’s most ambitious interventions are revealed in his video “Levitate (2022),” which documents three simulations of taking down and levitating large public monuments associated with the historical figures who abused and displaced native populations.  For Part 1, set in Rome, Argote built a copy of the Flaminio Obelisk, which was transported to Rome in the first century BC by Emperor Augustus to commemorate the conquest of Egypt. As the camera captures the replica being lifted by cranes and floated above the city, Argote’s voiceover explains that obelisks are symbols of power and control that he hopes will someday simply fly away. His obelisk is then moved close to the real monument in the Piazza del Popolo, where it is laid flat on the ground like a corpse, lifted up in the air in a vertical position, and then split into fragments. In Part 2, the action begins with the raising of another replica — this one a statue of Columbus. Captured appropriately on Columbus Day (celebrated in Spain since 1892), most of the footage is of the statue being transported in a horizontal position on the bed of a truck through the streets of Madrid. The final episode was shot at the Place Vauban in Paris, which houses a statue of Joseph Gallieni, a military leader who established numerous French colonies around the world. In this segment, Argote impersonates a workman, in a hard hat and reflective clothing, who climbs a ladder to wrap the sculpture with straps from the crane. Although he couldn’t dislodge the original sculpture without severe consequences, the artist convincingly portrays its removal in his video using AI technology to create a deep fake, so that it appears as if the object is lifted from its pedestal and suspended in the air. Iván Argote, “Levitate,” 2022, still from single-channel video, 23 minutes 48 seconds. Argote has stated that these interventions are intended to raise awareness of the tarnished pasts and propagandistic purposes of so many public monuments. In his narration, he shares personal anecdotes about the locations, explains the histories and contexts of the obelisk and statues, and posits the idea of a future when the structures will ultimately be taken down. He concludes by uttering, “Let’s take one last break, and start the conversation.” Judging by the screen-shots of online reactions to these projects, the dialogue has in fact begun. After seeing media coverage about the Gallieni project, so many people thought it had been removed that city officials posted a picture of it in situ as evidence that it was actually still standing. David S. Rubin  is a Los Angeles-based curator, writer, and artist. As a curator, he has held positions at MOCA Cleveland, Phoenix Art Museum, Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans, and San Antonio Museum of Art. As a writer he has contributed to Art and Cake, Art in America, Arts Magazine, Artweek, ArtScene, Artillery, Fabrik, Glasstire, Hyperallergic, and Visual Art Source. He has published numerous  exhibition catalogs , and his curatorial archives are housed in the   Smithsonian Archives of American Art . For more information: www.davidsrubin.com .

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