“A Piebald Era” at Garis & Hahn showcases Lisa Adams‘ latest explorations of painting’s potential for capturing modern life’s contradictions and irrationalities. Evoking derelict urban landscapes filtered through surreal reveries, Adams’ new paintings lead viewers on imaginary peregrinations through dreamlike realms suffused with inklings of dystopia. Quizzical fauna are beset by human obtrusions; while mysterious flora daintily encroach dilapidated constructs. Tensions between nature and artifice are further emphasized by spatial incongruities and disjunctions between representation and abstraction. Blue goo oozes from a circular wound in chartreuse sky as strange green vines invade a deserted building high on stilts above a flooded landscape in The Flat Hope of Exile (2018). The promise of amusement in Anthropogenic Carousel (2017, pictured above) is overshadowed by balefulness as a pink dolphin writhes impaled on a shadowless pole over a gaping black hole in an oceanic pool. Other works more explicitly treat of contemporary issues, such as A Hidden Fear of Veracity (2018) where an American flag shrouds a vaguely human form. Complementing her paintings, an installation titled Summary of Escalation (2018) includes dying tufts of straggly grass surrounding a graffiti-adorned ladder to nowhere atop a dismal concrete block. At heart, much of Adams’ work seems driven by her desire to distill latent curious beauty from questionable scenarios. This is most eloquently emblematized by The Expiration of Icons (2018) and several other portrayals of vibrant blooms in beleaguered environs.

Garis & Hahn
1820 Industrial St.
Los Angeles, CA 90021
Show runs through Feb. 17