Artists Vonn Sumner and Holly Elander each offer astonishing exhibitions of intensely personal artworks, that coupled with intimacy also present a prescient commentary on current socio-political times.

Sumner’s solo show, “Burning Down the House,” features oil paintings the artist began in 2019—eerily ahead of its times with its empty boarded buildings, fires and dumpsters. Exuding an air of abandonment and mysterious wildness, his images are licked by flames creating a sense of attractive but dangerous purging. In 2020, the idea of “burning down” the urban forest’s growth has a more purposeful attraction.

The spare palette, with clean realistic execution of his images, creates a viewing experience that is lighter of heart. Dumpster Fire III (2019) is burning hot with destruction, but the orange and gold flames flare against a neon pink, graffiti-strewn wall as brilliant as any California sunset. Burned Out Building (2020) is an ashy, gravestone-gray, but the graffiti written across lower floors is brightly colored; a rainbow of words, the sky a brilliant dark-periwinkle. Internal flames, perhaps the psychedelic, appear the subject in works such as Byzantine Anonyme (2019). Fire destroys but also resurrects.

Vonn Sumner, Dumpster Fire III, 2016, courtesy KP Projects, photo by @birdmanphotos.

Elander’s exhibition “Our Home” is quite different in subject and approach, but it too speaks of change to the natural world and the dichotomy of its human imprint. In part inspired by incidents from Elander’s childhood—including a raccoon on the roof, a snake in the driveway and coyotes trailing the family on a walk through the neighborhood—these delightful works bring wild creatures into a mid-century modern home similar to the house where Elander grew up. The palette is primarily quieter than in any previous series by the artist, although the vivid yellows of pitcher, background and insect in Mantis (2020) belie that. In other works, the background dissolves, leaving us free-floating in personal space. Regardless of palette and background, the visits by natural creatures from owls to wild cats to the coyotes prowling around a living room piano in Composition (2020) are alluring and magical, filled with immediacy, seemingly floating the viewer into the imaginary home.

Whimsical and warm, Elander offers a profound and poignant look at man sharing his space with nature. Her message is as simple as the acrylic works are carefully and delicately wrought. We all share the same planet, and all must be welcome.