This post-Frieze weekend we were tired. It was raining, which all locals will know is a very valid reason to cancel all plans and have a date with your couch. Despite this rare but welcome excuse, the attendance at Ochi Projects’ group exhibition “Doesn’t Whine By Blue Moon” was thoroughly impressive. 

Bri Williams, Medusa.

Organized by New York-based artist Alix Vernet and Zoe Koke (whose work was also featured), the exhibition presented a diverse exploration into ‘ruin-like’ work, which functioned as a ‘love-song to warning’. 

Curator Alix Vernet.

Vernet’s own work, sculptures of white bricks, performed an aggrandized appreciation of Western Civilizations and call into conversation the notions of perceived permanence. These sculptures drew art icon John Divola’s photographs into the space, opening then up for engaging discourse. The identifiably low hang rendering his revered works both physically in dialogue with the floor sculpture, and (more metaphorically speaking) bringing them on a level with works by emerging artists conversing on new planes. This powerful recontextualization was made more so by the full use of the space where angles are warped (note Zoe Koke’s Surveillance ii a car wing-mirror – think objects in mirror are closer than they appear) and depth questioned (Ariana Papademetropoulos’s Castle for the Left Hand mirror-grid). Kamaria Shepherd was the breakout for me (the only artist in the exhibition with whom I was not previously familiar), with her wall hanging Ha Recollection, a Victorian Blouse (which registered more as a clothing pattern) inscribed with a poem by Shepherd. It’s translucence a further compliment to the intentionally wistful energy of this exhibitions’ hang, a whisper whose words carry only import. 

Kamaria Shepherd, Ha Recollection.

The opening was filled with fellow artists, friends and curators. An abundance of compliments were shared on the thoughtful and deliberate hang, as well as the adept placement of floor works (which all too often feel randomly strewn). 

Arielle Chiara, Dry Land is a Kind of Ocean in Waiting.

‘Doesn’t Whine by Blue Moon’ is on view at Ochi Projects 22 February – 21 March 2020. 

Ochi Projects, 3301 W Washington Blvd. Los Angeles CA 90018.