As an exhibition I had intended to see on what should’ve been a busy night, Durden and Ray’s Another Dimension was high on my list. As things turned out, the show itself entered another dimension, in the limbo of closings-before-they-opened, as we practiced social distancing that became “Safer at Home.”

There is nothing safe about the Durden and Ray exhibition, which feels both entirely appropriate and oddly prescient for March 2020 in Los Angeles. Well curated by Jorin Bossen and David Spanbock, the show explores new dimensions of the human body through both sculptural and painted work. Participating artists include Daniel Adkins, Nadege Monchera-Baer, Jorin Bossen, Gul Cagin, Michel Carla Handel, Renee Henderson, Jennifer Lugris, Liz Nurenberg, Kottie Paloma, Molly Segal, and David Spanbock. It’s a terrific show that offers a varied look at the figurative, specifically that of the human figure, one that shifts perception between abstraction and representational work, forcing the viewer into examining what they think they know into what they see before them.

Molly Segal, “The Other Shoe”

Molly Segal’s watercolor and gouache “The Other Shoe” is one of the many standouts. A figure is supine, covered in part with a blanket, and only fully discernable with a careful examination of her dense, lush work. The title itself expresses something we may all be feeling – when will that other shoe drop? At the same time, the amorphousness of the body speaks to both a persistence amid a time of unknowable circumstance, and to an eternalness of the human spirit. Muted in palette, richly complex.

With Nadege Monchera-Baer’s glowing red linkage of human figures bloom red as poppies on a golden field in “Assembly.” The figures are both bright and mysteriously floral as they are strangely ominous, backs turned to us, almost unbearably close. “Olympe” is a figure in gestation, an image that is also obscurely floral as well as being womb-like. The colors are almost delicate, hovering on the iridescent.

Nadege Monchera-Baer, “Assembly”

Meanwhile, Gul Cagin’s silhouette image is like a woman on fire in red and orange and yellow. With her “Impossibility of Looking Ahead,” she creates something both fragile and burning with desire. A bird – the future? – goes fluttering away from this female figure.

The abstract silvery sculptural work of Michelle Carla Handel is both person and object, an image both human and architectural, in her “Fixed Wad.” Liz Nurenberg lures the viewer into the depths of her sculptural work; Kottie Paloma creates work both humorous and darkly disconcerting.

And Renee Henderson’s “Sacked and Scrambling” gives us two figures, one holding on, one gesturing toward an immediate letting go, as a darkness, like a void, floats from the dominant figure. The two are conjoined but about to end their symbiotic relationship.

Gul Cagin, “Impossibility of Looking Ahead”

Each work, including that of the curators, is profoundly perfect for this place and time, as we are plunged into another dimension indeed. However, at any time, this is an exhibition worth exploring. Originally scheduled through April 5th; contact the gallery for information.