A beautifully curated show unites abstractions by Andy Moses, Jen Stark and Kelsey Brookes at William Turner Gallery. Its title, “Elemental,” betokens the three painters’ employment of basic lines and simple shapes as fundamental building blocks for compositions alluding to forces of nature. Each artist adheres to an evocative formalism where sharply delineated configurations suggest biologic or geologic phenomena. Stratified bands of color define Moses’ compositions such as Geomorphology 1704 (2017), which engulfs your field of vision to place you in a glowing nocturnal lava field where indigo sky meets burnt orange magma rippling all the way to the horizon. This extraordinary work alone makes the show worth visiting, as does Brookes’ A Line Through the Rainbow (Yellow to Orange) (2017), a lurid hazy landscape formed of little more than repetitive squiggles. Stark’s and Brookes’ paintings both involve Op Art-esque conformations of concentric rings and segmented wavy ruffles. Stark’s optically mesmeric sunbursts such as Prisma Chrome (2017, pictured above) seem like close-up views or allotropic variations of Brookes’ minutely detailed orbicular crystalline forms. Evoking the sensation of gazing into an algae-lined tide pool, Stark’s round resplendent mirrored piece, Pink and Blue (2018), echoes the shape and sparkle of Moses’ “Geodesy” tondo series of panels glossed in swirls of shimmering paint resembling nacreous mineral marbling. Corresponding to these paintings’ circularity, pinwheels in Brookes’ nearby Batrachotoxin (2017) recall molecular geometry. These unexpected harmonies are just the sort one hopes to discover in a three-person exhibition.

William Turner Gallery
2525 Michigan Ave., Ste. E-1
Santa Monica, CA 90404
Show runs through Nov. 8
Artist talk on Nov. 8 at 7 pm, with reception at 6 pm