Holly Elander‘s quiet Los Angeles cityscapes exude a strong presence. Desolation brings out the personalities of inanimate features that would otherwise be easily overlooked in neglected byways. This exhibition includes 21 acrylic-on-panel paintings from two divergent but equally open-ended series. “Solitary Shadows” takes you on rambling nighttime excursions through deserted alleys where apartment buildings, driveways and garages are spied through a Hitchcockian lens conferring eerie gravity upon glimpses of illuminated windows and shadows of vegetation. Mysterious chiaroscuro lures you into voyeuristic speculation about the unseen inhabitants of paintings such as Pico (all works 2019). Strangeness is pushed further in Elander’s other series, “Fine Line,” where scenes of land, sea and still lifes are divided into surreal stripes or color blocks in configurations recalling geometric abstraction. These starkly delineated alterations in hue give the impression of looking through colored gels, suggesting the artifice of different human views of nature. Time is flattened in paintings such as Circle, pictured above, where a horned creature’s skeleton lying on an orange-tinged desert floor in broad daylight seems eons away from an urban settlement in the dusky distance. Sidestepping bustle, Elander’s work invites a more reflective outlook towards our metropolitan environs.

Launch LA
170 S. La Brea Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Show runs through Aug. 24