Last Saturday night the LA arts scene was in full swing and we gladly joined the frenzy. Our first stop was Wilding Cran Gallery, which immersed us in installations by Vikky Alexander for her show Vertical Dreams, and Jen Stark’s opening, Multiplicity. After entrance into the gallery we were also presented with four additional entrances in the form of Alexander’s large-scale wall murals. Each sprawled from floor to ceiling and portrayed enticing portals into various worlds.

Vikky Alexander at Wilding Cran Gallery

The images were a mix of natural landscapes and synthetic textures, which together created believable architectural spaces. The imagined reality installations originally manifested as smaller collages, but Alexander took these compositions and blew them up in large scale. Viewers approached the works as if they were “Alice in Wonderland” rabbit holes where if viewed from the right angle one could slip into the peacefully whimsical worlds. Personally, after this week, this concept proved to be more than enticing.

Vikky Alexander at Wilding Cran Gallery

Luckily for me, this soon may well be a possibility as I learned from my discussion with Alexander that she was considering taking these works to the next level of immersion through Virtual Technology. I’m not a fan of VR headsets, but I would brave putting one on to sit in one of Alexander’s worlds (preferably one with the palm trees.) Alexander’s works in the front room were coupled with the ambient sounds coming from Jen Stark’s animated projection installations, which existed just around the corner. Enticed by the music, viewers were drawn to Stark’s animated trippy visuals which were projected onto the wall pulsating to the beat and doubled with floor mirrors. Spotted interacting with the piece was actor/comedian Eric Wareheim, who happily entertained viewers with a graceful dance through Stark’s psychedelic piece.

Jen Stark at Wilding Cran Gallery

I was excited to see Stark’s work because it seems like I have been seeing it everywhere from Van’s new shoe launch to Smashbox Cosmetics and random walls in Venice. This iteration of her patterns as living, activated objects was definitely a treat. Although extremely different aesthetically, both artists succeeded in pushing their visuals beyond initial form, creating truly hypnotic works. Little did I know they would be a nice calm before the storm of the next opening we were about to experience.

Invader at Over the Influence

Breaking our trance we carried on to Over the Influence’s show for the notorious Invader’s Into the white cube. It was his first solo exhibition since 2005, so I anticipated a crowd, but I was truly not prepared for the sheer power of his atomicity intrigue. Invader’s diehard fans wrapped around the gallery in a line as if they had been camping out since morning. Inside the gallery we were met by walls of Invader’s iconic mosaics and a theater room playing footage of the artist. Viewers were all excited by the show, but also by the prospect of catching a glimpse of the enigmatic Invader. One fan clutched a sketchbook with an Invader sticker on it and asked me if I thought he might actually be at the opening. His guess was as good as mine.  —Invader wherever you are, I don’t blame you. There were several celebrity sightings at the opening, but who knows, Invader could have been the biggest sighting of all and we would not have even noticed.