Just as sordid episodes leak bit by bit from grand American narratives, a morbid sense of truculence stealthily emerges from Joshua Hagler‘s bright palette and superficially quaint old-time imagery. His show “The River Lethe” at the Brand Library encompasses two riveting installations and over 30 paintings inspired by his expeditions through former frontiers of Westward expansion. Hagler subverts the historic authoritativeness of Manifest Destiny paintings and Western film stills by presenting their scenarios as timeworn, chipping away. With syncopated imagery and corraded paint surfaces, his figures are so indefinite that it’s often impossible to tell what’s going on; but whatever is happening, it doesn’t appear auspicious. In Skin Shed Song (2017-2018, pictured above), a horseman, perhaps a Civil War soldier, seems to be blowing a bugle; but it isn’t quite the musical instrument it appears—its bell abruptly becomes the barrel of a rifle. Whether the horseman is attempting self-slaughter or trying to fend off an opponent’s bayonet is unclear; but either way, his mount seems unnaturally calm. Abstract landscapes montaged from multiple scenes, such as White Room Redroom (2018), and Lethe (Missouri 1565, 1811, 2016) (2016), recall weathery geography while also evoking multiple points in time and layers of paint peeling from weathered walls. Complementing Hagler’s evocations of sad, slightly intrusive sensations of exploring deserted sites, Elizabeth Dorbad‘s thought-provoking show, “Itinerant Architectures,” in the hallway galleries, encompasses sculptures, drawings and photographs documenting “architectural interventions” in which she symbolically transfigures abandoned trailers—aimless contemporary covered wagons marooned with meager resources and no land left to pioneer.

Brand Library Art Galleries
1601 West Mountain Street
Glendale, CA 91201
Shows run through Aug. 24