Titled “The Sick Rose” after William Blake’s 1794 poem and engraving, LA painter Laurie Nye‘s current exhibition is like a garden of botanical specimens evoking romance and malady. Describing a rose afflicted by the pernicious love of an invisible worm, Blake’s cryptic verses provided a vivid point of departure for Nye’s meditations on broader emotional, environmental and art-historical themes. Whereas the paintings in her last solo show, “Venusian Weather,” revolved around a fanciful cosmological mythos based on science fiction and ecofeminism, her new paintings are rooted in more austere earthly realities. She has pared her forms and subjects to their essence: her palette is mostly limited to pinks, salmons and reds; her compositions are flowing labyrinths of abstract ripples suggesting human innards and roses’ petal interiors. Each painting is imbued with a unique mood; the longer you gaze, the more hints of anthropomorphism cascade from its ruddy riffles. Some, such as Science Fiction (Ripley’s Rose) (all works 2019), bring to mind bizarre multilobed faces; while others, such as Love and Worry Rose (pictured above) conjure images of blood, pain and human hearts. Completing the effect, real rotting roses nod from a pair of stoneware vases; and past an exquisite series of colored pencil drawings, the back room features a clever installation of small rose paintings hanging underneath a row of diminutive “Pollinator” paintings depicting mask-like butterflies that almost seem to flap their wings as you blink.

Big Pictures Los Angeles
2424 W. Washington Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90018
Show runs through Nov. 10