Lester Monzon’s second solo exhibition with Mark Moore Gallery is titled “SI VIS PACEM PARA BELLUM,” which translates to “If you want peace, prepare for war,” and reads as an enigma wrapped within an enigma as these loosely rendered gestural works are also simultaneously tight and formally rigorous. These acrylic and graphite on Belgian linen pieces propose their own intense poeticism as each painting reads like a line of verse in a much larger more comprehensive narrative. For example, If T.S. Eliot’s “Prufrock” were to hang art on his perfectly appointed, four square walls, it would be Monzon’s small, yet elegantly spare paintings that would surely give him, as it does us, pause.
5790 Washington Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232
Show runs thru April 9, 2016
