A diverse trio of shows by significant artists is soon to close at Hauser & Wirth. If you haven’t attended, and only have time to visit one gallery this week, you might try this three-for-one-special where discrete exhibitions by Mark Bradford, Geta Brătescu and Louise Bourgeois are loosely united by themes of societal ills, cultural lore and individual pain. Bradford, in his new paintings focusing on cartoons, builds on his signature practice of layering paper scraps found on Los Angeles streets. For his canvases’ monumental size, collaged comics don’t come into focus until one is inches away. The contrast between Bradford’s abstract, textured painting compositions and his figurative, text-interlaced cartoon details sets up an interesting dissonance that resonates with his master-planned chaos of brushwork and composition. The composition of I heard you got arrested today (2018, pictured above), titled after a tiny speech balloon it contains, brings to mind a network of freeway overpasses while also evoking a flayed body. Brătescu‘s show, reviewed in-depth in Artillery’s current print issue, offers an expansive survey of the Romanian conceptualist’s playful oeuvre. And Louise Bourgeois‘ “The Red Sky” is exquisitely poignant, presented as a poetic series of sanguine images and snippets of handwriting that sequentially build upon one another. Bourgeois’ crimson arabesques often evoke landscapes of layered skin and blood. Elegant yet piercing, her drawings resonate unexpectedly with Bradford’s gouged, incised paintings.

Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles
901 East 3rd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013
Shows run through May 20