Monique Prieto’s newest exhibition aptly titled Hat Dance, on view at the brand new LAM Gallery on Highland Avenue, charts like the banned Mexican dance it was named for: a kind of radiant courtship between the artist and the painting, and further still between the painting and the viewer. These paintings are rich in the way hieroglyphics are rich; visual information uncovers itself slowly with some complexity as the graffiti in the foreground functions as a means of revealing the serpentine color behind it. They appear deceptively simple, yet it is their simplicity and formal elegance that makes them appear alive and so full of joy.

 
LAM Gallery
Monique Prieto/Hat Dance
913 N Highland Ave, Los Angeles,
California 90038
JANUARY 10 – FEBRUARY 21, 2015