Belief – whether you call it religion, spirituality, or anything else – is as vital to our lives as shelter or sustenance. Myth-making is how lessons are passed down, how mysteries are explored, and how home is remembered. These functions of belief are all found in the works of Anna Weyant, Alexander Tovborg, and Asuka Anastacia Ogawa, whose works are on view in three separate shows now at Blum & Poe.

Admittedly, when I was planning this review, I was only going to write about Anna Weyant’s show “Loose Screw,” because it’s just simply that good. In terms of technical ability, Weyant’s works rival the Dutch Golden Age masters which inspire her work, and in terms of narrative, she surpasses them. Through her beautifully rendered oil portraits and still-lifes, Weyant constructs fantastical vignettes engaging with absurd and often unsettling subjects. These scenes are modern fairytales, which grapple with lessons of loneliness and pain – a woman falling down stairs, another laughing alone with her hand wrapped in bandages, and a horrid dinner of raw eggs, piranha, and impaled bread.

But while I could write a full review on Anna Weyant alone, it would be to the great disservice of the spectacular paintings and sculptures of Alexander Tovborg in his show, “Sacrificial Love.” Tovborg weaves a complex web of mythology in his show, using a dazzling array of gemlike colors to create muses, goddesses, and idols of every variety. The paintings are of an imposing size, and the figures within them emerge from their settings as if etched into rock faces. Female figures clutch instruments and are wreathed in foliage, while a few hold young girls in reimagined depictions of Virgin and Child. Tovborg invites us to reckon with our connection with history and mythology, and how the way we view the world has been informed by the stories of our past.

But while Tovborg and Weyant explore the beliefs of societies both real and imagined, Ogawa’s collection of works is far more personal. Within the brightly colored, pictorially flat paintings, Ogawa amasses figures and stories which represent her own interpretation of home and history. She wields her mixed Japanese and Brazilian heritages like twin torches, equally illuminating the canvases. The figures – mostly Black children, with almond eyes and simple clothes – participate in mysterious rituals or performances, often staring out at the viewer as though the curiosity that they inspire is mutual.

Blum & Poe
2727 S La Cienega Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90034
Thru May 1st, 2021