Tag: Baert Gallery

To walk through Kentaro Kawabata’s solo exhibition at Nonaka-Hill is to be constantly excited by original and unexpected forms around every corner. Working with porcelain clay, Kawabata creates an alchemical wonderland by amalgamating innovative materials into sculptures that range from graceful to awkward, otherworldly to earthy.

I was immediately drawn into the fine details of the works and his ability to transform porcelain by adding new materials to achieve a fascinating fusion of forms. His sculptures are each accented with bits of glass, stone, metal or sand worked into the surface of the porcelain at various stages of their production. The most striking effect is that of the pulverized stained glass which creates beautiful cascades of color when pressed into the white porcelain and melted in the kiln. Some works are glazed to a sheen while others are coated with silver and dipped into a sulphurated hot spring to achieve a matte iridescent varnish. Other works still are finished with a wash of oxidized silver that turns dry and brown, like rusting metal.

This latest series, titled Soos, is a play on the Japanese pronunciation of the word “source” as well as a reference to how Kawabata answered the SOS call for attention from his unfinished clay projects. All the sculptures are made from leftover clay from previous pieces that Kawabata felt compelled to recycle and give new life to. This sense of cyclical energy and renewed vivacity is abundantly clear in the way his forms masquerade as decorative objects or traditional sculptures but are revealed to be something else entirely upon closer inspection.

The works feel simultaneously improvisational and cohesive, clearly from the hand of a master with reverence for his craft and the courage to experiment. Knowing that the artist worked with his hands to crimp and manipulate the material, the works are (literally) imbued with a deeply personal touch. There is an unmistakable delicacy to the porcelain, but there is also an unprecedented roughness in the surface textures, fractured edges and gilded platinum studs hiding in the crevices, thus revealing a darker side of a traditionally exquisite material or perhaps of the artist himself.

I thought I was seeing the forms of serving bowls, deep sea coral or collectible trinkets, but I didn’t fully begin to appreciate Kawabata’s innovation until I discarded my own preconceived notions of what his sculptures should be. While they do recall organic shapes in flora and anatomy, in truth, his ceramics defy all characterization and are best seen as brand-new harmonies, whimsical and unique in their own right.

Nonaka-Hill
720 N Highland Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90038
Thru Jan. 29th, 2022

As the omicron variant tightens its grip on the world, it seems like the light at the end of the tunnel is receding, evading us once again. For the first time in a long time, I recalled the anxious uncertainty that became all too familiar to us all in the early throes of the pandemic. Many of us again sought out ways to comfort ourselves and find solace in the little things. My search for calm led me to Baert Gallery where, upon seeing Paolo Colombo’s works, I immediately knew he was an artist who captured the essence of balance and meditation we all so desperately need.

In his second exhibition at the gallery, Colombo presents several large-scale watercolors that merge abstract forms with organic subject matter. Poppies, small forest creatures, and levitating circles are carefully inlaid over colorful panels of fine freehand crosshatching. We see hummingbirds reaching for floating flowers, a hedgehog curled playfully on its back, a woman’s face wearing a soft smile — all suspended in an enigmatic, figurative dreamscape.

The watercolor works are painstakingly detailed, best viewed as closely as possible, with each panel taking up to weeks to complete. It’s easy to imagine the 72-year-old artist hunched over a sunlit table with nothing more than paper and watercolors to occupy his mind for hours on end. The lines are perfectly imperfect, thicker in some places and wavier in others, signaling a more lighthearted approach to an otherwise mechanical technique. Sober and delicate, the lines also give the impression that everything harmoniously coexists within the artist’s abstracted realm of consciousness, that this strange dimension of colors and lines is no less alive than the fully formed animals and flowers that occupy it.

It was explained to me that the artist spent hours and hours at his studio during the pandemic, patiently sketching fields of crossing lines and shading hares. I can only presume that he regarded this extra time to create as a privilege, for every meticulous stroke is applied with such thorough care, a true labor of love. I was drawn into every intimate detail as if I could feel exactly how his hands once gestured across the page. For Colombo, to create these works must have been just as meditative an experience as it is to view them. For me, the artist’s tranquility became mine by invitation.

In a recent interview, Colombo, who was first an established curator before resuming his work as an artist, refers to curating as a discipline and art as a practice. “I like curating, but painting is like breathing,” he says. Well, thanks to his calmative compositions and the refreshing sensation Colombo so fluently distills, we can all breathe a little easier.

Baert Gallery
1923 S Santa Fe Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90021
Thru Jan. 22nd, 2022