Wobbly hot pink letters pasted above the threshold of the interior gallery of Walter Maciel spell “Short Stories,” the title of Greg Mocilnikar’s exhibition. Appearing more like a literary heading than the title of an art exhibition, this seemingly minor gesture sets the stage for the installation’s unique spatiality. On opposite ends of the gallery, Mocilnikar’s two floor-to-ceiling murals bookend the walls lined with the artist’s framed small watercolors.

Greg Mocilnikar, Here and where you are (2018). Watercolor and ink on paper, 6 ¾ x 5 inches.

Each mural’s center is empty, except for a subtly painted sky in one, and two jaunty gray rectangles in the other, as if the gallery were a selfie station with the eye-catching murals meant as frame-like backgrounds in front of which, enchanted gallery patrons might strike a pose. But such imposing would cover up important compositional elements such as text and intricate detail, completely ruining their effect. It quickly becomes clear that these murals are meant to be contemplated in person rather than glimpsed via photos on social media.

The murals’ compositions echo Mocilnikar’s smaller collages and watercolors, several of which have similarly vacant centers. Like the wall paintings, these diminutive abstractions incorporate rickety geometric forms. With the artist’s hand palpable in fluctuant lines, elongated rectangles appear as wavy confetti.

Greg Mocilnikar, Nakamarra (2018). Watercolor and ink on paper, 10 ¼ x 8 inches.

In some paintings, such as Nakamarra (2018), ambiguous poetic phrases unassumingly adorn the corners and margins of central rectangles. Other works feature focal points of text collaged from cut paper. Still others contain no words at all, but their lyrical titles seem to point to states of mind or contemplative processes. 

Though carefully wrought, Mocilnikar’s pensive abstractions are imbued with a certain degree of extemporaneousness. Their closely spaced linear wall arrangement evokes a progression of snapshots or journal pages capturing flows of sensations or experiences.

Greg Mocilnikar, Sea Calm (2018). Watercolor and ink on paper, 14 x 9 ¼ inches.

Recurring blue quadrilaterals evoke reflective mirrors. Throughout Mocilnikar’s murals and works on paper, rectangles within rectangles underscore the gallery space’s quadrilaterality. One becomes acutely aware of standing on the floor between four walls: a centrally empty configuration similar to his compositions. The total installation becomes a three-dimensional version of Mocilnikar’s artworks, an encompassing collage inducing viewers’ participation in the artist’s meditation.

Greg Mocilnikar, A huge tree lumbering through my skull (2018). Watercolor and ink on paper, 7 ¼ x 5 inches.

Greg Mocilnikar, “Short Stories,” July 7 – August 17, 2018, at Walter Maciel Gallery, 2642 S. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, CA  90034. waltermacielgallery.com