As we break from Snap Reviews for the summer, enjoy monthly picks from Carla’s editors across art exhibitions, books, food, and more.
Maria A. Guzmán Capron at Shulamit Nazarian
At Shulamit Nazarian, Maria A. Guzmán Capron’s densely clad and richly layered wall works appear like a cast of funky characters. Playfully patterned fabrics are sewn, stuffed, quilted together, and finished with acrylic, spray, and latex paints to create nearly anthropomorphized femme figures that call out to the viewer in mysteriously tender and captivating ways. In Pura Mentira (meaning “pure lie” in Spanish), the Oakland-based artist draws from the telenovelas of her youth to explore themes of distortion, hyperbole, and indulgence. Capron approaches lies without judgment or skepticism, and instead considers how fibs might function as vehicles for experimentation or portals to other realities where unruly and hard-to-believe narratives run wild.
Maria A. Guzmán Capron, Gata Salvaje, 2023. Fabric, thread, batting, stuffing, spray paint and acrylic paint. 55 x 57 x 3 in.
PHOTO: ED MUMFORD.
In Gata Salvaje (2023), the puffy, animal print-patterned bodies of two surreal figures swirl and subsume one another. The background figure tenderly envelops the figure in the foreground, and both gaze coyly at the viewer as if extending an invitation to join their shenanigans. Yet, throughout the exhibition, something made me feel like I was already a participant or a character in this telenovela. Moving further into the space, lavender blobs painted directly onto the gallery’s walls give way to limb-like shapes. The forms culminate in the final gallery, where they reveal themselves as belonging to a giantess, her bestial face composed of custom-made functional sculptures.
Maria A. Guzmán Capron: Pura Mentira, May 27–July 1, 2023. Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles. Photo: Ed Mumford.
To be in the galleries at Shulamit Nazarian is to be housed in the body of Capron’s femme colossus. In this space of intrigue and hyperbole, the viewer is invited to swap guilt for pleasure, shame for pride. The space is alive and it’s warm here.
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