Christina Attié Ballantyne’s The moon had grown brighter and was riding high (photos courtesy of Martha’s)
There’s something healthy about each generation’s return to surrealism. The act of exploring the mystical, dreamlike realms of our subconscious feels akin to a spring cleaning. Artists tidy up the depths of society’s inner psyche to unveil the dusty cobwebs of time’s conditioning. And thanks to the artists showcased in “All I Want Is Boundless Love,” we’re revived from our winter slumber into a surreal spring, where mystical dreamlands, uncanny panoramas, and abstract mountainscapes rise like fresh awakenings.
Martha’s, known for curating emerging talent, has brought together three painters – Christina Attié Ballantyne, Ish Lipman, and Nour Malas – into their soon-to-be-renovated space on Guadalupe (we’ll have to wait till June for another show). The three distinct artists, all friends from their MFA days in Chicago, share not only a similar color palette but also a thematic affinity for something quiet, something unsettling. Their tendency toward surrealism, however, is not a reinterpretation of melting clocks or green apples for heads. Instead, it is a subtle, intuitive practice, building upon traditions of a past avant-garde.
Ish Lipman’s Panoramic Fragment 1
In contrast to the larger canvases of his peers, Lipman offers the most uncanny themes of the three with his small-scale, panoramic works. Panoramic Fragment 1, a thin, curved panel mounted within one of the gallery’s corners, depicts a miniature green landscape, urging us to inch forward toward the minute figures. Precise, compact strokes execute hills of grass, dirt, and night sky that feel utterly convincing … until a creeping sense that something’s not right starts to reveal itself. The blades of grass, moving in different directions, and the trees’ incoherent sways seem to disobey the laws of nature. Even when you think you’ve grasped the painted scene, stranger details start to emerge: a white horse, a nod to surrealist legend Leonora Carrington, darts across the panel, and other similar mystical symbols encourage us to come closer, questioning what their hidden meaning could reveal to us.
Thanks to the artists showcased in “All I Want Is Boundless Love,” we’re revived from our winter slumber into a surreal spring, where mystical dreamlands, uncanny panoramas, and abstract mountainscapes rise like fresh awakenings.
If Lipman’s work inspires you to squint, Ballantyne’s work confronts you head-on. The two painters, partners and colleagues, recently established an L.A.-based, artist-run critique group, but their work distinctly stands apart. Ballantyne’s lush brushstrokes – in stark opposition to Lipman’s precision – provide more breathing room for soft interpretations of her ethereal landscapes. Experiencing her work feels like coming to in the middle of a tea party – only something’s off, and the guest list definitely includes the occult. In The moon had grown brighter and was riding high, mystical scenes of color feature an anthropomorphized, maternal moon, where the supernatural reigns and reason is tossed out the window. This same logic seeps into the materials themselves. In this painting, the patchwork canvas with pillowlike protrusions, stuffed with the type of synthetic filling you’d find in dolls, adds a tactile layer, inviting touch and an overall sensation of play.
Nour Malas’ On Melancholy Hill 2
And last, but certainly not least, is Malas. If Francis Bacon and Joan Mitchell had a child, it would be this Syrian-Canadian, New York-based artist. Originally a sculptor, her paintings lean more into abstraction than her peers with undulating mountainscapes of muted ochres and faint pinks. As seen in On Melancholy Hill 2, her landscapes are sculptural in nature, where the occasional body part can be spotted – perhaps fleshy thighs or a set of front teeth. It’s a game of I Spy, where Malas discreetly weaves these recognizable elements into abstract conglomerations. It’s smudged yet particular, intentional yet chaotic. As your eyes move across the chaos of the overlapping shapes, you’re relieved by the emptiness of the canvas and reminded of something as simple as its thread count. But the break in color only allows you to quickly catch your breath before diving right back into the turbulence of her mountainous abstractions.
“All I Want Is Boundless Love” transcends the chaos of life beyond the gallery walls. Through surrealist and abstract practices, the three artists choose mystical worlds over our own – not as an escape, but as an invitation. If we choose to accept this invitation, perhaps shifting into an ethereal landscape can serve as a place of refuge, where engagement with our inner imagination can lead to a more conscious future. But I’ll leave that to the painters – and Frank O’Hara, whose poem “Meditations in an Emergency” offers the show’s titular phrase: “I am the least difficult of men. All I want is boundless love.”
“All I Want Is Boundless Love”
Martha’s Contemporary
Through April 19
