Charlie James Gallery is delighted to present a solo show by Los Angeles-based artist Shizu Saldamando titled “Respira,” which translates as Breathe in English. The opening was held on April 16, 2022, and will remain on view through May 28, 2022. This is Shizu Saldamando’s second solo exhibition with the gallery. This show is organized around a series of eight new portraits made during the Covid period that constitute a breakthrough in Saldamando’s painting practice, supported by a new video piece and a collaborative series of objects made with Los Angeles-based artist Maria Maea.

These eight new paintings employ a looser, more expressive style, using washes of paint to depict their subjects. This brings forward the woodgrain in the panels, blending subject and surface and imbuing the works with a fluid, ephemeral quality. The confluence of paint and woodgrain adds a translucent layer to the portraits and speaks metaphorically to subjecthood in general as being unfixed, not opaque. Rather, people are fluid and constantly in flux, adapting, reacting, breathing. Due to Covid restrictions, most of the photographs that formed the basis of these portraits were taken in outside/backyard situations around domesticated plant life, which help cleanse oxygen for breath. “Respira,” or “Breathe,” thus serves as both an exhortation to stay alive and carry on, while also providing apt description for Saldamando’s new painting series.

On view: April 16, 2022 – May 28, 2022

What: Opening, Shizu Saldamando 
Where: Charlie James Gallery, 961 Chung King Road LA, 90012  (2nd gallery)
Website: https://www.cjamesgallery.com/