In Boyle Heights/Downtown LA… CHG (Corey Helford Gallery) threw an opening art party to celebrate new exhibitions on November 18, 2023. Not to worry, if you missed the art party, as the exhibitions will be running through December 23, 2023. Questions for Living in the World by Japanese painter Hikari Shimoda is currently on view in the Main Gallery. While the gallery unveiled a new series of works from Boston-based painter and designer Josie Morway, titled Course of Empire, in Gallery 2.
CHG Hikari Shimoda
In 2014, Shimoda started making waves in the international scene. It began with her U.S. exhibition Fantastic Planet, Goodbye Man at CHG. The exhibition introduced her ongoing series since 2011, titled Children of This Planet, and Whereabouts of God. Since then she’s become one of the most widely recognized names of New Contemporary painters rising out of Japan. Sparkling and sweet, Shimoda’s work is at once enchanting and disarming, portraying a world where cuteness and horror coexist. Regarding her new works, Shimoda shares, “I continue to create works using the theme of how we live in this world of sorrow, loneliness, and salvation. This time, by juxtaposing the themes that I’ve created so far, I would like to create an exhibition that cross-cuts and expresses people living in the present age.”
Josie Morway
A self-taught artist, Morway’s extremely detailed style of oil and ink paintings on canvas combines the influence of Dutch Masters’ techniques, religious icon paintings, and hyper-modern color and design elements, to create paintings that have been described as “votive cave paintings from the distant future.” The wildlife in Morway’s work is portrayed with an intense reverence that escalates to surreality, creating paintings that are both politically charged, ethereally poetic, and darkly comical. The artist’s incredible work explores both the fragility and the fortitude of the natural world, envisioning the sanctity of wildlife and wilderness in the face of human degradation and seeking to challenge the assumptions and projections we bring to our interactions with the wild.
Corey Helford Gallery
Jan Corey Helford and her husband, television producer/creator Bruce Helford established the gallery in 2006. Corey Helford Gallery (CHG) has since evolved into a premier gallery of New Contemporary art. Its goal is to support the growth of artists, from the young and emerging, to the well-known and internationally established. CHG represents a diverse collection of international artists as well. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 12:00pm – 6:00pm.
On view: November 18, 2023 – December 23, 2023
What: New Exhibitions
Where: Corey Helford Gallery, 571 S. Anderson St. LA, 90033
When: Running through December 23, 2023
Website: https://www.coreyhelfordgallery.com
