Gavlak Los Angeles presents two new exhibitions Procession, by emerging Caribbean-Canadian artist Braxton Garneau, and Buried in Flowers, by sculptor Anthony Sonnenberg. The gallery hosted an opening art party on May 20, 2023…Not to worry if you missed it, as the exhibition will remain on view through July 1, 2023.
About Braxton Garneau’s Procession
This marks the Garneau’s first exhibition with the gallery. The artist’s paintings are based in collecting and researching materials, culture and history. Focusing on harvested and hand-processed materials, he explores the sociocultural history of his Caribbean heritage. In Procession, Garneau presents a new series of works focused on ritual and costuming through the complex history of Canboulay, along with character development of present day Carnival. Garneau was recently featured in an article on Edify, The Story is in The Soil, discussing his unique process.
In Procession, materiality is at the forefront of Garneau’s work. Therefore the natural materials used in his paintings are grounded in the inextricable colonial histories and cultural ties of Caribbeans who’ve spent generations in proximity to them. As a result his portraits are built up using asphalt, a natural emulsion of mineral elements and bitumen, and raffia, a fibre made from palms found in Africa and the Caribbean. Since Asphalt, in particular, has a personal significance to the artist, it is important to the exhibition. The material connects the journey of his grandparents from Trinidad, home the world’s largest naturally exposed deposit of asphalt, to the oil sands in Northern Alberta, where his grandfather came to work in the 1960’s.
Artwork by Braxton Garneau
About Anthony Sonnenberg’s Buried in Flowers
This is Anthony Sonnenberg’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles and with GAVLAK Los Angeles. Cannons Buried in Flowers is the culmination of the artist’s development of unique processes, passions. Therefore the investigations undertaken over the past decade. Sonnenberg builds clay structures that he covers with silk flowers, porcelain tchotchkes, and yards of textile trimmings. In addition to spraying on layers of liquid ceramic slip, he obscures finer details of the objects, and consolidates his sculptures structurally and formally. Along with subsequent refirings his individual perspective is shown through baroque and rococo ceramics. What can be considered queer is called into question. Can objects be queer? The answer is a resounding yes.
CLICK HERE for more info about past exhibitions at this gallery.
On view: May 20, 2023 – July 1, 2023
What: New Exhibitions, Braxton Garneau, Anthony Sonnenberg
Where: GAVLAK Los Angeles, 1700 S Santa Fe Ave #440, LA, 90021
Website: https://www.gavlakgallery.com/
