In a bi-coastal collaboration, L.A. Louver and Betty Cuningham Gallery are pleased to present Charles Garabedian: Outside the Gates. Drawing from both galleries’ long histories with the artist, this exhibition brings together two dozen paintings from the last three decades of Garabedian’s life. CLICK HERE to enter viewing room.

The artist’s ability to tap into the collective unconscious renders the work timeless; while many of the figures may be familiar from myth, their staging speaks to our common lot as humans. With distinctive humor and pathos, Garabedian takes us on a trip as he moves toward finding himself in history, mythology, and by accident.

Garabedian embraced grand themes in his idiosyncratic and compelling body of work. Inspired by Armenian manuscripts, Biblical stories, and the epic poetry of ancient Greece, his iconoclastic approach to figuration breathes vibrant, pulsating life into these old tales. His works are populated with warriors and gods, bathing beauties and epic journeys. Abstractions lie unsettlingly at the edge of recognition, seeming to take on the unknowable logic of Olympus.A hallmark of Garabedian’s style is his Mannerist approach to the body. Twisted and elongated figures lounge, bend, and stretch across his compositions. That nearly all of his figures from this period are nude reinforces a feeling of otherworldliness. He treats the body as something malleable, something that can be distorted or even truncated. For example, the painting Man in the Brick Wall features a fleeing figure, a brick bust, and a torso with legs but no upper half.

On view: July 15 – August 31, 2020

CLICK HERE to enter viewing room or visit L.A.Louver’s website for more info – https://lalouver.com/