Blinkingnew-starDon’t 2.18 blinkingGeorgeBillis ASIAN-CABBAGE-Layersforget to check our NEW “Event Reviews” page to find out about the best venues. We’ll keep you up to date on the best art parties in LA!

The Pick of the Week is a group show at the George Billis Gallery in Culver City. The opening reception runs from 5:00 pm till 8:00 pm. This show is part of a series of exhibitions of contemporary Southern California artists connected to the artists and designers being highlighted in the Pacific Standard Time events.

See image, (Right) Barbara Strasen, “Asian Cabbage,” 2011, Lenticular with acrylic and collage, 48 x 48 inches

“All Manner Of Things” is Barbara Strasen’s third show at George Billis. Barbara Strasen appears to be a multi-media artist, utilizing, not only drawing and painting as her medium, but also collage, installation, and lenticular art works as well. Her work is about the ornate beauty of complexity, the clash of contradictory images. Strasen talks about her work, “My perennial focus is in finding connections between unlike images that echo the way in which our perceptions are underlaid by memories and by cultural, historical, and archetypal images.”

2.18 GeorgeBillis BarbaraStrasen FREEWAYS-LayersSee image, (left), Barbara Strasen, “Freeways,” Lenticular with collage and acrylic, 48 x 48 “, 2012

In addition to the exhibition, there will also be an illustrated monograph on the artist with an essay by Virginia Maksymowicz and Blaise Tobia.

Virginia Maksymowicz is a Professor in the Department of Art & Art History at Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, PA; while Blaise Tobia, is a Professor in the Department of Art & Art History at Wesphal College, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA.

S2.18 GeorgeBillis TomGregg red flag loee image (right) Tom Gregg, “Yellow Flag,” 2011, oil on panel, 29.5 x 26.5 inches

Artist, Tom Gregg has a very different relationship to objects than most of us. As seen in his work, each object resonates with a memory and a life of their own.

He explains, “I know their world has a very different sense of time, a patience and a calm that is unknown in the world of people. I can put a bowl on the table, and I can walk out of the room, leave for a day, a month, or a lifetime; each and every second filled with my struggling and straining or laughing and indulging. And when I walk back into that room, that bowl will still be sitting there on the table where I put it, dusty perhaps, but unchanged, not so much waiting as simply, and profoundly, existing. Objects exhibit a harmony, a peace and a co-existence with the world that makes the world I inhabit seem frantic and a bit absurd by comparison.”

2.18 GeorgeBillis tomGREGGlemons and water loSee image (left) Tom Gregg, Lemons and water, oil on canvas, 22.5 x 24.5 inches, 2011

Then for something completely different…

Artist Matt Jacobs offers a collection of richly painted forests and gardens which include costumed figures, mingling subtly in the garden.

T2.18 GeorgeBillis MattJacobs The Girl in the Woodshe artist cites Watteau’s Baroque pastorals as an influence in this development. The scenes are framed by a series of inlaid wood panels, decorated with geometric and floral motifs.

Jacobs taks about his chosen subject, “The contradictory relationships of structure and ornament, indulgence and transcendence, mysticism and artifice are all themes inherent in the history and practice of painting.”

See image, (right) Matt Jacobs, The Girl In The Woods, 30 x 26 inches, oil on inlaid wood, 2011

2.18 forest full of orchids and poppies loSee image, (Left) Matt Jacobs, Forest full of orchids and poppies, 16 x 20 inches, oil on inlaid panel, 2011

The exhibition continues through March 24th.

Artist reception runs from 5:00 pm – 8:00 pm. The George Billis Gallery is located at 2716 S. La Cienega Blvd., LA, 90029; (310) 838-3685; www.georgebillis.com

Plus an added benefit is, there are several other galleries in the area, having openings. So park and stroll and enjoy the Art!