Rhett Baruch Gallery
'Smokey Trails’
Judy Aldridge - Natasja Alers - Daniella Algarate - Benjamin Claudel - Austin Coudriet - Sasha Court - Jennifer Crescuillo - Jesse Edwards - Tania Enriquez - Amy Feigley-Lee- Heidi Kreitchet - Kieta Jackson - Raina Lee - Susan Mckinney - James Naish - Taidgh O’Neill - Vince Palacios - Sandra Keja Planken - Francis River - Kento Saisho - Dale Shippit - Augusta Smith - Meghan Spielman - Linnea Spransy - Jessica Swaffer - Shino Takeda - Kelly Witmer
April 20 2024 through May 25, 2024
Opening reception: April 20, 4-7p
6057 Melrose Ave 90038
An exercise for the gallery’s program to illustrate the endless pursuit of discovering, curating and exhibiting mainly unseen and rare studio practices from around the world. The goal is in illuminating radical processes and those crafts people that focus on bending materiality in a non-traditional, respectful and surprising way. This show will lead you down our methodology of the alchemy formed by each piece realizing a shape, medium and size that is responding to its neighboring work within the gallery space. Although it may initially appear hazy and unsettling, we can assure you will find great pleasure in the melange of collectible design objects and art. Our communication style relies on juxtaposition that forces a conversation from curiosity to form context for the selections we made. Within the fine balance of curation you will view works that are both functional and purely about form.
Rhett Baruch Gallery x GLB Properties
'Dream Fountain’
Shay Bredimus - Jason Koharik
March 1 2024 through March 16, 2024
Opening reception: March 1, 4-8p
Private Residence
In partnership with GLB Properties, Rhett Baruch Gallery presents Dream Fountain. A reverie of unique works by Shay Bredimus and Jason Koharik are set within a 1928 French Gothic style estate in Los Feliz. Steeped in the spring of divine inspiration- classical and futuristic expression, unparalleled forms and functional design perfectly juxtapose space and style in this inaugural salon exhibition with GLB
The oil paintings of Shay Bredimus recall moments of passing gardens, sculpture, and mid-century modern architecture around his home in Long Beach, California. In this collection of works he aptly titled ‘Private Versailles’, these intricate depictions of the everyday are love letters to the city. His masterful talent of figurative realism and deft strokes form ghostly and investigative scenes. Three different perspectives are rendered in compressed worlds by way of laser etched framing and scaled architectural details
Imbibed in the fluid beauty and natural forms of Art Nouveau, Jason Koharik seeks to balance sculpture and furniture in his craftsmanship. Koharik’s expert understanding and precise use of natural materials such as wood, brass, bronze, leather and glass brings the undeniably theatrical form of his work to the interior. One part poet weaving an autobiography, one part mad scientist who relentlessly challenges his sanity and safety. The result of this combination displays work from several of his lighting and furniture collections as well as unseen bespoke pieces
Rhett Baruch Gallery x Good Naked Gallery
'Terrestrial Aperture’
Liz Ainslie - Marcus Bernardes - J Bradley Greer - Emily Pfaff
February 24 2024 through March 31, 2024
Opening reception: February 24, 4-7p
6057 Melrose Ave 90038
Good Naked (New York NY) and Rhett Baruch (Los Angeles CA) are pleased to present TERRESTRIAL APERTURE, a four person exhibition opening Saturday, February 24th from 4-7pm. The works on display celebrate visual pleasure and curiosity. Each artist culls imagery from a combination of close looking and reverie as they explore formal and material play. In a moment of attention economy, these artists ask us to slow looking and delve deeper into a world of whimsical structures and tended surfaces. Liz Ainslie’s paintings are built from found speech and interrupted horizons. She prepares forms through a translation of momentary perceptions, siting natural light and architecture as a set of rules to be accepted and recalibrated. Marcus Bernardes’ sedimentary rock formations are born out of studied experimentation with Argillite rock and its multitudinous properties. Combining fragments to celebrate natural colors and patterns, Bernardes calls attention to this material’s mineral wonders. J. Bradley Greer pulls shapes from the human body - pointing to the psychology of forms and colors as he winks at the overlapping qualities of the botanical, anatomical, and decorative. Emily Pfaff’s paintings hint at the sublime as she conjures memory and the spiritual in her dream-like fables. Figures move ephemerally through fields of light and color as they explore imagined territories with care and awe. Expressive paint makes up the bulk of her surface preparation as she works responsively toward world building and euphoria.
Rhett Baruch Gallery
'Lightforms’
Leonard Bessemer - Haley Ann Bradley - Austin Kahn - Hyunuko - Sam Klemick - Tristan Marsh - James Mitchell - Christopher Norman - Jonny Sakai - Rachel Shillander - Kelby Lee Singhaus
December 16 2023 through January 20, 2024
Opening reception: December 16, 4-7p
6057 Melrose Ave 90038
Welcome world! Do you see that light shown from above, is it a bird? A plane? The north star? No, it’s here on earth, a constellation formed by Angelenos far and wide in the Rhett Baruch Gallery as Lightform. This Pan Angeleno fair brings the greatest creative minds of the city under one dazzling roof.
All that glitters isn’t gold, or is it? Come one, come all to experience form, color, shape, and tones sculpted in glorious design. Unparalleled ingenuity glistens as far as the eye can see. A mirage to many it may seem. More than 10 individual dreams of artists coming true to bring a spectacular show that will surely knock your socks off! No shoes, no shirt, no service, no way! This fair will be your beacon through the brisk winter night!
All the bustle and ballyhoo begins December 16, 2023, with this truly monumental display of genius at 6057 Melrose Ave
Rhett Baruch Gallery
'Keep Growing’
Francis River
October 14 - November 18, 2023
Opening reception: October 14, 4-7p
6057 Melrose Ave 90038
Francis River creates physical vessels and objects that depict the playful wonder of the natural world. His admiration of landscapes comes in the form of surface treatments, colorful glazes, and various images that are applied to traditionally crafted silhouettes. Evoking the curiosity, gratification, and joy that one can only find enveloped in nature.
The work of Francis River is grounded in the playful wonder of the world around him. River is a self-taught ceramicist and a biodynamic farmer who spends most of his days molding nature. His interest in the relationship between his craft and the satisfaction of farming comes together in this body of work for Keep Growing at Rhett Baruch Gallery. 19 new pieces will be on view, which includes a ceramic hydroponic system for growing your favorite herbs in the most artistic way possible!
Rhett Baruch Gallery
'Baruch Bizarre Bazaar’
July 29 - September 9, 2023
Opening reception: Saturday, July 29, 5-8p
6057 Melrose Ave 90038
A casual summer exhibition that brings an approachable shopping experience of art and design to the Melrose gallery. With an array of historic and contemporary works available at a wide range of price points. Part personal collection of design dealer Rhett Baruch and part showcase of new work from makers and artists abroad.
Featuring work from: Victor Alarcon, Sloane Angell, Jessica Ayromloo, Gino Belassen, Francie Bishop, Jessica Crescuillo, Sarai Delfendahl, Alina Hayes, Kieta Jackson, Jason Koharik, Emmanuel Pickett, Lorenzo Lorenzetti, Nitsa Meletopoulos, Doug Meyer, Taidgh O’Neill, Tist One, Stanislas Piechaczek, Saxon Quinn, Brian Rochefort, Patty Sanchez, Colt Seager, Augusta Smith, Shino Takeda, Austyn Taylor, Jonathan Todryk and more
Join Rhett Barach Gallery for the opening reception on July 29th 2023. Refreshments will be provided and rideshare is encouraged. There is parking directly out front and on most of Melrose on the weekends. The bazaar runs through September 9th, contact Rhett Baruch Gallery to schedule an appointment.
Rhett Baruch Gallery
'The Forge’
Brandon Bernath, Anthony Bianco and James Naish
June 3 - July 8, 2023
Opening reception: Saturday, June 3, 4-7p
6057 Melrose Ave 90038
Rhett Baruch Gallery presents The Forge. A group show featuring surreal figurative oil paintings by Brandon Bernath, molded, silvered, cast and blown glass sculptures by Anthony Bianco and James Naish’s brand new collection of bronze, steel and wood candlesticks, stools and pedestals. The Forge is a place where process comes to materialization and is the catalyst of tinkering turning into mastery. The subject matter of The Forge, a painting by Francisco Goya, permeates this show with its image of three men laboring over their craft. Each of these artists has forged their own path using age-old methodologies, be it through the elements, form, or contrast.
Brandon Bernath utilizes chiaroscuro in his work titled Light Paintings. Informed by Francisco Goya’s Black Paintings where darkness lends to the levity of the light, the Light Paintings take on a modern perspective. Through the approach of this technique, Bernath uses abstract figures to symbolize the movement between the worlds of light and darkness. These figures drift above the celestial gradients of the realms as optimistic guides through the darkness—a tether to the light that is available to all of us.
The archaic art of blown glass meets a minimal aesthetic in Anthony Bianco’s work. Vivid color, opalescence, simple form, and silvering bring this antiquated technique to the 21st century through Bianco’s point of view.
James Naish brings the Cumulus Collection to The Forge in a series of metal and woodworks that build upon one another in a symbiotic relationship. Welded metal beads and blobs collect around impossibly smooth pine, cyprus, and walnut. These time-established functional objects are formed as a barnacle would on a timbered dock or sediment layers in a rock, with a sense of explosive collective growth between the materials.
Join Rhett Barach Gallery for the opening reception on June 3rd 2023. Refreshments will be provided and rideshare is encouraged. There is parking directly out front and on most of Melrose on the weekends. The Forge runs through July 8th, contact Rhett Baruch Gallery to schedule an appointment.
Rhett Baruch Gallery
'Arcane Passages’
Susan Maddux, Saxon Quinn and Shino Takeda
April 6 - May 6, 2023
Opening reception: Thursday, April 6, 5-8p
6057 Melrose Ave 90038
Rhett Baruch Gallery presents Arcane Passages. A group show featuring sculptural paintings by Susan Maddux, graphic canvas works by Saxon Quinn, and Shino Takedas gestural ceramics which examine the foundational artistic intuition that joins past and future. In the gallery, our intention is to connect the viewer to the works as though observing preserved etchings on a cave wall.
A former textile designer, Susan Maddux paints acrylic on canvas and collages to construct her origami-inspired wall sculptures. The passage of time lends itself to the evolution of her self-supporting forms. Folding, unfolding, painting, and cutting with instinctive movements that connect her pieces to versions of self, experiences and perceptions of past. Each decision building on one another to support the expression of today.
Saxon Quinn utilizes oil, graphite, air brush, spray and more in his works that “sway from the intentional to the unrestrained and the minimalist to the uninhibited.” Within his storytelling he layers hues, unpredictable textures, and symbols that reference his youth. Each motif and mark signaling a moment within his timeline, with so many intersecting interests, the past becomes difficult to differentiate from his future.
New York artist Shino Takeda revisits her 1987 trip to California. This series ‘My Little California’ is representational of her childhood trip to Los Angeles. The clay vessels in this body are innocent and sophisticated, playful and refined; exploding with expressions of color atop a minimalist hand-built structure. It is her first time returning to California since this memory.
Rhett Baruch Gallery
'Enchantment Emporium: Objects for Pixies and Tricksters’
Doug Meyer
February 17 - March 18, 2023
Opening reception: Friday, February 17, 5-8p
6057 Melrose Ave 90038
24 works will be exhibited at the Enchantment Emporium.
Refreshments will be provided and ride share is encouraged.
The Enchantment Emporium tale begins in 1973 during the Cold War when the US Government began a study on paranormal phenomena. One of many subsets of that study was Project Titania. (Project Titania: Investigate the existence of Tricksters and Pixies). As odd as it may sound the project findings were conclusive that Tricksters and their familiar’s do exist. The original goal was to seek out possible Tricksters and Pixies in order to weaponize and harness their abilities to win the Cold War. Their research had discovered an entire underground subculture existing in plain sight. In 1998 the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) concluded that it would be unable to control any members of these groups and therefore shut down the project. Recently, several Top Secret files were accidentally declassified and made their way into the media’s hands - unfortunately or fortunately with Covid, the political sphere and elections, this story became some strange footnote of propaganda and conspiracy theories. Most media outlets did not want to even touch the story. Others, especially the powerful and influential folk from Hollywood to Wall Street helped to squash the story and discredit it as fake, as many of them are members of the Trickster community themselves.
The Trickster community shares a love of objects, specifically objects that can enhance and protect them (and their power). These magical objects presented here each perform various functions - some protect, some are watchful, some are amplifiers. Various symbols, motifs and components are used to create these pieces. The eye serves as watcher and protector, mirrors in any shape and color ward off danger, semi precious stones offer healing and protection. Boxes and mirrors are the most coveted and useful items for Tricksters, boxes are used to amplify the object(s) stored within it, while mirrors reflect off any bad energy directed toward the owner. Glass eyes have the ability for the owner to see anyone or anything within viewing distance. These magical objects are created by other Trickster artisans available by private commission within the underground community.
Meyer’s practice centers around his surreal lens of storytelling, intertwining real and fictional people, places and events that weave his world-building tales into a suspended reality.
Rhett Baruch Gallery
'Tangible Digital’
Francie Bishop Good, Megan Mueller and Sandra Keja Planken
January 7 - February 7, 2023
Opening reception: Saturday, January 7, 4-8p
6057 Melrose Ave 90038
Rhett Baruch Gallery presents Tangible Digital, a group show exploring the tethers of the modern age. We all are challenged with bringing dynamism into our online presence, trying to animate the numbers withinin code. This show brings you work across the programed sphere embracing humanity from flat expression.
Francie Bishop Good’s innate curiosity has led her through mediums. Her journey started in photography evolving to collage paintings with photography into the pairings she creates today. Her current work focuses on a process steeped in experimentation between painting on board and bisque-fired earthenware resulting in a raw sophistication that brings the strokes from wall to table.
Meanwhile Megan Mueller walks along the streets of Downtown Los Angeles, flatbed scanner in hand. This body of work is centered around the Bonaventure Hotel and shows lived-in moments of time captured through the scanned images. The effect distorts the scenes into a peculiar familiarity, inviting the viewer into an otherwise easily forgotten building.
Ingraining humanity into each tuft, Sandra Keja Planken’s tapestry work reflects intimacy in abstract forms. As an interior and product designer, she travels to the digital realm by conceptualizing her work as painting then manipulating colors to resonate through yarn. Vegan eucalyptus and bamboo yarns congregate in vivid anthropomorphic forms.
Opening reception for Tangible Digital is on January 7th from 4p-8p. Refreshments will be provided and ride share is encouraged
Rhett Baruch Gallery
'Twinkle Twinkle'
Emily Pfaff, Shay Bredimus, Preston Daniels, Lynda Keeler and Gwen Hollingsworth
November 10 - December 17, 2022
Opening reception: Thursday, November 10, 5-8p
6057 Melrose Ave 90038
Rhett Baruch Gallery presents Twinkle, Twinkle. A group show illuminating the depth of darkness. It’s the time of year where the colors around us are changing and our night-lives become richer, as our days are increasingly shorter. A time when twilight befalls us and we are confronted with the edge of reality through our sight.
In the inky darkness, tattoo artist Shay Bredimus explores the space between light and dark, depth and levity expressed through the tangibility of a suggested environment. Whereas in the works of artist Emily Pfaff, contrast resides in saturation. Figures are emphasized through extreme use of color within the abstraction of the scene. Preston Daniels utilizes vast nothingness to expose parched hallucinations in the form of text emerging from his atmospheric paintings. This element of the unknown is explored through the safety of intuitive cartography where modernist painter and sculptor Lynda Keeler approaches defining the undefinable by mapping colors, lanes, shapes and tone shifts throughout time, on walks through the cities and deserts. While Gwen Hollingsworth twists the clarity of the day into the abyss of night with tonal nocturne scenes of life and florals emerging from the destruction of fire and surreal chaos.
In this show the exploration of time, space and light provides a comforting sense of uncertainty that only the coming of the night can. Opening reception for Twinkle,Twinkle is on November 10th and runs through December 17th. Refreshments will be provided and ride share is encouraged.
Rhett Baruch Gallery
'in good faith'
Colt Seager and Jonathan Todryk
September 29 - November 5, 2022
Opening reception: Thursday, September 29, 5-8p
6057 Melrose Ave 90038
Rhett Baruch Gallery in conjunction with artists Colt Seager and Jonathan Todryk bring you ‘in good faith.’ Their mutual bond of translating the divine into expression brings an exercise of trust to this inaugural reception. Painter and sculptor Colt Seager uses a meditative process to intuit the truth of the canvas in front of him. The result is highly textural works that are ripped, stripped down, stapled and sewn together with a vulnerability akin to the exposing of a wound or existence at large. Artist Jonathan Todryk uses oil paint, sand, gesso and saturated pigments to create glowing expressions of color that emanate a radiating light source. Life’s grit is exposed through this exploration of harshness and softness through confident textural knife work within the concrete sections of the canvas.
Artist Jonathan Todryk's (b. 1984, Texas) pieces are post-minimal, reduced abstractions with texture and saturated color. “I allow each layer, each movement to lead me to the next. My favorite pieces are ones I’ve worked and reworked. The ones I risked ruining and letting go of, those tell the best stories.”
Inherent in each of Colt Seager’s (b.1993, Illinois) works is his spirituality—in particular the Celtic notion of the “thin places” that exist between heaven and earth often found in nature. “Think of a sunset in the mountains or being by a river or on the beach—these really awe-inspiring moments where you get glimpses of the divine,” he explains. “I think of art as that in a lot of ways. It’s a thin place while I’m actually creating and working, but my goal is for other people to feel that thin place, where they are given a moment to pause and ask life the question: “Why are we here?”
Rhett Baruch brings the work of Seager and Todryk together with an environment emulating the process to make the works themselves. A movement of discovery and trust. The show begins September 29th in the new Rhett Baruch Gallery space located at 6057 Melrose Ave, with opening reception festivities from 5p-8p, and will run through November 5th. Refreshments will be provided and ride share is encouraged.