Two artists with gallery shows in LA are exploring the human body. Both play with different elements and materials — including ceramic, metal, and glass — and make pieces via their own hands and machines.
Nevine Mahmoud’s show, “Foreplay II,” is at M+B through January 22. She reconfigures children’s playsets so they become more like a human body and sensual.
In this piece, Nevine Mahmoud makes a child’s slide look like a tongue. Photo by M+B.
“There’s this archway that she recreated from a child’s playset, and she carves it into pink marble. … And then the slide, which comes down from the archway, is this found plastic slide … painted with this glossy bubblegum pink paint. So it really becomes like a tongue,” describes Lindsay Preston Zappas, founder and editor-in-chief of Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles. “But it’s not super sensual overt, it’s a very subtle juxtaposition. I think there’s definitely a bit of Freudian psychology there.”
Julia Phillips’ show, “Between Love and Loss,” is at Matthew Marks Gallery through January 22. She makes ceramic casts of her own body, then mixes those pieces with more industrial metal stands and tables, so they almost become like sci-fi tools.
In this piece, Julia Phillips is showing two clavicle bones at each end of the metal stand. Photo by Sean Logue.
In one piece, Phillips is casting a clavicle area, and at each end of the metal stand, two clavicle bones are facing off, describes Preston Zappas. The microphone in the middle is cast in metal and isn’t functional. “There’s this illusion with this piece to speaking and voice, but then there’s an absence of that because there’s no mouths, there’s no heads.”