Thinkspace Art Gallery May Exhibits - Art Show Highlights

Thinkspace Projects was founded in 2005; now in LA’s burgeoning West Adams District, the gallery has garnered an international reputation as one of the most active and productive exponents of the New Contemporary Art Movement. Maintaining its founding commitment to the promotion and support of its artists, Thinkspace has steadily expanded its roster and diversified its projects, creating collaborative and institutional opportunities all over the world. Founded in the spirit of forging recognition for young, emerging, and lesser-known talents, the gallery is now home to artists from all over the world, ranging from the emerging, mid-career, and established.

FEATURED ARTISTS:

BRIAN ‘DOVIE’ GOLDEN - Hard Candy

Hard Candy underscores the struggle of preservation. With a hard exterior and a soft heart, Brian “Dovie” Golden relates to the sweet treat, calling attention to the internal strife caused by human duality.

Using painting and drawing to better understand issues of identity, race, gender, and mental health, the Chicago-based African American contemporary artist attempts to reconcile the harsh realities of life.

In this particular collection, Golden presents the world through his own eyes. Often taught to “toughen up” and “be a man,” the show is a reflection of the artist’s personal experiences as a Black man navigating emotions, family, faith and life. His childhood love of drawing shines through in pop culture elements and vibrant colors. Nodding to both pop art and photorealism, Golden presents something fresh to the new contemporary art scene
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ARMANI HOWARD - Songs of Dawn

Affording viewers the opportunity to view transitional phases through the mind and eyes of whimsical beings, Armani Howard’s Songs of Dawn captures growth in a remarkable way.

Creating a form of contemporary folklore, Howard reimagines his existence and experiences as a black body into a visually sizable body of work. Dream-like and at times bewildering, his work is expressive of narratives unbounded in time.

Hoping to aid future humans in navigating internal dialogue surrounding identity and heritage, Howard provides the space to question American traditions. His work, which is layered with compositions of abstract figuration, loose gestural marks, and an evocative usage of color, upholds the antecedents of the African American dialogue before him. He cross-examines the roles of memory, nostalgia, and folkloric narratives in the creation and preservation of identity. His nebulous, conceptually layered compositions depict an intersectional space between objective reality and the more speculative mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of life.
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AUSTYN TAYLOR - Cookie Monster

What started as Taylor’s assignment to art students years ago has become the inspiration for this collection of sculptures. With varied influences, each piece is full of personality. With lovable characters and vibrant colors, the sculptures are endearing. This effect is only magnified by the researched history and inspiration behind each work.

Taylor’s panpsychist humorist narrative has led her to create a world of familiar characters–bear, bull, horse, deer, lion, duck, predator, prey etc. Each piece is a declaration, a statement, and an optimistic reframe from the rampant psychological banalities of human narrative.

The sculptures marry Taylor’s view on contemporary design with pop culture. Drawing on both ancient and contemporary sources, she creates works of “folk-pop” that lie somewhere between “hype” and “hope.” Inspired by American animation, Austyn’s art calls back to our animist history where wandering spirits found refuge in masks and idols.
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JIMBO LATEEF - Chronicles of Life

Calligraphic marks blend with portraiture to make up Jimbo Lateef’s latest body of work. With Chronicles of Life, Lateef reflects on his Yoruban heritage, as well as the ideas of identity and history to weave together an image of daily life. Drawing on everyday activities and the series of events that can make up a person’s life, he presents a show inspired by Pablo Picasso’s blue period.

Opting for vibrant reds and oranges he leans into the monochromatic, merging multiple calligraphy strokes and realism painting techniques to reproduce familiar daily life events. The calligraphic markings demonstrate Lateef’s role and his hand as the artist, bringing a personal layer to the relatable scenarios.

With the creation of each piece bringing the artist peace and tranquility, the paintings are both a therapeutic exercise and a breathtaking creative output, serving as containers for narratives from the deeply unique to near mundane. Using calligraphy as a means of expressing emotion within the body, Lateef is able to reflect on both the mental and physical elements of his life and the life of his subjects.