While exploring the grounds of Barnsdall Art Park after our Sunday Art Sunday event, my family and I happened upon the temporary exhibition of “Breaking Convention: Dark Matter Exhibition” at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (LAMAG).

We learned that local Los Angeles artist, Aaron Axelrod, debuted his first solo career, multi-media exhibition retrospective survey show, “Dark Matter” this past Friday evening at LAMAG’s first summer soiree event this year through its “Breaking Convention” fundraising event. The following two days, the public was encouraged to view a total of 40 pieces of Axelrod’s art across a variety of mediums — painting, photography, video art and sculptural installations. His show ran from 12:00pm through 5:00pm at Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and (free admission and open to the public) and then by the Hollyhock House’s West Lawn at sundown, 5:00 p.m., through 9:00 p.m. (From $75 General Admission advanced purchase through $1,000 Early Access VIP plus Reception).

Here are a few pieces on display at Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery:

Here’s an Axelrod and Baxter collaboration:

“Which one is entitled ‘Studio Paint,’ the man or the splash?” I asked the gallery curators. “Both!” Aren’t these abstract resin sculptures amazing? In the background, you can see a glimpse of Axelrod’s “String Theory” neon series.

These photos of the Axelrod and Swarovski collaboration art piece, featuring almost 700,000 multi-color crystals, do no justice.

My kids got a chuckle out of this “Mermaid Vomit” series.

I, myself, enjoyed “Dimethltryptamine,” a series of screen captures of Axelrod’s hypnotic “Melting Rainbows” performance piece:

 

My son, a recently christened “Simpsons” fan, absolutely loved “Ectoplasm.”

Below is a sampling of Axelrod’s neon-light/mixed-media paintings series, “String Theory.”

We ended the visit by checking out Axelrod’s thought-provoking “Freedom of the Press,” comprised of pastel paintings of scrambled news channels (Fox, CNN, etc.).

Is the News really NEWS, or is the News really Noise? Hmm…

Thought-provoking gallery installation, indeed! What a wonderful way to end our visit to Barnsdall Art Park. It would have been cool to check out what Axelrod had in store during the visual projection mapping on the Hollyhock House during the evening event, but tummies began to growl and we had to finally leave Barnsdall Art Park to partake in one of my favorite past times — enjoying a slice of delicious pie. For now, I suppose I’ll have to settle for this (thank goodness for YouTube).

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Breaking Convention: Dark Matter Exhibition
Los Angeles Muncipal Art Gallery
Barnsdall Art Park
4800 Hollywood Boulevard,
Los Angeles, California 90027
barnsdall.org/events/calendar

Aaron Axelrod
aaronaxelrod.com/studio

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