Change Is The Only Constant: Part II

January's Downtown Art Walk featured CHANGE IS THE ONLY CONSTANT Part 2, the multi-media large scale sculpture and Installation curated by Lilli Muller and hosted by Phantom Galleries LA at the P.E. Lofts. It can be viewed on Saturdays from Noon to 6pm or by appointment. For more information, call (213) 247- 8800. The bios are as follows:
LILLI MULLER: (Curator and artist) Born in Coburg, Germany. After taking classes in fine art at the Kunstakademie in Nürnberg, Muller' chose to move to the United States in 1980 for "artistic survival." Muller's approach to curating goes beyond exhibiting art; she curates an experience of the senses. This show is a gathering of energy focused on our only constant, change.

Over the past twenty years Muller developed a uniquely recognizable collection of images through figurative casting in plaster/fiberglass. Within the domain of Muller's new work the audience is given an invitation to play. She requests the viewer to interact and dare to touch the artwork.

From this interaction, the audience begins to "see" the unnoticeable, or marvel a movement only discovered by their touch and handling. In essence Muller's work brings to light, for conscious contemplation, the unseen social contracts by which relationships are governed and the interdependence with all.


RICK ROBINSON: New work "Herd of Women" is about natural instinct with orderly movement; speed, grace, size, weight forming a thundering herd. Imagine finding yourself suddenly in the midst of a small herd of naked happy women, all making a quick left turn in unison with swift, smooth––yet abrupt, decisive and unpredictability. Resonating energy, movement, control and yet freedom.

Robinson's use of raw plywood marries budget constraints with a natural organic medium. The increasing and decreasiing size of 30-50 elements will generate a sense of dimension, scope and movement where none exists.

JONNA LEE: After dallying in the film and television industry for 10 years where she was a fixture on television "and a few movies-of-the- week throughout the 80's", Lee turned in the grease-paint for oils and headed to Otis College of Art where she grabbed a BFA, then figured what she really wanted to do is sculpt.

At Claremont Graduate University, she reeled in a MFA and honed her love for performance installation and collaboration with other powerful women. "The collision between formal and organic and a love of the ephemeral" are of continuing interest to Ms. Lee.

RICK MENDOZA has been photographing his surroundings since at the age nine of when he was given a Polaroid Swinger Camera. Mendoza was assigned to document his family outings on trips of discovery and reconnection. Making a livelihood from photography has been fulfilling, voyeuristic and cross-cultural experience after growing up in the transplanted bubble of a provincial immigrant family from the Yucatan.

The selected images for the Changes Are the Only Constant are from his series "The Botanicals" that explored contrasts in natural forms rendered through traditional and arcane photo processes. The camera captures these subjects as spectacular or quietly sublime forms at various stages in their life cycle; the old photo processes infusing the images of leaves, pods, and flowers against human forms with a sense nostalgic and timeless beauty.