Phallic follies

Is there anyone in Los Angeles this week? My feeds are all MIAMI, MIAMI, MIAMI. If you happen to be in town, there's an intriguing show at Charlie James Gallery. (Charlie himself is in Miami though.)

Helen Rebekah Garber's paintings are dense and appear obsessively created. They are thick with paint and their surfaces recall stained glass: colorful underpainting peeking through white top layers causing shapes to emerge. Their outlines come from below the surface. More often than not the canvases depict imagery which is phallic in shape and monumental in scale—but with all that white and sly coloring barely showing beneath they struck me as either repressed or teasing. Perhaps both?

Get yourself to Chinatown and decide for yourself. But do it quick—the show comes down December 8.