by: Maureen Shampine
Artwalk—Culver City
Lost and Found
Artist: Joe Black
Gallery: LaBasse Projects Gallery
Of all the forty galleries showing contemporary artists, one enigmatic piece caused crowds to gather all afternoon and into the evening of Saturday, May 30th at the LaBasse Projects Gallery. Lost and Found, by artist Joe Black, is a truly remarkable piece that provoked the average onlooker to look on for more than the obligatory thirty seconds that the Artwalk patrons deemed necessary for the other pieces displayed in the over forty galleries showing at the weekend’s festivities.
Tucked away in the back corner of its gallery, its magnetic appeal captured patrons as they crowded the piece, marveling at its originality, and soaking in the creative surge offered by the mixed media collage that recalled both the expressionist, pop art of the 80’s and the pointillism pieces rendered during the neo-impressionist movement.
In the vein of artists like Warhol and Basquiat, using other pictures—vintage, mini-buttons—the artist created a portrait piece with the clarity and unique, technically inconceivable appeal that is often attributed to neoimpressionist, pointillist artists like Seurat (A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte).
The pieces’ playful originality, somber candor, and technical brilliance is sure to spark water cooler conversations and art debates for years to come—leaving all lucky enough to have enjoyed it, with the enjoyable contemplation of being lost in finding its meaning.
[...] Lost and Found button collage (read Maureen’s much better write-up on Artwalk and this piece here), I insisted that it was more of a Michelle Marini piece. Speak of the devil who do we run into [...]