‘CRUISING’ AN ALABASTER EXHIBITION
Alabaster is pleased to present ‘Cruising.’ “This expansive exhibition brings together a broad selection of paintings, photographs, works on paper, and sculptures by 24 dynamic artists” - Curated by R Parmar.
On view now at 1634 w Temple st, Los Angeles, 90026
Article by Molly Apple - MERDE Editor-in-Charge - edited by Blythe Tokar & Monique Johnson
Photography by Diego Antorveza & pulled from Artist’s Instagrams
On Saturday, July 13, I secretly parked my mini electric vehicle blocks away from Alabaster Pro’s ‘Cruising’ Exhibition opening, not wanting to pull up next to the vintage red beauty, whose make was unrecognizable to my untrained eye. As a fashion editor, I can typically spot a Galliano dress from a block away, but that night I stepped my vintage Bottega kitten heels into new territory of equal, if not more sophisticated taste - cars. To some, a vehicle represents a means to get from point A to point B, and to others, their cars are a symbol of the freedom to choose one’s own journey, building rich worlds around and inside of their vehicles. Curator R. Parmer steered me towards covering his project, laughing when I mentioned its historical queer connotations, assuring me he was well aware of the many layered cultural connotations of ‘cruising culture.’ I was intrigued and inspired by the many layers of the project, including the print zine alongside the exhibition. The zine documents further works beyond the gallery wall and into the printed page by local photographers Salomon Anaya, Dario Solari, Everett Bouwer, Awol Erizku, Drew Escriva, Zhamak Fullad, Daniel Tyree Gaitor-Lomack, Mikael Kennedy, Shant Kalenderian, Jonathan Khan, Johnny Le, Estevan Oriel, Jacob Rochester, Chris Swoszowski, Georgina Treviño, and Magnus Walker. The coated paper, diverse page layouts, and crisp imagery satisfy even the most print-obsessed, like myself. The zine is definitely living in my glove box for an arty passenger friend to enjoy while I chauffeur. Zine Graphics by @1201.am
The evening accelerated quickly as the sun set and the vintage vehicle’s stereo played soft ‘80s tunes for the sidewalk talkers. Inside, guests meandered amongst the expertly curated selection of car-focused pieces spanning mediums of silver print, sculpture, oil on canvas, and even tufted rugs offered as merch alongside the zine.
Perwana Nazif’s press release of the exhibition and zine reads, “Undoubtedly, cruising connotes many types of journeys–beyond the machine where vehicles become libidinal bodies, meanders of the mind, queer passages and more,” which reiterates a deep privilege disparity that cooks within the pavement of Los Angeles and manifests in the form of a vehicle and its motion. As of January 2021, lowriders across California celebrated the lift on the state’s cruising ban that unfairly targeted minorities. While flying down the PCH may call to the free spirit in some, others find meaning and peace lingering around the neighborhood.
When speaking with one of the exhibition’s talented artists, Daniel T. Gaitor-Lomack, whose 2023 piece ‘Traffic ‘King’ stood erect and center of the gallery, I admired the honesty in his explanation of the sculpture’s title, a double entendre. Gaitor-Lomack reflected, “When you look at it you could see this totemic deity that could resemble a king or, on the flip side, you know me growing up in New Jersey, at one point in time, I was really young and I would see the actual bumpers come off because a certain community I was a part of was trafficking drugs.”
He continued to narrate the story behind the piece, “I was working with the bumpers around 2017 to 2019 playing with them in different forms like armor or matriarchal deities. I walked away from these forms for a bit but then in 2023, I was having an exhibition and the gallery was near where I was living and working as a studio space. There was a body shop next door - most of the time before I would find bumpers in the streets and drag them to my old studio, but now it made sense to tap into the community, my neighbors.”
He goes on to highlight the significance of the bumper’s shapeby relating a Rolls Royce Angel rear to the feminine form saying “the body of work resembled mythological figures, old ancient busts, I was referencing old Italian sculptures in my head.”
When addressing the stacked structure, he notes, “For me, stacking the bumpers was a homage to Donald Judd and just the material alone, it’s plastic but it also ties me to John Chamberlain. I have a joke: ‘What do you get when you combine a Donald Judd and a John Chamberlain? You get a stack of dirty car bumpers.” This references the larger scheme of the exhibition as a whole, cars as both literal and figurative vehicles of information, history, and memory.
His approach to creating a piece reflective of driving culture in LA was to glorify the unprecious. “This city is a slow city, because of traffic, and we want everything to come fast. If you work at something day by day and you’re patient enough, the traffic will actually ease up. Some people are so precious about their cars, but they don’t really make cars with the old rubber bumpers anymore where you can actually park and hit the curb without damage.” As an artist who often works with found objects, Gaitor-Lomack recognizes a level of sustainability in his work, “these plastic bumpers aren’t going into the ocean, they’re being recycled.”
Adjacent to the Totem of Bumpers, lives Jacob Rochester painting “Monolith (Kenwood)” which many passersby mistake for a wood panel, rather than oil on linen. Rochester tells me, “It’s funny, people thought the painting was on wood panels, but I actually painted that.” The deeply intricate painted wood texture calls for your undivided attention, just as the slogan says, ‘arrive alive, don’t text and drive’ - or rather, ‘look closer, this artist is more than what he seems.’ He notes that he mainly works with oil when he scales up, but does smaller studies in gouache or watercolor. I originally questioned whether it was airbrush, to which he responded,, “The fact that you thought it was airbrush, I can achieve it with oil because it takes so long to dry I can blend with it differently.” Rochester has two pieces in the show that coincide with each other, “This first one is a painting of the first sound system that me and my dad built for my first car,” he turns to direct my gaze towards another meticulous oil painting across the room “it’s a close up, a kind of call and response with this piece, of a hand turning up the radio. I made these pieces specifically for the show based on car culture, but I have done works of sound systems previously. Half of driving is about what music you’re listening to.”
Nearby hangs Jasaya Neale’s 2024 painting “Both Directions at Once.” Neale tells me, “The piece is a painting of a photo that I shot in New York, it’s a collaboration of different moments and aspects that I put together. The scene shows an old school Chevy Monte Carlo, and I named it ‘Both Directions at Once’ for two reasons, because it’s literally both directions at once, and as an homage to John Coltrane’s album, which was a jazzy cinematic inspired piece.” The second direction isa car mirror depictinga figure’s face minus their eyes - “the reflection represents memories from growing up of my uncles fixing up cars, and my older brothers looking into the mirror’s reflection. I wanted to keep the audience guessing who the person is, asking, ‘what does it mean?’” He notes his typical subject is very candid, hidden in plain sight paintings based on cinematic photography – meanwhile, his painting in fact lives within a curated collection of such cinematic photographs that evoke similar questions such as ‘where are they going?’
The space ruminates further on driving in many forms, specifically in metal crafted by Tyler Christopher Brown. Upon entrance to the space sits a shiny formation with rusted metal sprouting from its liquid-esque surface, a piece titled “All The Leaves Are Brown.” When asked about its material and origins, Brown notes, “The base is made out of aluminum sourced from Kenosha, Wisconsin. I was visiting a friend in Chicago, actually working for another artist for the Detroit Pistons at the time, and I wanted to go car sourcing. “I intentionally went to Kenosha to a dealership named ‘Car Source.’ It’s the dealership Kyle Rittenhouse went to protect of his own volition following the protest of Jacob Blake being shot by the police” His artistic instinct was to find something “growing out of this moment.” He led me nearer, “If you look at what's growing out of this aluminum base, it’s a fiddle leaf ficus, but if you look even closer, there are thorns intertwined.” The piece grew from this meditation on the “dichotomy between relaxation and domestic life; he raises questions regarding this car’s previous life sourced from Kenosha.” It is these kinds of questions that make vehicles a catalyst for deeper understanding of the ‘postmodern journey.
Next to “All The Leaves Are Brown,” lives “He Who Understands I, Earns It… He Who Doesn’t… Pays It” – a large chunk of a 1958 Chevy Bel Air rooftop. Brown recalls “I used to actually play on this as a kid.” He remembers going to this place where “it would be shot up and tagged on” concluding that “it has an index of abuse, but there’s an aspirational level attached to its memory.” Further themes of cars and class arise, “When you think of the Bel Air, you think of upward mobility. It’s the open road, it’s the 1950s. It’s an illusion of a dream.” I question whether illusion often blurs into delusion when romanticizing the past. “The roof is backed by polished stainless steel,” Brown explains, “so you see yourself in that reflection,” asking the audience, and me, “Where do you fit into this equation?”
While I may have never changed a tire, and my electric vehicle only gets 60 miles to a charge making my LA cruising quick to say the least, this exhibition inspired me to pay closer attention to the way light hits my neighbor’s bumper on the freeway, to embrace the blue streak from someone’s heedless side swipe, and to continue to question the written and unwritten laws surrounding car culture in The City of Angels.
Alabaster’s ‘Cruising’ exhibition drove beyond the shiny vehicles parked in LA’s finest restaurant valet’s and into the passenger's seat of local artists who, as Perwana writes so eloquently, “represent cruising in its multitude of energies, emotions and strength.” In their respective mediums, the individual artists of ‘Cruising’ translate the physical vehicles inhabiting our city into a symbol of pride beyond their shiny rims, into a collective testament to the strength and resilience of a community united by a shared passion.
The exhibition remains open - contact info@alabaster.pro for more information regarding the artists and zine.
Thank you to Sissòn for interview assistance, and to R Parmar for including MERDE in the expo festivities.
The exhibition opening was followed by a lively after party at Arts District restaurant Kodō, where a sexy Ferrari (owned by Silverlake’s Hi Tech Automotive) was parked inside greeting guests who cruised over from Temple Street. The evening closed with laughter and connection complimented by lime green cocktails, chicken & fries, and tunes surrounding an outdoor fire pit.
