There are a couple of really good shows across the parking lot from one another, at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica, CA.  I don't get over there much, because i hate driving on the freeways, but tonight was a breeze. 

First, Brendan Monroe's solo show at Richard Heller Gallery.  It was really really nice to meet him finally...I've loved his work for a long time, and even more so up close.  It's science and emotion rolled up together. He filled 2 huge rooms with a ton of paintings of all sizes, so these photos don't do the show justice.  

When you walk in you're focused on this massive molecular wall, and then notice this little guy sitting there.

He reminds me of the first time you walk into a museum and decide to sit on one of those chairs and hunch over for awhile to look at a piece of art.  I remember going to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and sitting down to stare at a painting by Cy Twombly, and froze over like this wooden man.

Richard Heller cruising through

Brendan Monroe

Across the way was Kiel Johnson's solo show at Mark Moore Gallery.  He filled a huge room with cardboard sculptures that look more like wood than cardboard, and a bunch of drawings.  Again, i'm not doing any justice here...but at least i got a shot of his extra large boombox.

This is a drawing of everything in Kiel's studio.  From his scissors to his mattress.

This printing press is pumping out the drawing above.  It's a big nod to his family.  Kiel's dad is the publisher of a small town newspaper in Kansas, the Johnson's County Gazette. 

Kiel Johnson

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