Shotgun Reviews are an open forum where we invite the international art community to contribute timely, short-format responses to an exhibition or event. If you are interested in submitting a Shotgun Review, please click this link for more information. In this Shotgun Review, Claire Colette reviews Ellen Berkenblit at Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, Los Angeles.

Ellen Berkenblit. Pantherella Fine English Socks, 2015; oil, charcoal and paint stick on linen; 92 x 76 in. Courtesy of the Artist, Anton Kern, and Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, Los Angeles. Photo: Adam Reich.

On view now at Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, Ellen Berkenblit’s new paintings are enigmatic, lively things. For her first solo show with the gallery, Berkenblit introduces fresh characters with her deft painting style—large works in oil and paint stick, featuring bold colors amid abstract shapes on a dark black background. An orange tiger is a repeat player, as well as a girl with a pointed nose and long eyelashes drawn in a fashion reminiscent of Pink Panther cartoons from the 1960s. The girl has starred in Berkenblit’s paintings for years, morphing from a sweet, round-nosed form to her current more elegant state. Since this metamorphosis several years ago, the artist’s paintings have become progressively reductive. Highlighting the action, her latest paintings are boiled down and stark—and increasingly powerful.

Berkenblit has stated in the past that her figures are merely an organizing device—vehicles to “carry the line that I wish to draw.” [1]  A narrative, if you see one, is unintentional and of your own making. Indeed, the relationship between Berkenblit’s characters seems tenuous. They float at random among abstract shapes in haphazard combinations, creating a dark, jungle-like feeling. The orientation of the elements changes quickly between paintings in assorted variations, with a dizzying effect. The tiger hangs upside down from the top of one painting, and crawls in from the bottom of another, mouth gaping open.

The girl drifts around the canvas, at times appearing serene, eyes and mouth closed; in others she is shouting, defensive. The question arises, “What are all these characters doing on this stage together?” A blue bird staring defiantly into the mouth of a tiger shouting something unknowable alludes to the idea that we cannot know that, either.

Whatever the narrative, an adventure appears to be underway, and the players have much to contend with. Supercharged by vivid colors against a deep black, from canvas to canvas the paintings become increasingly raucous, tumbling, joyous, and sinister. The momentum seems to be of an unhinging, as objects and characters are hurled in an increasingly looser fashion across the screen. At once deep and flat, chaotic yet intentional, Berkenblit’s work creates a rich, fantastical world imbued with mystery and kinetic energy that pushes the boundaries of both representation and abstraction, as well as painting itself.

Ellen Berkenblit is on view through March 5, 2016, at Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, Los Angeles. 

Claire Colette is an artist and writer living in Los Angeles. She received her MFA in painting from Mills College in 2013. 

[1] Artist biography, Artsy.net, 2015, https://www.artsy.net/artist/ellen-berkenblit.