Los Angeles-based artist Amir H. Fallah will be exhibiting in this year’s Rogue Wave ’07 exhibition at L.A. Louver Gallery, which opens with an artist reception this evening. This will be the third exhibition in the Rogue Wave series, which examines work currently being made by artists in Los Angeles through the media of painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, video, installation and conceptual art. For the exhibition, Fallah will present three new large-scale paintings, six photographs and a large two-tiered Terrarium Fort in the gallery. The artist, who is also the founder and creative director of art and culture magazine Beautiful/Decay, will be offering limited-edition ‘zines at the opening that accompany his other work in the exhibition. Fallah will be exhibiting alongside other Los Angeles-based artists such as sculptor Joshua Callaghan and new media artist Osman Khan, who will present an interactive piece investigating identity and communication. Fallah has exhibited internationally, including a recent exhibition with the Third Line Gallery in Dubai. Later this year, the artist will present a solo exhibition with RHYS Gallery in Boston.

Boats in the night, capsized and drifting are typical scenes painted by Los Angeles-based artist Whitney Bedford. With the horizon being swallowed completely by the sea, Bedford’s paintings seem to act as a metaphor for the contemporary squall of the turbulently political and social world that we live in today. The artist is said to have stated that “it is the paint itself that sinks the images,” rather than the ocean or storm that occupies the work. These paintings can be seen as contemporary renditions of the romanticized works by nineteenth century painter J.M.W. Turner, offering a more aggressive view of the sublime. The turbulence contained in the work can also be seen as a struggle between abstraction and representation that dominates the picture plane in each of her paintings. Bedford has exhibited internationally with recent shows, including works with infamous Wrong Gallery in New York, the Fulbright-Kommission in Berlin, Germany, and Art:Concept in Paris, France. Notable group exhibitions for the artist include “Wunderkammer 2″ at Nina Menocal in Mexico City and “Rogue Wave” with L.A. Louver in Los Angeles.

Artist Jill Greenberg inspired much controversy for her body of work “End Times,” featuring stylized, hyper-real portraits of toddlers. The artist created a variety of joylessly contorted facial expressions by offering the children candy and suddenly taking it away from them. The pieces were constructed to reflect Greenberg’s frustration with the Bush administration and Christian fundamentalism in the United States (wikipedia.org). Greenberg was born in Montreal, Canada, and grew up in Detroit, Mich., before moving to New York City and, later, to Los Angeles. The artist has made memorable images of hundreds of the world’s most recognizable celebrities and has created a series of work titled “Animal Tales” and a book titled “Monkey Portraits.” Greenberg graduated in 1989 from the Rhode Island School of Design with a degree in photography. She’s represented by Paul Kopeikin Gallery and has been featured in Harper’s and The New Yorker. Greenberg also has a podcast on America Photo.

Cris Bruch is an artist who resists being categorized as a particular type of creator. Bruch moves effortlessly among the mediums of paper, steel, wood, glass, clay, sound and light, only maintaining the consistency of quality and craftsmanship. The artist’s work does not develop in a linear way, allowing him to leave a particular path, which can emerge in later works. Opening yesterday, the Lawrimore Projects in Seattle is currently celebrating 20 years of the artist’s work with the exhibition “How Did I Get Here.” Among newly constructed pieces such as “Sketchbook,” viewers will find a surprising mix of other prominent works within the exhibition. Bruch’s process-oriented pieces remain conceptual in nature, as the artist investigates the repetitive actions that consume our lives and help to identify us as individuals. The final presentation of each piece is a testimony to the laborious acts employed for creation. Bruch received his degree from the University of Kansas (1980) and his MFA from the University of Wisconsin, Madison (1986). The artist has been exhibited nationally, including recent exhibitions “Duty Cycle” at the Boise Art Museum in Idaho and “Dreaming, Doing, Craving” at the Salt Lake Art Center in Utah. The artist has been a design consultant for the Seattle Metro Monorail and has received awards and residencies from the Behnke Foundation in Seattle and the Djerassi Foundation in Woodside, Calif.

The paintings and drawings of Stanford University graduate Shaun O’Dell are rooted in autobiographical and historical narratives. The artist employs a complex iconography to investigate ideas of imperialism and nationalism as well as racism and environmental blunders that are often associated with America’s governing parties and social elite. Some of the visual icons found in the work are buffalos, bald eagles, liberty bells and skulls, all contained within flat, abstractly rendered landscapes. In the artist’s current exhibition with the James Harris Gallery in Seattle, O’Dell has created several ink and gouache drawings that contain a similar symbolic language as found in previous works. However, in this recent body of work, the artist has further developed the fictional narratives that attempt to recreate a new American story, casting greater light on societal conditions and their inherent consequences. O’Dell’s work has recently been acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and has been featured in “How to Build A Universe That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later,” a group show at the Watts Institute in San Francisco. In 2005, O’Dell became a recipient of the SECA Art Award from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and, in 2006, the artist exhibited with the Jack Hanley Gallery in Los Angeles.

Sean Landers’ work is known for its risky experimentation that allows the artist to expose his process of creation. Although the work avoids consistency in a particular medium or style, Landers’ work acts as a self-portrait that relies on influences of contemporary culture that’s often revealed through text. His most recent exhibition with the Andrea Rosen Gallery consists of only text-based paintings that build up texture across the picture plane, creating a delicate, beautiful surface with biting personal content. Often, the images have an easy-to-follow dialogue, but many of them also become abstracted in image and concept. Landers received his degree from Philadelphia College of Art in 1984 and his MFA from Yale University in 1986. In the past few years, he has had shows with Taka Ishii Gallery in Tokyo, greengrassi in London and Sister in Los Angeles. In addition, Landers has been involved in the fourth Berlin Biennial and other group shows with P.S.1 in New York and the Serpentine Gallery in London.

Artist Susan Dory creates formalist paintings that often investigate memory, private life and the notion of sentimentality through the application of color. Her paintings are characteristically minimal, employing elements of repetition and restraint. The artist is interested in how color evokes certain emotions and how colors can be manipulated to elicit certain psychological responses. This year, Dory exhibited “New Paintings” with Winston Wachter Fine Art in New York City and was featured in the 8th NW Biennial at the Tacoma Art Museum in Washington State. The artist has received several awards, including a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (2001), the Neddy Award from the Behnke Foundation Artist Fellowship (2003) and the King County Office of Cultural Affairs Purchase Award (2002). Dory has been featured in numerous publications, including a review in Art in America for her 2000 exhibition at Howard House in Seattle.