In Mother Sky, Mai-Thu Perret arranges a series of intimate gestures into an overall composition that is simultaneously monumental and ethereal, and that speaks to the subtlety of aesthetic thought as much as it does to the foundational nature of art’s place in human life. In this exhibition, Perret presents a wall-mounted ceramic work, among the artist’s largest and most ambitious to date; a figurative ceramic sculpture based on a digital scan of an ancient sculpture of the goddess Minerva; and smaller ceramic works dedicated to animal and other forms. Perret’s use of ceramics has served as a clearinghouse for sculptural experimentation in which a wide range of techniques and approaches to color and texture have resulted in objects of varied scales, types, and conceptual orientations. By way of juxtaposition, the show also features a neon work in which Perret engages with the legacy of multidisciplinary Swiss artist Sophie Taeuber-Arp (1889–1943). In each of these works, as in the exhibition as a whole, Perret’s careful attention to the mechanisms of art itself, including both its cultural contexts and the particularities of its making, reveals where the biological becomes cosmological, and points to where the material and immaterial worlds intersect. ___ The paintings on view in Hell is Wet incorporate found relics that chart Will Boone’s physical and experiential trajectory, ​​making visible the localized nuances associated with the American South and Southwest. His practice of collecting and inserting physical objects into the canvas foregrounds the connection of the painting to a specific place and emphasizes the relationship painting has to drawing and sculpture. His technical processes are informed by vernacular languages of numerous American subcultures, from the DIY ethos of punk to the precision of industrial manufacturing, typically reflective of the area in which the artist lives. For Boone, objects act as proof of life and myth, often spinning a counternarrative tied to the specific region in both the objects’ materiality and the geographic context in which they were found. The artworks on view emerge in both two- and three-dimensional terms, creating a finished relief that shows Boone pushing the materiality and sculptural possibilities of painting in equal measure. In Hell is Wet, Boone displays these otherwise unassuming and unexpected objects in a manner that simultaneously distorts them and turns them into objects of wonder. ___ Paths Crossed, Hilary Pecis’s first exhibition with the gallery, presents a selection of lush, saturated landscapes reflecting the mountainous, desert, and urban terrains commonly associated with Southern California. Many of the paintings on view begin as source images taken on Pecis’s phone on her daily runs throughout Los Angeles’s streetscapes or through the various trails she frequents in the surrounding mountains and forests. The sequence of works in this exhibition is reflective of the artist’s continued engagement with modernist landscape painting. The consistent photographic documentation and recurrent landscapes that are inherent to Pecis’s project further strengthen her connection to artists like Georgia O’Keeffe, who was equally engaged in her environments on macro and micro scales and often depicted similar landforms in her paintings. This exhibition sees Pecis revisiting a familiar vista of the Grand Canyon. Here the layered bands of the canyon—typically represented with shades of oranges and reds—are presented as a patchwork of shadow in deep blues, greys, and purples, paired with sun-kissed chartreuse, yellows, pinks, and browns. By revisiting and retranslating her engagement with natural and built environments, Pecis’s work acts as a living document where each slight modification in perspective yields new, compelling narratives, shapes, lines, and compositions of otherwise familiar scenes. _______ Image: Will Boone, Her Flower, 2023, corsage, vinyl, paper, resin, enamel, and automotive paint on canvas, 75 x 75 x 5 1/2 inches (190.5 x 190.5 x 14 cm). Photo: Flying Studio