636 Cypress Ave, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254
Cypress Avenue down in Hermosa Beach, CA is already crackling with energy due to the Resin Art Center anchoring the area with its heart for outfitting little creatives with the tools they’ll need to honor the art geists within them.
There’s actually a lot of wildly cool arthead energies afoot in Southbay Los Angeles, but I have to say nothing prepared me for the powerful, authentic programming that has consistently been happening in a space called Shockboxx Gallery in Hermosa Beach, California, a few doors down from Resin.
From their site:
Established in March 2017 by Mike Collins and Laura Schuler, ShockBoxx continues to host several emerging artist group shows and solo shows each month and has become a destination for those seeking a night of culture in the South Bay. Showcasing themes that are rarely found elsewhere (addiction, homages to contemporary artists, gun control) ShockBoxx features artists in popup style shows which always leaves patrons wishing for more.
Www.shockboxxproject.com
Those aware of what the grievechronic.com arc that birthed themag.globalboho.com is about get the potential for instant arthead affinities but the truth is I’d had no idea about any of that when I’d wandered in.
A local store owner heard about a creative collaboration I was in the preproduction stages of and didn’t just casually tell me to give it a gander…she told me to make sure I went that day to see the show that was currently up before it came down. The show the owner of Practical Magic Apothecary was on fire about was the Gold Series by Christina Elizabeth Smith of Amrta Art.
I’d wandered into galleries for #Globalboho up & down cali all 2022 as a barometer for the different zones I was being drawn to explore. & I saw a Lot of great work by alot of very cool collections of local artists, doing their things their ways in this wild, post lockdown world.
Christina Elizabeth Smith’s (@amrtaart ) show at Shockboxx is the one that stuck with me due to how deftly she turned the energy of it on its head.
Those who’ve been with me from the beginning know how #AOLAB & even #grievechronic’s heavenly expression is rooted in #ukiyoe #floatingworld energy. The temple walls from repatriated homecoming onward have always gleamed silver & gold. So I was in heaven when I walked in. Purely levitating.
And then…
I found myself in front of what the show was about…for the artist.
The vulnerability and candor with which she addresses the foundational impetus of the show cuts you to the quick, especially due to coming across it well into floating through the ethereal atmospheric pressure the actuality of her work creates in the gallery.
Frankly said, it was the purest floating world experience had in a gallery in a long while… and then it was like she yanked me out of the clouds into what it took to find the wherewithal to fill her wounds with gold the way she has done so that we marched into the flickering multimedia portion of the show, together, spiritually armed to the teeth.
I do not know where she is showing next but I highly advise you to check out her website [amrtaart.com] & go see her work in person the first chance you get.
Ditto for the Shockboxx project. They are pulling NO punches over there.