Stephen F
Writer, Better Lemons
California native son Shane Guffogg is back in the southland at the Manhattan Beach Art Center (until June 11th) for his first solo show of new work since his triumphant exhibitions in St. Petersburg and Baku, Azerbaijan. While those shows were huge symphonies of images (75 and 73 paintings respectively), “The Dance of Thought” is more like a chamber concert, with 20 paintings plus some drawings and a series of sculptures in marble and glass. While this art may be at a gallery near the beach, this is anything but beach art, folks. Guffogg, in his early 50s, is – a world-class artist who studied at Cal Arts and worked for years for Los Angeles-based painters Joe Goode and Ed Ruscha. He is that rare contemporary artist who is also a student of art history, and you will see in his work an admiration for many painters, both European and American – from Da Vinci, Rembrandt, Picasso and Kandinsky to Jackson Pollock, De Kooning and Cy Twombly – along with a strong influence of Eastern spirituality. Guffogg has subsumed these styles into visual metaphors that are both personal and universal. One room of his paintings is titled “Amor Fati” – love your fate – something that Guffogg has clearly done, and which accounts for the emotional depth of his work. Shane Guffogg is an artist on the verge of worldwide art stardom. Angelenos who can appreciate a visionary image-maker and want to say “I knew his work back when” – make that pilgrimage to Manhattan Beach and take in the sweep of a modern master in this intoxicating show. (Wednesday-Saturday 10 AM – 9 PM; Sunday 10 AM – 5 PM)
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SHANE GUFFOGG 