Life in LA: Ariana Papademetropoulos explores sex, lies and the city

‘My dad, grandpa, uncle and cousins are all architects on both sides of my family, so I'm really interested in interiors and rooms without people in them and figuring out the clues of what's going on,’ says the Los Angeleno painter Ariana Papademetropoulos on a tour of her latest exhibition, 'Wonderland Avenue', now on view at MAMA Gallery, in Los Angeles' Arts District. ‘There's a certain mystery about it that I'm interested in.’
The spaces on display at MAMA are inspired by the artist's upbringing in Pasadena (think classical 1950s vignettes); lifestyle magazines from the 1960s and 70s (slick midcentury modernist kitchens to shagadelic sitting rooms); slices of film stills (from vintage porn to the bedroom scene in Poltergeist) that are rendered as if they were being viewed through smears in fogged glass; and nude lenticular postcards, whose ‘in-between states’ were captured by Papademetropoulos, first in photographs, then in oil.
‘For me, it's between a memory and the peripherals of something and there's always some kind of conflict involved, even though you can't always see it,’ says Papademetropoulos, pointing to one lenticular, Nude, Pensive, that features a beautiful blond woman morphing between pre-and-post-coital poses. ‘When she's clothed she's very seductive, but in the image behind it she's naked on a bed and very sad, looking down. It's like a before/after. It's very funny.’
In the middle of the gallery is a bright yellow room (meant to invoke an unsettling version of the artist's own boudoir) where stands a tiny bed with a dirty floral sheet set, a chess board topped with lipstick tubes as pieces, Witchcraft and Strip-Tac-Toe parlor games, a figurative lamp from her house, and a gold-veined mirror reflecting the trippy mise-en-scene, including a pink and orange gradient painting that bears the phrase ‘Just Before the Horror’.
‘I wanted people to be able to walk inside the paintings, so in a sense this is a rip in the room,’ she says, walking through an ovoid portal that mimics the abstracted rips in three large interiors studies. In All Flesh is Grass, which can be seen from the yellow room, a green carpeted salon is interrupted by a wood-paneled den appointed with yellow furniture whose floral painting seemingly battles with the abstract landscape in the green room. Across the large gallery, Armchair Revival takes a page from the artist's home library in Pasadena, alternating between the brightness of day and the danger of night. Meanwhile, the epic Another Picnic Painting, in the backroom, fuses a greyscale midcentury kitchen with a Rosenquist-styled picnic scene filled with ghost-like figures whose faces are blurred into agonised states.
‘Even though it's scaled so you think you could walk in there, the rip reminds you that it's not a real space, it brings you back to collage, it reminds you that it's not really tangible,’ says Papademetropoulos.
This intangibility strikes at the heart of the show's title, which is a reference to the idyllic Laurel Canyon street (and community) that was torn apart by a gruesome quadruple homicide at a townhouse frequented by porn stars, on the titular avenue that was home to the drug-dealing Wonderland Gang.
‘It's about how all these different things can happen in one space. It's also kind of about Los Angeles as a whole, and myths, and the duality of certain things, the dark side and facade.’
In the middle of the gallery is a bright yellow room, intended to invoke an unsettling version of Papademetropoulos' own boudoir
Dressed with a tiny bed, a chess board topped with lipstick tubes as pieces, a figurative lamp from her house, and a gold-veined mirror reflecting the trippy mise-en-scene, the scene can be entered through an ovoid portal
In All Flesh is Grass (pictured), a green carpeted salon is interrupted by a wood-paneled den appointed with yellow furniture, whose floral painting seemingly battles with the abstract landscape in the green room
‘For me, it's between a memory and the peripherals of something and there's always some kind of conflict involved, even though you can't always see it,’ says Papademetropoulos of her work
‘My dad, grandpa, uncle and cousins are all architects on both sides of my family, so I'm really interested in interiors and rooms without people in them and figuring out the clues of what's going on,’ she continues. Pictured: Another Picnic Painting, 2016
The exhibition also includes several lenticular works, including Rumours of Spring, 2015 (pictured), which shows the subject in two provocative postures
INFORMATION
’Wonderland Avenue’ is on view until 23 April. For more information, visit MAMA Gallery’s website
Photography courtesy of the artist and MAMA Gallery
ADDRESS
MAMA Gallery
1242 Palmetto Street
Los Angeles
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
-
A European-style café opens next to London’s Saatchi Gallery
Designed by Dion & Arles, Cafe Linea serves fresh pâtisseries, global dishes and sparkling wines in a stunning Grade II-listed setting
-
Home is where Beethoven Market is – a joyful Italian restaurant in LA’s Mar Vista
In Mar Vista, a historic space is reborn as a modern-day gathering spot, an Italian-infused restaurant where rotisserie chicken, handmade pasta and tableside tiramisu welcome you like family
-
This Canadian house is a precise domestic composition perched on the Nova Scotian coast
Bishop McDowell completed a new Canadian house overlooking the Atlantic, using minimal details and traditional forms to create a refined family home
-
Marlene Dumas’ charged, exposed and intimate figures gather in Athens
The artist’s work from 1992 until the present day goes on show at Athens’ Museum of Cycladic Art (until 2 November)
-
Mystic, feminine and erotic: the power of Penny Slinger’s bodies as landscape
Artist Penny Slinger continues her exploration of the sacred, surreal feminine in a Santa Monica exhibition, ‘Meeting at the Horizon’
-
Get lost in Megan Rooney’s abstract, emotional paintings
The artist finds worlds in yellow and blue at Thaddaeus Ropac London
-
Kaari Upson’s unsettling, grotesque and seductive world in Denmark
The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark is staging the first comprehensive survey of late artist Kaari Upson’s work
-
Inside the brilliant and short career of Paul Thek: 'The goal was to live a creative existence as a maker – and he lived in a saint-like fashion'
Paul Thek's paintings are now viewable at Thomas Dane Gallery in London, in an exhibition curated by Kenny Schacter and Jonathan Anderson.
-
Lubaina Himid and Magda Stawarska’s new show at Kettle’s Yard will uncover the missing narratives in everyday life stories
The artists and partners in life are collaborating on an immersive takeover of Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, in an exhibition that delves into a lost literary legacy
-
Photographer Geordie Wood takes a leap of faith with first film, Divers
Geordie Wood delved into the world of professional diving in Fort Lauderdale for his first film
-
New book celebrates 100 years of New York City landmarks where LGBTQ+ history took place
Marc Zinaman’s ‘Queer Happened Here: 100 Years of NYC’s Landmark LGBTQ+ Places’ is a vital tribute to queer culture