Los AngelesReview
Simone Shubuck at Taylor De Cordoba
Written by Andrew Katz Katz
In Shubuck’s smaller works, she paints on the backside of old pages from Victorian books and then imbues them with new and bright blasts of colors and shapes. There are special moments throughout the show and in the details of her work: both when the original page’s images show through like a shadow or memory and where the larger and messier painted shapes meet the smaller and more intricate penciled details. There is something rich and childlike in Shubuck’s playfulness and subjects, but adult and developed in her aesthetic. Throughout the show, her work brought a subtle smile to my face, and it was one I wanted to keep privately within me.
Her two large-scale works in this show are her first foray into something this massive (the largest being about 80 x 50”). In these, there is an explosive quality of the works, as if building momentum in the center and exploding and emanating out from there. Shubuck paints and collages a whimsical mix of flora, fauna, and faces, and there is beauty in the details and in this very mashup itself. Along with paint, pencils, and crayons, Shubuck uses paper collage as well. She applies images from the old Victorian books along with older pieces of her own deconstructed art as well. In this sense, she truly reflects upon the show’s title, mixing variable levels of old with the new.
Shubuck’s work is bold, playful, rich, and refreshingly deep. This is the New York-based artist’s first show in LA in seven years, and as such, it feels like an appropriate blended homecoming for Taylor De Cordoba’s fresh, new Culver City gallery location as well. It is a rebirth of sorts across the board – an artist’s return to this city, a gallery’s new space, and a reimagining of older works on a grand scale.
--- Taylor De Cordoba’s new Culver City location is 6021 Washington Blvd. Shubuck’s show runs through June 1st, and is followed by Kyle Field’s show Wide Daylight June 8th. Simone Shubuck received her BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in and has exhibited at numerous galleries included Susie Q. Zurich (Switzerland), Jack Hanley Gallery (San Francisco), Kantor Feuer (Los Angeles) and Zach Feuer Gallery (New York). Her work is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. This is her first exhibition with Taylor De Cordoba. Ellen C. Caldwell is an LA-based art historian, editor, and writer.
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