A walk-through of THIS LAND, a solo show by Los Angeles mixed media artist Ayin Es at Craig Krull Gallery in Santa Monica, CA, from September 10 to October 22, 2022.
Ayin Es surveys the high desert of Southern California as their personal inspection into what it means to possess, own, or hold land in the Mojave.
Through a series of oil paintings, watercolors, and preliminary drawings, Es expresses their sense of play in an attempt to change the conventional perspective of ownership of property by removing the limitations of how we formalize these ideas.
By addressing the meaning of place and belonging, they are asking questions in the most psychological sense. What does it mean to occupy the desert, and whose land is it anyway? In their work, they suggest we instead hold the land in the limitlessness of our imagination where we can build upon its curiousness and visual possibilities. By looking into this otherworldly terrain, maybe we can find room to "possess" freedom rather than domination or control over land. Isn't it this point of view that attracts folks to come to the high desert in the first place?
Since we are all stewards of the land, we should all be accountable for its wellbeing. Monetarily retaining ownership seems almost as absurd and abstract as possessing an acre of the galaxy. Essentially, enjoying our presence in the here and now is an experience that cannot live on a piece of paper, as these are holdings of the heart to explore within our psyche.
Mixed media painter, Ayin Es is a transgender abstract artist from Los Angeles who identifies as nonbinary and genderqueer. Now a permanent resident of Joshua Tree, California, they dedicate themselves to their unusual oil paintings, weird drawings, personal collages, and Artist's books that are widely collected. They also work in additional media, i.e.: watercolor, installation, and video as well. Ayin's imaginative artworks reside in museums such as the Getty, Brooklyn Museum, UC San Francisco Precision Cancer Center, and National Museum of Women in the Arts. A two-time recipient of ARC Grants from the Durfee Foundation, they've also won the Bruce Geller Award, a Pollock-Krasner Fellowship, and the Wynn Newhouse Award for their visionary artwork. Their work has been reviewed in Artillery, LA Times, ArtScene, LA WEEKLY, ArtNowLA, ArtLTD, Art&Cake, and WhiteHot Magazine.
