En Plein Error

Jenny Gagalka

Beaux Mendes

William Wasserman

Ltd Los Angeles is pleased to present an exhibition of pastels on paper by En Plein Error, a drawing collaboration between Los Angeles-based artists. Like the mode of painting off which their name riffs, these collaborators have a specific approach to location in their artistic process. They hole up in the deserts of the West and in the strange cities that rise from them like mirages. These ad-hoc residencies/retreats then serve as temporary studios.

Their formal points of departure are twofold: drawing from observation and simultaneous mark-making on a single page. In this combination, their practice is rooted both historically and physically in the world, yet loosed from the singularity of “artist.” Working together upon a single surface in cramped spaces, the individuality of mark-marking is broken down. Imagine some sort of connoisseur a century from now, monocle held against a bionic eye, making the case for this stroke Gagalka, that mark a Mendes, this wash by Wasserman.

But En Plein Error is unfolding, resistant to the static pins of “individual.” Their desert is the landscape of apocalypse and the world antedeluvian, even prebiological. New life, no life, afterlife. The human and animal figures that populate their landscapes are characters pulled from history, myth, fantasy, and personal narratives. Noah and Narcissus stand alongside wayward shoppers, babies, cowboys, and colleagues. Some characters are named fully; others just have a single moniker or occupation to identify them.

Theirs is a population not limited to the bounds of time nor learned histories. It is no coincidence then that the exhibition is anchored by two large drawings quoting the scale and scope of Western European history painting. One depicts an ark scene devoid of animal life, and the other depicts a banquet, a corporate-catered event, “The Opening.”

The smaller drawings interspersed throughout the gallery are of two groups. One group depicts individuals derived from self-portraiture, triple-self-portraiture: drawing each other and themselves, combining each of their physiognomies onto one page. These solipsistic figures both create and inhabit the other works. The other group is made up of still-life scenes with sunflowers and seafood, shared banquets within a visual language of individual expression.

This is En Plein Error’s first exhibition with Ltd Los Angeles.