Every six weeks, the Corey Helford Gallery puts on new shows. Their current exhibits highlight the work of two solo artists, Japanese pop-surrealist painter, printmaker and sculptor Junna Maruyama and Chicago-based illustrator, toymaker and painter Travis Lampe, along with a group of varying artists.
These shows will run through Saturday, Feb. 14.
The contemporary gallery was established in 2006 by Jan Corey Helford and her husband TV writer and producer Bruce Helford, known for “The Conners,” “Lopez vs Lopez,” “Anger Management,” “The Drew Carey Show” and “George Lopez.”
The gallery spotlights artists at different levels, including international and emerging artists. The gallery represents international artists who work in different styles, including Neo-Pop, New Figurative, Surrealist, Graffiti and Street Art.
Her show “Who Am I?” is Maruyama’s first solo show at the gallery.
The gallery has displayed her work in a number of group shows, including “The Last Unicorn.”
“We just had such a great response to her work. We wanted to give her a larger platform to showcase her on her own,” said Sherri Trahan, Corey Helford Gallery’s director.
Maruyama has displayed her work internationally and won multiple awards at different shows.
Her art has also been featured on sneaker collaborations with ASICS.
In the exhibition, the artist reflects inward, exploring who she is while encouraging viewers to do the same.
Her work highlights “a confidence that comes through lived experience.” She often explores topics such as adolescent emotions and societal pressure in her work.
Central to her work are dreamy, doll-like, forlorn female figures.
The artist is inspired by the Gyaru youth subculture of Japan.
She also draws from fairytales and folklore.
The exhibit features pieces from her “Gyaru Series,” well as original character pieces.
Within the display are her Pyonsuke character pieces, which incorporate natural elements such as cherry blossoms and rain.
Trahan said the artist often uses butterflies into her work.
“That came from her grandmother teaching her about the great Purple Emperor butterflies, which are representations of the soul. She incorporates a lot of butterflies to put life into her pieces,” Trahan said.
Trahan said that within the solo exhibit, it is possible to see different sides of Maruyama as an artist.
“She’s changing styles with what is currently influencing her, with what she’s seeing out there. She’s embracing bits and pieces of it. She moves forward with it instead of just staying with one particular style,” Trahan said.
The “Gyaru Series” helped to reignite a love of art when she was facing a period in her life where her passion had begun to diminish. This style goes back to her roots, before she became a commercial success.
Trahan said while Maruyama is inspired by manga, the artist brings her own flair to her work.
“When there’s a certain wave happening that seems to start among manga, she’s watching that and incorporating that into her style, but her colors are really different. That’s one of the things that makes the works pop,” Trahan said. “I’m looking at ‘You Are My Happiness’ as an example. The bright golden yellow hair is different from what you’d see in manga. The starry eyes, that’s different as well but still relates to it.”
She often incorporates feminine items such as glitter, buttons and stickers into her pieces.
“A lot of the paintings are very three-dimensional,” Trahan said.
Trahan said that some other Japanese artists, including Hikari Shimoda, also use glitter and ephemera into their work.
Travis Lampe’s exhibit “The Ham-Fisted Coping Mechanism,” is inspired by a rubber-hose animation style of old Mickey Mouse cartoons.
He grew up a small Kanss town and was inspired by “Steamboat Willie” and “Looney Tunes,” characters such as Betty Boop and Dr. Seuss books.
In his work, Lampe creatures a bizarre, topsy-turvy world with colorful characters and objects.
“It’s his own surreal universe, his dystopian utopia. They’re all a little crazy, but they’re in their own universe together. So, it’s their own utopia,” Trahan said.
Trahan said that Lampe’s pieces are very relevant in today’s world.
“This year has been a crazy year for a lot of people and a terrible year in Los Angeles for a lot of people. We’ve been through a lot. This is a way of dealing with everything, a way of coping, is to put humor into the situation,” Trahan said.
Lampe often paints in acrylic but also creates sculptures with epoxy resin, paper mache and sewn canvas.
The gallery has displayed Lampe’s work a number of times over the years, in group and solo shows. This is his first solo exhibition in the main gallery.
Lampe has exhibited across the country and internationally. He has a background working in advertising. He created ads for breakfast cereals and furniture before he began to develop his own illustration style.
Lampe develop a yellow Color Bear for the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art’s “Fear No Art” campaign.
His latest exhibition features acrylic paintings on wood panel, sculptures and unique items such as a functional, painted guitar.
The third exhibition featured at the gallery, the group show “Altered Images: Vintage Paint-By- Numbers Reimagined,” features pieces developed by over 70 artists. They created new works atop of vintage paint-by-numbers pieces, which had already been painted.
The participating artists were asked to reinterpret these paintings in their own styles. Some did more than one piece.
The gallery works with many of these artists regularly. They also brought in new artists.
“It gives us a chance to see what someone new can do, that might not have been on our radar, that another artist can turn us on to. We love getting recommendations from our artists,” Trahan said.
This exhibit is similar to the gallery’s popular “Art Collector Starter Kit” show, in which newer collectors were able to find affordable, one-of-a-kind, collaborative pieces.
Within the paintings, many of the artists added elements such as new characters, changed up landscapes and brought their own humorous spins to existing themes.
“We love when they infuse what’s in the painting already with their style. Mark Todd did a piece with a big bouquet of flowers…..He made it into a ‘Fantastic Four’ cover, using the flowers as an explosion in the middle. He gave the flowers highlights, and then he put all the comic graphics behind it. Gary Baseman did a couple with two or three cats in them, and then he had the cats snuggling his iconic characters like Blackie the Cat and Toby,” Trahan said.
One artist, Diana Laufer, had already been creating works on vintage paint-by-numbers pieces, which incorporated tin toys and birds. The gallery was able to use these pieces in the exhibit.
Trahan said for this display, the gallery found paint-by-numbers pieces from the ‘50s and ‘60s in online shopping marketplaces, vintage flea markets and antique malls.
“As we gathered them, we put them on this private website so that the artist could choose one. Once an artist chose the one they wanted, we pulled it down, and we would keep replenishing it with new pieces,” Trahan said.
If You Go
Junna Maruyama’s “Who Am I?”
Travis Lampe’s “The Ham-Fisted Coping Mechanism”
“Altered Images: Vintage Paint-By-Numbers Reimagined”
WHEN: Through Saturday, Feb. 14
WHERE: Corey Helford Gallery, 571 S. Anderson Street, Los Angeles
COST: Free
INFO: coreyhelfordgallery.com