Art Review: Dasha Shishkin's Dive Into Decadence on Display in Los Angeles

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
By Leah Ollman

Dasha Shishkin's "for the busy and for vexed" at Vielmetter.
(Robert Wedemeyer / Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects)

CALIFORNIA---An enthralling lawlessness reigns in Dasha Shishkin's world. Body parts distend and multiply, leapfrogging over boundaries of gender and species. Space collapses into prismatic fluidity, and scale is a free-for-all. As for narrative coherence, well ... Shishkin is a generous trickster, sending us down so many enticing rabbit holes that logic quickly feels irrelevant. Based in New York, Shishkin works in acrylic, gouache and a variety of drawing media (pastel, conté crayon, graphite, ink) on canvas and polyester film. Her pieces range in size, some of them quite large, irregularly shaped and accretive. This show, like her first at Vielmetter in 2012, is not just a dip but a dive into decadence. The strange scenes hint of moral decline and its concomitant luxuries. [link]

Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, 6006 Washington Blvd., Culver City, (310) 837-2117, through Dec. 20. Closed Sunday and Monday. www.vielmetter.com