Janet Olsson's dark surrealism...at the Davis Dominguez Gallery

"...And The Woman On The Left" (c) 2011 by  Janet Olsson. Dark, cryptic, surreal imagery.

At the Davis-Dominguez gallery, artist Jan Olssen has an impressive number of paintings that all seem to be about various stages in a particular relationship. The relationship doesn't end well. The narrative (as I see it) starts in the small foyer area of the gallery, with pastel works on cardboard. The colors are very drab: lots of tints and greyed-down tones; washed out greens and pinks, with some chalky off-white regions, with pencil accents. I was remind of illustration from the 1950s. The composition, the subject matter, the color and style...it had a nostalgic feel. This is true of all of Jan Olsson's work here at this exhibit.  An overriding theme seemed to be memory.

"Seated Woman With Tape Measure and Iron":(c) 2011 by  Janet Olsson striking a nostalgic chord...

Olsson's piece "Seated Woman with a Tape Measure and Iron" is part of a series of pastel drawings that are all about a woman getting ready for ....something. There's picture of her ironing a garment, there's picture of her sewing at a sewing machine...several tight shots of a single women getting some clothes ready.   Another picture in the series shows a woman posing before a mirror, a man with a crew cut and wrapped in a trench coat, waiting for her...

"Man, Woman, and Heart" (c) 2011 by  Janet Olsson

"Man, Woman, and Heart" suggests some sort of romance of relationship, but only in the simplest of outlines. Again, muted pastel colors from another era dominate the picture. The drawings are quick and sketchy, and have the appearance of fashion illustration. A hot pink heart shape at the lower center of the picture helps further the idea that love is in bloom in this picture. But this relationship is about to go south, once you get into the larger gallery space...

"Girls" by Janet Olsson. Allusions to 'Alice in Wonderland'?  (c) 2011 by  Janet Olsson

When you enter the large room at Davis-Dominguez, you see more of Jan Olssen's work, but there are two new styles; there is a multi-media collage thing going on here. The painting "Girls" is a key piece in this exhibit is a sort of key to the show, I feel, because it contains a lot of clues about how to read the exhibit (at least to me). First, the work is structured in layers: Olssen combines photo collage, with splattered paint, with tinted drawings.  The drawings show two girls dressed up as if they were bridesmaids, or as if they were going to some fancy event. One is dressed in a red dress, the other in a blue one. The blond girl looks like Alice in Wonderland. Doesn't a part of "Alice in Wonderland" involve a red pill and a blue pill? Hmmm.... could this all be a dream? The "Alice" character is reaching out towards a big butterfly: a symbol of innocence and freedom. But as you look in the background, you notice a few white geysers of paint, along with some collaged photos of dirt, gravel, and some triangular foundation things (probably used for building a house); in the lower right corner are collaged photos of broken wooden palettes (used for loading heavy things onto a truck). So what does this all mean? A nice drawing of two girls going to a wedding, amidst a backdrop of dirt, damage, and disorder?

"Night Blooming" (c) 2011 by  Janet Olsson

By the time you get the painting "Night Blooming", things have turned chaotic. Once again,  Jan Olssen uses collage to build her pictures, starting with photos of broken up wood as a foundation (noticeable in the upper right portion of the picture above), on which she painting images of a child with a lost look on her face (lower right), several flowers (nightblooming cereus?; on the left...), an image of a woman with her hand on her face (crying?), and a ghostly outline of a man who looks very animated, but it's not clear what he's doing  (playing piano?)  Also, more splattered and dribbled white paint, over the flowers and shooting up to the right of the picture. With this picture, you feel as if you've walked into a scene of chaos. Olssen's work is very symbolic, but the symbols are all very personal, so to decipher the work, it's like trying to psychoanalyze the artist... My guess is that this picture is about a broken home. The figures in this painting do not look happy. They look like they're in various stages of distress, from anger, to grief, to shock. The chaotic photos (the "reality" of the picture) shows pictures of a home that is literally broken: broken boards, chunks of dirt and cement. So why the flowers? A symbol of hope? Of life? It's not clear...  This painting too has a washed out, monochromatic look; a barren look that looks like black and white TV, an old movie...the color of "memory"...

"Oracle" (c) 2011 by  Janet Olsson: Southwestern surrealism

 The painting "Oracle" is one of the best paintings in this show (along with "Treasure Hunt", which I'm describe momentarily). "Oracle" is a total surrealist southwestern tableaux. Olssen's limited colors (just black, white, and orange) magnify the already intense mood of this piece (with its crazed imagery).  This painting "Oracle" has elements common to the collage work previously described, but in this case, it is entirely painted. Even the drizzled white paint strewn across the canvas is also carefully rendered. Whereas in some of previous pieces I've described here, Olssen splattered actual white paint onto her work, in "Oracle" she carefully painted the shape of a paint splatter. Obviously that white paint drizzle shape has symbolic meaning for her, because it's present is most of her work in this exhibit.  She's got that same white paint splatter-type graffiti drizzled over many of her paintings. Maybe I should ask that dog in the background what's going on here? Other symbolic images here are the shrouded woman (a symbol of grief?), the dog (traditionally a symbol of loyalty), and those goofy ghost masks in the lower right. But that white splatter really dominates this picture. Is this the artist defacing her own picture? Is she drawing graffiti over her own work? Or is it simply a design element? I'm not really sure... Also, notice that the trashed wood palettes, the "broken home" has been replaced by an outhouse.  Or is that a dog house? I'm guessing that this picture is about betrayal...it all kinda adds up...

"Treasure Hunt" (c) 2011 by  Janet Olsson

In "Treasure Hunt", we see a bunch of sheep's heads (or are those goats?), woman standing in a puddle of white water  (or is it spilled milk? Or more white goo?)  In the background there is another house (or is that a barn?), with a forest on the upper left side of the picture. In the forest, in two places, stand two women (one on the upper left, holding an orange glowing thing behind her back), and the other waaay in the background in the upper right of the painting, standing nude and alone in a barren landscape.  At the very least, I can say that these images are about a sense of darkness and disorder.

"Best Man" (c) 2011 by  Janet Olsson

As I noted earlier, much of the work in Janet Olsson's exhibit is collage. Several of her pieces have a "Day of the Dead" quality about them, since they include photos of people from "Day of the Dead" parties. In the piece titled "Best Man", Olsson has followed her formula: she starts with a photo, adds collaged elements (a cake, a paper doll groom outfit), and again, more drizzled white paint. In this picture, she's made a halo of gold dots around the best man's head, all hastily done, as if an afterthought.

There's a very stark and angry quality about this work. You see it in the splattered paint. You see it in the images of (literally) broken homes, splintered wood, and chunks of concrete. You see it in the angular, disrupted compositions. You see it in the limited color palate. You see it in the symbols of death and mourning.

I like how she starts her paintings by collaging photos, and then using that as a foundation for a painting. I like how she creates a sense of moodiness and mystery, by limiting her colors to just one or two. I find her imagery disturbing, but that's fine: she does a good job of it.

This is art about loss and disappointment...and grief...and anger. The mood is dark, the compositions are active, and the imagery is surreal. This is painting for our times.