Thinkspace is excited to present Wiley Wallace ‘Woven Trails,’ bringing a captivating exploration of interconnectedness, time, and space to Thinkspace Projects’ Gallery IV. ‘Woven Trails‘ delves into metaphysical concepts, inviting viewers to reflect on the mysteries of existence. The paintings depict transformative journeys where time, space, and interconnectedness intertwine to form a mesmerizing tapestry of exploration and reflection. Wallace’s pieces convey a kind of sci-fi nostalgia harkening back to a Spielberg-era of extraterrestrial-themed filmmaking. At times their implied innocence and naiveté give way to darker and more dystopian readings, surfacing amidst the neon-hued glow.
Our interview with Wiley reveals what a day in the studio looks like for him, his creative influences, and about his dream collaboration.
What themes were you exploring in this body of work? Did you have a piece that was particularly challenging?
In this body of work, I was trying to build off of themes that I have used in the past like the desert, my children, skeletons, and glowing ethereal and polyhedron shapes. I was also trying to add more translucent and abstract shapes of different materials like glass or minerals. Additionally, I was trying to challenge myself to paint bigger on some paintings and smaller on other ones, playing with scale a bit.
What does a day in the studio look like for you? How do you structure your days? Do you have any rituals that help you tap into a creative flow?
From month to month, a day looks very different depending on what our kids have going on. During the school year, I love to swim or hike in the morning after getting the kids off to school, then paint until I have to teach a class, and then paint until we eat dinner together. In the summer, with everyone home, I moved all my painting stuff into the living room so that I could hang out with my family. I would be painting while the kids watched a show, movie, or played videogames. I did a lot of half watching/listening to whatever they put on. Sometimes they would join me by making their own stuff; crochet, drawing, crafts, etc.
What is your most favorite and least favorite part of the creative process? Who are some of your creative influences? Why do they inspire you?
I love the act of painting and zoning out into the process for a long time. Least favorite part is the set-up, clean-up, and how fast paint can dry in the summer in Arizona. Old movies and shows definitely are a huge creative influence on my work. I also love going to art shows when I can and seeing paintings in person and asking myself, “How did they paint that?” After seeing a cool piece of artwork, I always want to get home and paint or draw.
If you could have any skill or topic downloaded into your brain, what would you want to be able to do / be an expert at?
I think it would be awesome to be able to speak every language.
What do you hope viewers take away or experience while viewing your work?
I really like to create narrative paintings that have several different interpretations. If someone can look at one of my paintings and build a story in their mind and see each subject matter that I chose to paint as a symbol that stands for something, it would make me happy.
How do you like to enjoy your time outside of the studio? Do you celebrate the completion of a body of work?
Our kids always have some activity that keeps us pretty busy between boy scouts, football, basketball, swim team, other sports, clubs and classes. My daughter has been really into volleyball, which has been so fun to watch. When I finished the last big body of work for the museum show at Mesa, I needed to take a big break and we celebrated some… but for this show I felt like getting right back to painting.
If you could collaborate with any artists in any sort of medium (i.e. movies, music, painting) who would you collaborate with, and what would you be making?
I would really love to learn/collaborate with an awesome VFX or CGI artist. I have a background in 3-D animation and would love to learn more so that I could have awesome references for paintings.
Who would be on the guest list if you could throw a dinner party for five people, dead or alive? What would be on the menu? What would be the icebreaker question?
I honestly would just love a fun dinner party with my family; the five people would be my wife and our three kids. It would be awesome if everybody could pick their favorite meal and we could all share. We wouldn’t need an icebreaker but “twenty questions” or “would you rather” are always pretty fun.
What was in your musical rotation during the development of this body of work?
I listened to a lot of MixCloud and longer mixes people make on YouTube. One of my favorite set of mixes on YouTube is called KHRUANGBIN VIBES by an account called Mol.
Exhibition on view August 5 – August 26, 2023 at: Thinkspace Projects 4207 W. Jefferson Blvd. Los Angeles, California 90016
Thinkspace presents a video tour and opening reception of Mark Jeffrey Santos’s (aka Mr. S / @mister_sasquatch) new collection ‘Uncharted Paths’ is on view in Gallery I for his debut U.S. solo show. Clémentine Bal (@clementine.bal) is also experiencing her debut U.S. solo show with ‘Magic Friends’ in Gallery II. Jamiah Calvin’s (@miahthecreator) new body of work ‘Reganomics, Cocaine ‘80s and the ‘90s Re-Up’, is on display in Gallery III. Wiley Wallace (@wileywallace) is back in Thinkspace Projects with his new solo show ‘Woven Trails’ in Gallery IV. ANd last but not least GoopMassta’s (@goopmassta) debut solo show ‘Leader of the Pack’ is the perfect fit in the Dog House Gallery and worth a visit.
All exhibitions are on view at Thinkspace Projects now through August 26, 2023
On view August 5 – August 26, 2023
4207 + 4217 W. Jefferson Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90016
Thank you to all of the art collectors and lovers who came out to celebrate the opening of our latest exhibitions. Love seeing so many people packing all of our gallery spaces and courtyard to take in all of the incredible art on view from our family of creatives. A big shout out to everyone at GoopMassta’s ‘Courtyard Sessions’… Alex Solis with the live painting + a mini artist mart with booths from GoopMassta, Atlasgraffiti, Sean Keeton, & Anthony Patrick Manorek + amazing grub from Kabob Senpai + live DJs Venice Beats PLUS + Brushwork’s Dog House Gallery!
Thinkspace projects is proud to present ‘Uncharted Paths’ from Mark Jeffrey Santos, aka Mr. S in our main gallery. Following appearances in our Chicago and Dubai group shows last year, this is the artist’s debut solo exhibition in the United States.
Santos’s creations show his penchant for adventurous and larger-than-life personas, there’s an instant and comfortable connection that is established once a viewer comes to experience his art.
His new body of work for ‘Uncharted Paths’ is based on his personal experiences traveling, creating a body of work that evokes the certain feeling of excitement when you find yourself in a new place.
“Last year I had the opportunity to travel to South Korea and I was lucky to have witnessed the season of autumn. Seeing it for the first time feels like I’m in a strange world. It was such an otherworldly experience for an ordinary phenomenon.”
Many of Santos’s works revolve around vignettes of a young boy captured in the midst of discovery and exploration of a new realm. A sense of self-awareness is evident in the pensive gaze of his innocent protagonist. It is a look that is filled with profound reflection and contemplation of things to come. Santos uses a variety of Japanese Noh masks to expand this concept — masks that conceal its subject’s emotion opposite the pensive gaze that reveals the true emotions he feels.
Complete with a dreamlike environment and his wide-eyed characters, Santos is not only technically skilled, but also gifted with the vision to construct imaginary, bordering on surreal, scenes. His characters can often be found on an adventure, accompanied by larger-than-life creatures. Such talent in world-building and character design only comes natural for Santos, who did works in video and film before becoming a visual artist.
About Mark Jeffrey Santos (aka Mr. S): Mark Jeffrey Santos (b. 1990 Philippines) works are steeped in the world of fantasy. With previous work in video and film, he is a world-building and character design wonder. Since participating in art exhibitions in 2015, Santos has been gaining a massive following online and on ground, earning the moniker “Mister Sasquatch” in the local street art scene, for one. Santos’s paintings and illustrations are also beginning to gain traction internationally, having exhibited his works in Taiwan, China, and the United Kingdom. He has had four solo exhibitions, too, and has been part of art fairs and group shows in the country and abroad.
Clémentine Bal’s Magic Friends welcomes viewers into her world of characters who proudly embrace their uniqueness and vibrant colors, filling Gallery II of Thinkspace Projects for her debut U.S. solo exhibition.
This body of work explores slightly strange, quirky, or even truly bizarre characters and a joyful luminous ensemble fueled by gradients and contrasts. Each subject was designed to celebrate their own individuality, even as some of them still struggle to accept themselves as they are.
With shapes ranging from the easily recognizable, such as animals, suns, or mountains to the more abstract curves, spikes, bumps, and hollows. The tactile aspect of my work is undoubtedly what I appreciate the most. Each character is unique, yet they all seem to be connected in one way or another. They form a magical entity that can transform at will. With their simple, clean lines, it’s as if they just came out of a drawing, evoking a childlike wonder and even a disconcerting naivety.
“I truly enjoyed bringing these characters to life, aiming for them to be light-hearted, kind, and funny, like friends.”
About Clémentine Bal: Clémentine Bal is a sculptor born in Paris in 1979 and who lives in France. She graduated from the School of Fine Arts in Annecy. In her work she creates characters that reflect her inner world. They can come from feelings, memories, projections. They take the form of multicolored mountains or volcanoes, semi-human creatures, little hybrid ghosts. With their simple, clean lines, it’s as if they just came out of a drawing. Clémentine Bal maintains the strong ties she keeps with childhood, giving her characters a sometimes disconcerting naivety. Influenced by the worlds of Mark Ryden or Hayao Miyazaki, she will also draw her inspiration from her memories of reading or cartoons from her youth. Family, children, friendship, animals, and more generally the strong bonds that give us emotions are themes that she likes to address. Thus are born a variety of characters gently. Their lightness protects us like an antidote to the sound and fury of the world.
In Gallery III, Thinkspace Projects presents Jamiah Calvin’s new body of work, full of moments of fortitude and moments of healing. ‘Reaganomics, Cocaine ’80s and the ’90s Re-Up’ uses past memories and nostalgic moments where the “hard times” were also the best of times.
In no real order these paintings tell an intimate story of the artist’s world and upbringing, providing a sober view of what it meant to live in a world where drug transactions and confusing crack for candy as a child was a normalized way of life.
In this body of work you can see the way in which Calvin has enriched himself in the art of visual storytelling without aggression. With depictions of iconic hood spots, Calvin highlights the “golden days,” calling attention to the ways recent transplants have glamorized the times of hardship.
About Jamiah Calvin: Jamiah Calvin is a visual artist and muralist from Chicago Illinois. He graduated from Northern Illinois University with a BFA in studio art with an emphasis on painting. He specializes in figurative and narrative oil paintings that captures raw emotions and nostolgic experiences growing up within the Austin Community on the West side of Chicago.
‘Woven Trails’ is Wiley Wallace’s latest solo exhibition, bringing a captivating exploration of interconnectedness, time, and space to Thinkspace Projects’ Gallery IV.
Through a harmonious fusion of yarn, threads, transparent shapes, translucent glass, hiking trails, and metaphysical elements, Wallace creates compositions that transcend the boundaries of the tangible world. Symbolizing the invisible threads that bind us and the universe together, the incorporation of string highlights the connected nature of all things. With translucent glass, the artwork takes on an ethereal quality, inviting contemplation of the seen and unseen. Central to the exhibition are the motifs of hiking trails, serving as metaphors for the journeys we undertake in life and the narratives that shape our experiences.
‘Woven Trails’ delves into metaphysical concepts, inviting viewers to reflect on the mysteries of existence. The paintings depict transformative journeys where time, space, and interconnectedness intertwine to form a mesmerizing tapestry of exploration and reflection. Wallace’s pieces convey a kind of sci-fi nostalgia harkening back to a Spielberg-era of extraterrestrial-themed filmmaking. At times their implied innocence and naiveté give way to darker and more dystopian readings, surfacing amidst the neon-hued glow.
About Wiley Wallace: Phoenix-born painter Wiley Wallace’s work is playful and ambiguous, his luminous and ostensibly radioactive worlds suggest a metaphysical interest in the possibility of alternate realities: the endlessly shapeshifting and protean nature of fantasy at the intersection of the imagined and “real.” Wallace’s paintings combine realistic rendering with elements of the surreal, and near-magical references that include eerily cast light sources bordering on the supernatural. Playful and macabre, his works combine intense thematic contrasts between light and dark to achieve suspense and evasion. Children are a recurring theme in his compositions, representing a kind of primordial link to something invisible and beyond comprehension, exempt from the rationalizations of the adult. Often using his own children as models, Wallace’s narratives are open-ended, filled with suggestion and partial disclosures rather than forceful assertions or posited certainties. The themes of connection and communication resonate throughout Wallace’s imagery, as the works’ protagonists seem ever in search of fugitive contact. The skeleton is a recurring figure throughout Wallace’s imagery as well, appearing at times as a sinister harbinger of some kind and at others as Halloween costume level kitsch. Wallace’s pieces convey a kind of sci-fi nostalgia harkening back to a Spielberg-era of extraterrestrial-themed filmmaking. At times their implied innocence and naiveté give way to darker and more dystopian readings, surfacing amidst the neon-hued glow.
GoopMassta’s debut solo show embraces the environment of the Dog House Gallery. Playing off the irony of the dog house itself, the collection features 15 new canine-inspired works. Each piece creates a unique and playful atmosphere that will evoke a feeling of happiness and familiarity. The refreshing experience does not stop as you take in the full collection, but continues throughout with eye-catching installations both inside and out.
About GoopMassta: Hello, my name is James – I’m currently living in the Los Angeles area; was born in New York and raised in Miami. I am the creator of GoopMassta, the iconic and legendary fashion-forward, positive thinking froggy character. I focus mainly on my character and portraying his exclusive lifestyle to the world. The more you experience with him, the more you’ll become a part of his journey and never want to leave. I’m constantly pushing and exploring different aspects of GoopMassta and his story to continuously promote positivity through different mediums. My goal as an artist/creator is to inspire and show others that there are no limits – you can achieve anything you desire.
