Art Review: Batura/Cervenka/Fallah/Yackulic at Western Project

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The four-artist show at Western Project is not so much a group exhibition as it is four separate vignettes juxtaposed to one another. All are intriguing. All are visually dense, made up of images and objects that are worlds unto themselves. And all leave you wanting to see more of each artist’s work.

Amir H. Fallah’s big painted collages marry materials in ways that make you wonder if there is any real difference between new and used, fact and fiction, beauty and ugliness. His supersaturated extravaganzas scream for attention as they draw you into vertiginous whirlwinds.

Tanya Batura’s larger-than-lifesize heads, each on a tall, specially shaped pedestal, tumble through space like decapitated heads from some dark folktale. But they’re also serene, each one’s inner equilibrium unaffected by daily chaos, not to mention intrusive viewers.

Exene Cervenka and Will Yackulic push collage to extremes. Cervenka cuts and pastes pictures from all sorts of sources, sometimes combining them with silly knickknacks to form open-ended epiphanies. Yackulic’s mixed-media melanges start out warm and scrappy but end up tough and cool, their fusion of DIY enthusiasm and machine-age severity unexpectedly mesmerizing.

--David Pagel

Western Project, 2762 S. La Cienega Blvd., (310) 838-0609, through Sept. 11. Closed Sundays and Mondays. www.western-project.com

Images: Top, Amir H. Fallah, ‘Infinite Circles Around the Sun.’ Bottom: Tanya Batura, ‘Monochroma I’ Credit for both: Courtesy of Western Project