ART REVIEW : Omar’s ‘Oases of Dreams’ at USC Atelier

In “Oases of Dreams: Phrases and Sequences,” L.A. artist Margit Omar creates an ambitious mixed-media artwork that attempts to ping at the core of one’s consciousness like a tuning fork.

Intended as a metaphor for the process of experience, this complex work-in-progress is composed of modular components fitted together in various configurations. Omar might add elements to the basic recipe for one exhibition, then subtract and rearrange them for the next showing.

The latest episode of “Oases,” on view at the USC Atelier in the Santa Monica Place mall through Feb. 18, isn’t significantly different from the sequence she recently showed at the Armory Center in Pasadena. A mixture of symbolism and personal imagery specific to Omar’s life, the piece centers on three recurring motifs: a sailboat, a paper airplane and a house. Omar intends that they represent water, sky and earth on one level, travel, shelter and venture, attachment and freedom on another.

Born in Berlin in 1941, Omar had her debut exhibition in Los Angeles 15 years ago and has been showing regularly hereabouts ever since. Like most of her previous work, “Oases” is a veiled form of autobiography. The fire imagery, for instance, alludes to her childhood memories of World War II, while the paper airplanes represent affection and her relationship with her son (they used to send messages to each other via paper planes). The child of an Air Force officer, Omar has traveled extensively throughout her life, and the ideas of journey and change are a central part of her creative sensibility. So, despite its metaphysical veneer, “Oases” has its roots in reality.

Involving approximately 50 small canvases of various size and shape, the installation combines hard-edge abstractions with heavily impastoed canvases, and the previously mentioned images of boats, buildings and planes.

Spend a minute or two with “Oases of Dreams” and its evanescent theme begins to make itself known. However, just in case anyone misses the point, the artist spells out her intentions on a canvas lettered with the words: “Human beings require both space and place. Human lives are a dialectical movement between shelter and venture, attachment and freedom.”