Gisela Colon’s monolithic mysteries and playful wall ‘pods’
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Sleek sculptural objects with misty, mercurial surfaces and at least partial inspiration from aerospace technology have not lost their appeal in more than half a century. In Los Angeles, first there was Craig Kauffman, then Helen Pashgian and now Gisela Colon.
For her second solo exhibition at Diane Rosenstein Gallery, Colon includes 10 wall-bound “pods” in a variety of whimsical, organic shapes — lozenges, softened trapezoids and freeform globules — as if conceived with a kid’s giant bubble wand. Most sport a multicolored nucleus made from layers of colored plastics, which glows brightly if mysteriously within the paler milky form.
There is also a free-standing slab fronted by pearlescent pastel tones and framed in polished stainless steel, as well as two monumental monoliths in parabolic shapes. (They’re like the flattened nose-cones of an airplane or science-fiction starship.) One is 12 feet tall, the other 15 feet and nearly reaches the rafters; and one sports an opaque, sparkly metal-flake skin while the other is translucent.
Undeniably eye-catching, these giant luxury objects press technological craftsmanship to an extreme degree. If the parabolic forms feel underdeveloped, the light and capricious playfulness of the wall-pods lost to a heavier industrial severity, the move toward monumentality holds distinctive promise.
Diane Rosenstein Gallery, 831 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood. Through March 3; closed Sundays and Mondays. (323) 462-2790, www.dianerosenstein.com
christopher.knight@latimes.com
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