Jaime Scholnick’s ‘Artifacts’ on view at CB1

Artist Jaime Scholnick has taken a shine to tweaking the GOP -- literally.

As part of her new show, “Artifacts” -- which just opened at downtown’s CB1 gallery -- she’s showing a series of bright, sparkly portraits of Bush administration figures: George W., Condoleezza Rice and Donald Rumsfeld among them.

Scholnick created the caricatures, which are made of jewel-toned glitter and acrylic paint, at the end of 2007. It was the artist’s way of venting her frustration with the White House at the time. The series hasn’t been shown until now, on the heels of the political conventions.

Scholnick’s other body of work in “Artifacts” is just as bright and no less politically pointed. She painted glowing, neon patterns on foam packaging that she found on the streets of downtown Los Angeles, all left in its original, out-of-the-box shape. The sculptures are at turns architectural and robotic, but all are awash in the somewhat frenetic vibe of technology gone awry.

“The political context here is the feeling that our culture is in deep trouble,” says gallery co-owner Clyde Beswick. “You buy an iPhone, then its out of date, then you buy another -- there’s this temporary nature to what we have.”

CB1 will host an opening reception for “Artifacts,” open to the public, on Sept. 9 at 5 p.m. Scholnick will also give a talk at the gallery on Sept. 22 at 2 p.m.

-- Deborah Vankin

Twitter.com/@debvankin