Renee French, Aaron Bo Heimlich, Alessia Iannetti, and Zoe Lacchei

October 2 – November 1, 2015
Artist reception: Friday, October 2nd; 8-11PM

Renee French
Ivey and Friends

Renee French is an American artist, best known as a comics writer and illustrator, who also enthrals audiences as an exhibiting fine artist. The narratives that unfurl from Renee’s mind and onto her paper, span the wide chasm that exists between child friendly fairy tales and the dark gritty regions of adult introspection. Working primarily with extremely fine pointed graphite pencils on miniature pieces of paper, often measuring no more than two or three inches square, French conjures up fuzzy and foreboding images which convey humourous, and at times, disturbing tales. Focusing squarely on creating poignant and emotional portrayals of her characters, French saturates them with feeling, giving realism and depth to even the most fantastical of creatures, whether they be beautiful or less so. And with this last thought in mind, if there is one thing that Renee enjoys reminding us, it is that we shouldn’t always judge a book by it’s cover.

—Tim Maclean, Wow X Wow

All of Renée French’s pieces include custom 9×10.5″ frames.

Zoe Lacchei
Carnivorous Beauties

“I have always been a slave to the beauty of others, to the mystery and danger that sometimes can be hidden behind it. In my mind, Eros and Thanatos are omnipresent forces that coexist in a single image. Even if the women I depict are captured in a fixed moment in time, they always have something disturbing about them, a dark and totally feminine power that pushes the observer to ask himself what happened or is about to happen. As carnivore plants, still and perfect, everything is suspended in the expectance of catching glances, of seducing their prey before devouring them in that imperceptible moment in which pleasure and pain become one.”

—Zoe Lacchei

Alessia Iannetti
In the Footsteps of My Shadow

I have recently read about a painter of the early Sixteenth Century strolling around the countryside in Northern Italy on board of an astonishing carriage. It was fully decorated with all sorts of figures and landscapes he was able to paint. When, after a few days, Alessia kindly asked me to write something about her work, my mind immediately went to that very image. I tried to imagine her beautifully decorated carriage, full of dangerous, bright beauties, of birds, butterflies, luxuriant vegetation, shadows and lights – equally dangerous, imbued with blood and pulsing wounds.

The peasants staring at Bertolino’s colorful carriage (from the book La Chimera, by Sebastiano Vassalli) must feel something similar to those who admire the works of art of a young artist as Alessia is. Her artworks engender a sort of dizziness – of restless spell. They wrap you up in a fragile, though powerful, cobweb. In the meantime, they urge you to tirelessly explore the rational – and yet magic! – accuracy in every detail.
This kind of rapture can keep you in a sort of hypnosis for an indefinite period of time. And yet, even a furtive glance to her works of art (and, if possible, to the artist herself) would make you wonder from which enchanted kingdom she comes.

Whatever you may think, Alessia Iannetti lives in our same world. She was born in Italy, in a small town in Tuscany, Carrara, in 1985. Since her childhood, she has always loved drawing. Her father, Vittorio, supported her in this spontaneous passion. He himself used to draw for her, instilling in his daughter interest and fascination for what is mysterious and unknown. A teaching that would never leave her. In Carrara, Alessia studied at the Academy of Fine Arts with Professor Omar Galliani. Discipline and rigor, combined with the fascination of what we may refer to as the Romantic and dark epopee ,from its highest peaks to the more modern and common forms of it. Her work is a precious composition, rich of hidden quotes and suggestions. In such a fertile soil, inspired by cinema, arts, music, Alessia keeps modeling and transforming her creations and creatures. The more she draws and paints, improving her technical abilities, the more she strongly delineates one of the core of her art; that absolute ease with which reality, obsessively pursued in every detail, intertwines with an endless, other dimension. The latter is so strongly vivid that, in the end, turns out to be as true as the former.

All the above is clearly visible in the new series entitled “In the Footsteps of my Shadow”. Here the artist wants to originally reexamine the classical vampire myths. Taking inspiration from the Gothic fiction par excellence, Alessia has reinterpreted such a universal myth for the benefit of her beloved subjects. Always suspended between good and evil, they are now rewarded with this new seal of immortality.
They are girls in their innocent lace dresses, with rosebuds in their hair, colorful butterflies, and leaves. Or even Lolitas trapped in their dark, Dorothy Valens like sheath dresses, musing on their mysteriously bloody hands. Or little girls whose smiles hide extremely delicate, yet pointed, canines. All this reminds us, again and again, that nothing is merely like it seems. It reminds us that the most luminous face may conceal the most cruel and unexpected chasm.

Who among you would not let these new Carmillas and Vespertilias in? Who would not host these tiny and terribly delicious guests?

–Barbara Veschi

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“I dedicate this exhibition to the memory of my Father. And to Our Shadow.” –Alessia Iannetti

 

Aaron Bo Heimlich
Watch Out For Evil

Keep your friends close! Shedim is a Hebrew word for “benevolent demon.” They are all around us, we just have to open our minds eyes. Aaron Bo Heimlich’s delightfully mischievous Shedim have a knack for perfect photobombing and just may be the perfect catalysts for kicking off the Halloween season.

This is his first feature exhibition at La Luz de Jesus Gallery.

 

 

Contact Gallery Director Matthew Gardocki for purchase info:
info@laluzdejesus.com  (323)666-7667