LOYAL

Loyal’s program continually brings international artists to Scandinavia, whom are mainly from or have gravitated to New York and Los Angeles. One of the things that has always united these artists with the Scandinavian context is their love for nature and the forest. In a time when the ecological systems are in collapse and preservation and appreciation for nature are most grave and critical, we would like to bring a presentation of artists whose practices express a deep connection for nature and its psychological effect on humanity as it engages with it. Though the artists are living in densely populated urban areas, nature still plays a huge role in their artistic psyche, and brings its majesty to their work and this allows the work to hum with a frequency that connects it to nature and the wild landscapes depicted in the work. We will bring the work of Los Angeles born and raised artists Olive Diamond, Raymie Iadevaia, Michelle Blade, presented with the work of Stockholm artist Jim Thorell.

Michelle Blade (b.1981 Los Angeles, CA) lives and works in Los Angeles. Blade holds an MFA from the California College of the Arts, San Francisco (2008) and a BA from Loyola Marymount, Los Angeles (2003). In her acrylic and ink on cotton poplin canvases, Michelle Blade is documenting time, examining the stillness, strength, persistence of the natural world. Like Charles Burchfield painting through the seasons, taking note of the waxing and waning of blooming flowers, leaves, and quality of light, she documents the seasons of her parenthood, as her daughters interact with places where generations of her family have also engaged. By solidifying these fleeting moments, Blade is showing us states of being human in flowing flux as she contemplates and intersects these different times, creating a form for memory by infusing color and texture in her paintings.

Solo exhibitions include Asia Art Center (Taipei), Loyal (Stockholm), Wilding Cran Gallery (Los Angeles), Viewing Room / Odd Ark (Los Angeles). Group exhibitions include Simon Lee (London), Blum and Poe (Los Angeles), La Loma (Los Angeles), “I Do My Own Stunts”, curated by Jack Siebert and Caio Twombly (Los Angeles), The Pit (Los Angeles), WOAW Gallery (Hong Kong), Make Room (Los Angeles), Asia Art Center organized by Emilia Yin and Melanie Ouyang Lum (Taipei), The Center for Contemporary Arts (Santa Fe), The Bonnefanten Museum (Netherlands), Jack Hanley Gallery (New York), Southern Exposure (San Francisco), Roberts & Tilton (Los Angeles), The Torrance Art Museum, among others.

Olive Diamond (born 1998, Los Angeles, CA) lives and works in Los Angeles. Diamond graduated from Rhode Island School of Design in 2021 with a BFA in Painting and Ceramics. Her work explores the idea of migration and the search for community through her painting and ceramics practices. Diamond presents the narrative through a vibrant light, creating a space of respite for her characters. The textures of her ceramics contrast with the smooth abstract terrains of her paintings and point to a fantastical world. A creative haven surpassing reality, Diamond’s works invite the viewer to reflect on their own journey.

Olive Diamond's work has been exhibited at 1969 Gallery (New York), the Japanese American Cultural Community Centre (Los Angeles), the Fall River Museum of Contemporary Art (Fall River, MA), Sow and Tailor (Los Angeles), and Blumenfield Projects (Los Angeles). Her work has been featured in Flaunt Magazine, Architectural Digest, Surface Magazine, Artsy, and Artnet. The artist is the recipient of the 2021 Florence Leif Award and 2020 Anderson Ranch Fellowship.

Raymie Iadevaia was born in Newport Beach, California in 1984. Iadevaia lives and works in Los Angeles, California. The artist received a BFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts in Berkeley, California and an MFA from the ArtCenter College of Design in Los Angeles, California. Raymie Iadevaia’s paintings evoke hazy impressions of both personal memories and the imagination. The artist employs frenetic and repetitive gestures to stain, smear and scrape layers of oil paint onto the canvas. Iadevaia’s compositions offer views of a larger and mysterious world, transporting viewers into distant but strangely familiar places.

Solo exhibitions of Iadevaia’s work have taken place at Halsey McKay Gallery in East Hampton, NY, The Pit in Los Angeles, CA, as well as a solo online presentation at Zwirner Platform. Group exhibitions of Iadevaia’s work include Halsey McKay Gallery (East Hampton, NY), Lauren Powell Projects (Los Angeles), My Pet Ram (New York), The Pit (Los Angeles), Bozomag (Los Angeles).

Jim Thorell born 1981 in Stockholm, Sweden, lives and works in Stockholm. Thorell received his MFA from Valand Academy in Gothenburg in 2010, and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna with Professor Daniel Richter in 2009, Kanazawa University, Japan in 2007 and the Vietnam University of Fine Arts in Hanoi in 2007. Stockholm painter Jim Thorell uses an impressionistic use of color to drive the composition. Like landscapes, as if viewed from above, below, forwards and backwards at once, Jim completely disintegrates the horizon line, while still portraying landscape as the subject with strong horizontal movements across the canvas. Thorell’s visual worlds question the perceptible reality and open up references to symbolism, painting of the early 20th century, and psychedelic textures of the 1970s, which he translates into his own contemporary visual language.

Solo exhibitions include Loyal (Stockholm), Setareh (Düsseldorf), Union Pacific (London), Gillmeier Rech (Berlin), Pina (Vienna), Roman Road (London), Carl Kostyál (Stockholm). His work has also been shown in group exhibitions at Alma Lövs Museum (Östra Ämtervik), Bohusläns Museum (Uddevalla), Deitch Projects (New York), Moderna Museet (Malmö), Tensta Konsthall (Stockholm), Vestfossen kunstlaboratorium (Vestfossen), Wanås Konst (Knislinge).