Gisela Colon’s monolithic mysteries and playful wall ‘pods’
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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