Ochi Projects

OCHI is pleased to present More Permanent Than Snow, a solo exhibition of new work by Los Angeles – based artist Sam Shoemaker. This will be the Artist’s first exhibition with the Gallery. More Permanent Than Snow will be on view at OCHI, located at 3301 W Washington Blvd, Los Angeles, California from July 16 to August 27, 2022. An Artist’s Reception will be held on Saturday, July 16 from 5–9pm PST.

Drawn to objects that behave, react, change, grow, and carry rhythm, Shoemaker collects and propagates mushrooms sourced from wild urban growth in Los Angeles and myco culture libraries worldwide, supporting their fragile lifestyles in highly controlled environments of his design. Pairing Ganoderma lingzhi, or Reishi mushrooms, known for their medicinal qualities and red-varnish coloring, with hand-built ceramic vessels, blown glass, and plinths, Shoemaker develops a unique substrate formula that allows the mushrooms to grow for several months, slowly emerging from within each vessel into unique, dynamic forms. Comparable to a long exposure in photography, Shoemaker carefully moves LED lights, adjusts the temperature, changes the saturation of CO2, or moves the Reishi themselves closer or farther apart, carefully choreographing the forms.

OCHI is pleased to present Por Debajo, a solo exhibition of new works by Los Angeles-based artist Ozzie Juarez. This will be the Artist’s first exhibition with the Gallery. Por Debajo will be on view at OCHI Aux, located at 3305 W Washington Blvd, Los Angeles, California from July 16 to August 27, 2022. An Artist’s Reception will be held on Saturday, July 16th from 5:00 to 9:00 pm PST.

Blending generational histories, ancient folklore, unsanctioned public art, and pop culture, Ozzie Juarez uses visual language and cultural signifiers to examine notions of place and complex personal concepts of self. A former scenic painter specializing in physical simulation at Disneyland, Juarez entertained himself on the job by contemplating the colonial histories of American animation and by observing how shared experiences are constructed—the perfect parallel to Juarez’s ongoing research into surviving and destroyed Mexica (Aztec) culture. Juarez appropriates fragments from the four unadulterated Mexica codices—pre-Columbian paintings and texts on animal hide—and tessellates them into repeating patterns that resemble DNA sequences. This multiplication and extension of a language almost lost to colonization, is a spiritual act for Juarez that honors the Mexica people, culture, and deities while generating protective spells for any space that houses these art objects. Layering these patterns on top of neo-noir sunset gradients, homage paintings of contemporary street art, and unique wall texturing technique, Juarez creates portals into the past, present, and future.

OCHI is pleased to present Monday Morning, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Los Angeles-based artist Adam Beris. This is the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. The works will be on view at OCHI, Sun Valley, from July 23 – September 3, 2022 and there will be an Artist's Reception on Saturday, July 23rd from 4-6pm, MST.

Drawing from an existentially observational sense of place and a playful approach to material, Beris’ self-described ‘grass paintings’ evoke finite fields of visual language and familiar objects. In each work, the artist recreates patches of a neighborhood park riddled with ephemera left behind from parties, playdates, and picnics. Squeezing paint directly from the tube onto the canvas, Beris builds each bulbous blade of grass to render a three-dimensional assortment of hidden objects, strategically placed and peering through the abstracted foliage. In searching for these Easter eggs the audience recontextualizes discarded objects with little perceived value and resurrects them as signifiers of a present place and time—satirical evidence that the artist actually leaves the studio.

Poker cards, action figures, plastic insects, and dice all appear tucked away under paint, repetitively layered in a gesture towards unpredictability and chaos. Car keys, party decorations, and other symptoms of capitalistic excess are littered throughout, creating a synthesis of human interruptions to natural growth. Beris meticulously harmonizes both the raw materiality of paint with object. Overly simplified baseball, flower, and cigarette icons blur the lines between consumption and creation, sign and signifier. Each object - trash, treasure, or stylized depiction - carries equal importance in Beris’ landscapes.