Woods Davy works with stones in natural, unaltered states collected from the sea or the earth, and assembles them into seemingly precarious sculptural combinations. Art writer Shana Nys Dambrot has observed that Davy’s work is “a collaboration between artist and nature,” one in which the artist “prefers to cooperate with the pre-existing uniqueness and objecthood of his materials.” Every stone contains the story of its own formation, as well as evidence of interaction with its environment. Woods Davy begins with these inherent histories and orchestrates surprising relationships inspired by exploring the underwater landscape. His new sculptures are small, organic clusters of rounded sea stones that seem to reach for the surface or drift with the ocean’s chaotic currents. In fact, the most recent works in this exhibition are composed of both stones and bleached, coral rubble, which Davy collected on recent boating trips.

For several years, French-born painter (and part-time LA resident) Pierre Picot has been visually grappling with what he calls, “roving unruly horizons.” His ink on paper landscapes have the flair and refined spontaneity of Chinese calligraphy, yet they are intensely packed with competing clouds, pointy mountains, rainstorms, and bursts of sunlight in an almost comic sublime. In larger oil on canvas works, he even utilizes the traditional Chinese scroll format to let loose those “unruly” vistas. But these are not scenes for strolling Zen masters with canes. Picot’s colorfully charged falling rocks and whooshes of swirly winds are wildly electrified fantasies. Raw, gestural, and gritty, a pile of Pierre Picot’s rocks has the animated oddness of Philip Guston’s lugubrious shoes.