In his first solo exhibition at Craig Krull Gallery, poet and visual artist Michael Deyermond beached an old wooden rowboat on an enormous pile of sand in the middle of the gallery. The boat was painted with the words, “I still believe California can save me.” Tossed about on the sand, were books with hand painted titles such as, “Dear California, if this works, I win.” The poet’s aspirations, belief in a promise, and literal survival, were on the line. For his second exhibition, Deyermond built little wooden benches from fallen windmills at a working ranch in Arizona, where he had lived for a year. The benches were carved with words like, “I sat here and realized that the West has made a man out of me.” Deyermond’s new exhibition, LEAKY PALMS, features a number of his quintessential word paintings circling a handmade desk with carved text offered as an act of contrition for his prodigal years in Los Angeles. For this exhibition, the artist composed the following:

the hardest thing i have to do
is get the rage, terror, chaos and fear
to quiet down to stillness
so that i can hear the voice
that is true
that is me
that is art

after years + years of trying to make my life
into something meaningfull
ive put down the gun
and focus on seeking things i know have real meaning
and staying close to them at all cost

i make art solely about my life
and in its sneaky way life has made a bit of an art piece
of me
so everything's cool



Concurrently, the gallery will present new still-life paintings by LA native, Dan McCleary. Regarded by the LA Times’ Christopher Knight as “one of the finest figure painters working today,” McCleary employs classical methodologies and devices like the golden mean, as well as the fundamental building blocks of design- cubes, spheres, cylinders, and cones- to create seemingly simple compositions that contain all the gravity, structure, and balance of a Piero della Francesca. The exhibition consists primarily of small paintings of brilliant, glowing apples, pears, oranges, lemons, and mangos against a grey background. The light always comes from the left, illuminating a single fruit, or a group of two or three, clustered in the center like a Morandi, a humble and quiet weight of form.


In an adjoining space, the gallery will feature the new work of Javier Carrillo, entitled, Soy Lo Que Representa Mi Trabajo, or “I am what my work represents.” Carrillo began his young career as a student at Dan McCleary’s school for under-served young adults, Art Division. His work addresses elements of Chicano and Mexican Immigrant culture in Los Angeles, such as Taco Trucks, or heavily loaded, tiny pick-up trucks, stacked high with wooden palettes, boxes, or mattresses, which Carrillo equates with burros, in this case, urban beasts of burden. In one painting, he poses his father as a street taco vender in a straightforward, centered composition with a flat background, bringing to mind Manet and his Fifer, as well as Carrillo’s mentor, McCleary, whose portraits of people in commonplace situations exude a simple and classic dignity.