The National Italian American Foundation and the Istituto Italiano di Cultura Los Angeles co-host Canali.
To view Mario Canali’s art is to transport into a world of paradox, both delightful and disturbing. Featuring inquisitive human hybrids and surreal landscapes, Canali’s works are disruptive, edgy and innovative, as they were when he painted them in the 70s’ and 80s’. To gaze into the eyes of his creatures is like looking into the eyes of a lion, knowing you are safe only because they are caged. Canali’s hybrid humans not only catch the eye, they hold it spellbound.

Title: “My bed” size: queen size mattress;
medium: paint, yarn with needlework on bed mattress 2009

“Untitled 13.” 60” x 60”.
Silkscreen, dyed paper, acrylic and resin on panel and aluminum.

The Long Beach Museum of Art is preparing a new exhibition titled Sweet Subversives, which will open October 16, 2009 on the first floor of the Museum’s gallery pavilion. Sweet Subversives is a unique gathering of 31 drawings by Southern California artists who explore their personal vision of what a drawing means to them and how they achieve this vision.

It is the middle of a beautiful Saturday, a couple of weeks before the hustle and bustle of open studios. I decide to take a tour with one of Santa Monica Art Studios’ two directors, Yossi Govrin. Stupidly, I almost miss my turn because I’m too distracted watching a plane land at the Santa Monica Airport. It’s an interesting place to find 22,000 square feet dedicated to the fine arts.