Michael Kirkham shows us a tightly modulated urban environment, in which moments of solitude, exchange and communion are evacuated of the hope and harmony that otherwise redeem them. Erotic embrace, furtive glance, domestic habitation, holiday repose, motherly love and even traditional still life embody all the wonder and joy of a figure in an abandoned wax museum covered in dust. The power in his work is derived both from a lifelong fixation with sex, power, death and vice, and a careful harmony between his choice of subject and peculiar process, which leaves his canvases thick, textured, full of another kind of despair entirely. For the past 5 years, Kirkham has been focused on a body of work he calls “Negatives,” in which certain aspects of underpainting are exploited to produce pictures whose color palette approximates-but doesn’t quite capture-film negatives. His work is an insistent reminder of the torment that often lurks beneath a sunny disposition.

Shani Strand is a Los Angeles-based, multidisciplinary artist. Strand explores themes such as colonialism and myth-making through dynamic installation projects, which have recently been exhibited at Deli Gallery, Mexico City, in “Extra Terrestrial” (Rachel Uffner, 2021); “A Gathering” (HOUSING, 2021); and “100% Salt” (HOUSING, 2020). She has also lectured at Harvard Graduate School of Design, and was the graduate student speaker at her commencement from UCLA MFA in 2023. Her first exhibition with the gallery will take place later in 2024.