One month ago, as the waning hours of my last day in Miami passed on, the sun set behind the Ritz-Carlton South Beach and cast a long shadow that encased the cabanas and umbrellas dotting the sand. It felt odd to be on the opposite coast, with the ocean being the first thing to darken as night approached. Things seemed flipped in an eery way.
I immediately thought of Christian Franzen’s paintings. Christian almost always paints the sun and he almost always paints it setting over the ocean. He captures that same cyclical moment, as day turns to night, as he observes it from his West Coast purview. This isn’t a moment that only happens in Los Angeles but its documentation is deeply connected to the region. He layers other familiar subjects on top or within those sun scenes. Decoy owls, commonly found on rooftops and in lawns in mainly post-war neighborhoods, have a ghostlike presence (especially when their form is covered with a luminescent cloak). Scratch marks on the surface add depth and also remind me of scuff marks on shop windows.
Ernesto Renda creates works that reflect on moments in film when queerness is equated with violence. He selects stills that implicitly reference explicit acts whether they be sexual or murderous. Many of the works reference specific movies but not all. He has created a method of making unique to himself. First, he “draws” on a board using a glue gun. A black canvas is then stretched over the hardened glue and wax pastels are rubbed on to finish a second image on top. The result is a very literally built up surface with a physicality to it. Subjects ears and noses, and hands push outward from the canvas. This gentle collision of two images is in reference to cuts and transitions in film. The moment when an action is implied by the filmmaker’s choice to move from one image to a different one. We fill in the blanks.
We brought these artists together because they both landed on layering as a means of image-making. While their choice of content is disparate, both artists understand how this process complicates narrative and passage of time. Each figure in each work exists separately in time and space as well as in unison. There is a coming together and a pulling apart.
Eventually my Lyft dropped me off at Miami International Airport for my late-night flight. I waded through the lines, boarded, and waited for take off. The sun had set, the day had ended. I fell asleep. And just like that I was home.
