All the ties that bind us
The characters in “Year of the Dog,” Joakim Ojanen’s second solo show in the United States, are more diverse than those that appeared in the Swedish artists’ solo debut two years ago, also at Richard Heller Gallery in Santa Monica.
Of clay, bronze, paint and charcoal, the menagerie of sentient critters is also more fantastic: Less realistic and more cartoon, they suggest that humans are most humane when we’re in touch with our animal selves.
Edenic fantasies are nowhere to be found in the exhibit, which features seven freestanding figures, 26 tabletop sculptures, seven oils on canvas and 20 charcoal drawings. Also absent are the theatrics of nature programs, in which predators chase down weaker creatures and feast on them.
Instead, Ojanen’s animals, imaginary and otherwise, have the presence of pets: vulnerable beasts people take care of simply because it feels good to do so.
His art is all about relationships. Those between boys and dogs predominate. But those between kids and their inner lives also take shape. The same goes for relationships between kids and grown-ups, individuals and stereotypes, one’s selfimage and reality.
Many of Ojanen’s sculptures focus on kids lost in thought, their reveries conveyed by body language as well as facial features, which include mouths that resemble ducks’ bills, eyes that dangle — and wag — like the tails of dogs, and cheeks so rosy they appear to have taken on lives of their own.
Many of the kids’ noses put Pinocchio’s to shame. Recalling the face masks of football helmets, they fail to protect the kids from bullies, much less fistfights. Tears take the shape of tiny neckties or or little rivers that never run dry.
Ojanen’s paintings could be the offspring of a picture by Peter Saul and an episode of “The Simpsons.” The crudeness intensifies their insight, often brilliantly. His black-and-white drawings are even better. Boundaries between creatures dissolve into a moving stew of reciprocal interactivity. The comic drama that unfolds in “Year of the Dog” packs a punch — and even more moral authority.