Christine Frerichs’ current solo show “The Conversation” at gallery km is dynamic, new, and not to be missed.

The main gallery space is filled with ten large 44 x 34 paintings that are three-dimensional, visually enticing, and inviting.  At first glance, they do not appear to have a unified theme, as they vary fairly drastically in color and abstract subject. Ellen C. Caldwell, Los Angeles Contributor

Christine Frerichs | The Conversation - installation view. Photo by Lee Thompson, courtesy of gallery km.

Christine Frerichs | The Conversation (#2), 2012-2013, oil, acrylic, spray paint and Activated Carbon Paint (ACP) on canvas, 44 by 34 inches. Photo by Lee Thompson, courtesy of gallery km.

But some of the show’s connection lies in the details: figure eights emanate from the center of each painting, and they are positioned at just a height so that visitors’ belly buttons line up with the very center of the paintings (and of the figure eight), making visitors’ eye levels line up with the center of the top circle of the elliptical shapes underlying each painting.

Frerichs plays with something of a centripetal force here and emphasizes the physicality of her paintings in this way.  And they are strangely grounding because of this – though it is such a subtle aspect of the work, it is not something that one would necessarily pick up on consciously.

Christine Frerichs | The Conversation (#6), 2012-2013, oil, acrylic, spray paint and Activated Carbon Paint (ACP) on canvas, 44 by 34 inches. Photo by Lee Thompson, courtesy of gallery km.

Christine Frerichs | The Conversation (#7), 2012-2013, oil, acrylic, spray paint and Activated Carbon Paint (ACP) on canvas, 44 by 34 inches. Photo by Lee Thompson, courtesy of gallery km.

Frerichs also uses color in completely different and seemingly disjointed ways throughout her body of work.  Some paintings are composed of bright colors, geometric lines, and serpentine shapes that come out at the viewer almost like a hologram, while others are filled with more earthy colored pastels and neutrals that resemble allusions to naturalistic surfaces like dirt, sand, or even a far-off planet.  There are smoke and cloud-like shapes that seem to suggest explosions or fierce sprays of water amidst highly structured lines and diagonal grids.

Christine Frerichs | The Conversation (#5), 2012-2013, oil, acrylic, spray paint and Activated Carbon Paint (ACP) on canvas, 44 by 34 inches. Photo by Lee Thompson, courtesy of gallery km.

I left unsure of what I was seeing, but loving the feel, texture, and abstraction itself.  There is a playfulness in Frerichs works that cannot be denied, but at the same time, there is also a maturity that overrides it beautifully and complexly.

Christine Frerichs | The Conversation (9), 2012-2013, oil, acrylic, spray paint and Activated Carbon Paint (ACP) on canvas, 44 by 34 inches. Photo by Lee Thompson, courtesy of gallery km.

Frerichs uses a combination of oil, acrylic, spray paint, and activated carbon paint (ACP) that just teeters on the edge of almost feeling outdated in terms of a more traditional practice and process, but they are revolutionary and radical in their final outcomes and aesthetic.

Christine Frerichs | The Conversation (#3), 2012-2013, oil, acrylic, and Activated Carbon Paint (ACP) on canvas, 44 by 34 inches. Photo by Lee Thompson, courtesy of gallery km.

Overall, the show is a joy to experience and explore.  My favorite moments laid in the details, in places such as the tiny dots strewn throughout her works like a breadcrumb trail, the geometric arrows that puncture her paintings in works like The Conversation (#9), and in the X and O shapes found in both the figure eight and serpentine lines that interact between tiny targets in The Conversation (#5).  Equally moving and enticing were the firework-like explosions overlaying the patriotic stripes in The Conversation (#3) – and in such a work, lies Frerichs’ typically amazing moments of overlap and disjuncture.

Christine Frerichs | The Conversation (#8), 2012-2013, oil, acrylic, spray paint and Activated Carbon Paint (ACP) on canvas, 44 by 34 inches. Photo by Lee Thompson, courtesy of gallery km.

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Frerichs has exhibited at ACME, CB1 Gallery, Kaycee Olsen Gallery, and Young Art in Los Angeles, Duchess Presents in Chicago, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tucson, among others, and is newly represented by gallery km. Her work has been reviewed by ArtForum and The Los Angeles Times, and published in New American Paintings. She

received her M.F.A. from U.C. Riverside in 2009, and has taught at U.C. Riverside and U.C. Irvine, and is currently Senior Lecturer at Otis College of Art and Design and Adjunct Faculty at East Los Angeles College.

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Frerichs’ show runs at gallery km through July 27^th with an artist talk and walkthrough this Saturday, June 29^th.  Bettina Hubby’s solo show opens there September 7^th. 

Ellen C. Caldwell is an LA-based art historian, writer, and editor.