NinaJohnson

Nina Johnson is proud to present Heat Transfer, an exhibition of new paintings and drawings by Bhakti Baxter. The exhibition will open on June 5th and be on view through July 31st, 2021. Harnessing both the potential and limitations of his materials and environment, these new works illustrate the next chapter in Baxter’s ongoing engagement with natural systems, the miraculous, and scientific groundings for these energies.

While Baxter’s previous work celebrated the mercurial interaction of liquid ink, water, and paint on slick surfaces like Mylar in the controlled environment of a studio, the new paintings on view are beholden to the outdoor heat and aridity of Southern California upon stretched raw canvas. For each large-scale work, Baxter first grids tiered subdivisions of the plane in blue chalk on raw canvas. He then soaks the canvas in water and begins applying paint, but, because he works outside in the open air, all the material interactions are accelerated.

A suite of smaller drawings on watercolor paper that will also be on view are a series of illustrations of prismatic, organic, globular abstract forms upon imaginary man-made geometric blocks produced to satisfy Baxter’s desire to create sculptures—something logistically complicated at his hillside canyon home and studio. The drawings are paired with freestanding cast concrete sculptures that walk out of the paper.

Situated deep within the protected Topanga state park, “I’m constantly in a state of awe where I live,” he says. “The changing seasons, the migrations of birds, the celestial rhythms, are all the more visible here. These works are a way to explore and celebrate this experience. They are an offering of gratitude in the pursuit of fulfilling dreams.”