thenationofartists.com

Searing in both scope and substance, Sasha Krivtsov's exhibition at Merry Karnowsky's gallery on La Brea Ave was a welcome surprise from the everyday melange of offerings that fail to wow on a weekly basis.

Entering the gallery, one couldn't help but be struck by how impressive the range of work, a retrospective of sorts, was poised to strike the viewer, engaging its audience with the blanketing sense that one had entered a dangerous place, a central confluence of mystery and myth. While the work seemed to be suggestive, at times, of key Spanish, Colombian and Eastern European influences, and in other moments indicative of the Italian mask-making traditions associated with Venice, Krivtsov's variety of canvas choices, and his contemporary utilization of marker pens alongside oils and acrylics, stamps the pieces with stern originality and drama. 

More known for his work as a bass guitarist (for Cher, Kiss's Paul Stanley, and on a variety of television shows), Krivtsov's personal tale is the stuff of legend, having been sent off to an institution as a youngster in the then Soviet Union as punishment for expressing himself as an artist, only to learn music and excel in that discipline. 

Many of the works have political undertones, including the use of red blindfolds, washes of blood-like inks, as well as the integration of religious and spiritual ideas posed stirringly as mathematical equations.

If there is a rhythm to the work it is that of a soft haunting, a quiet uprising. Named "Silent Dialogues," here's hoping the work's strength enables others to speak loudly on its behalf, and that it shows again soon so that the NoA audience can discover the artist's work in its full impression.