For our inaugural show in our new Melrose Hill location, we are pleased to present The messengers, an exhibition of new paintings by Los Angeles-based artists Francesca Gabbiani and Eddie Ruscha.

Through their collaborative exchange, Gabbiani and Ruscha channel shared visions of ecological hope and healing to reflect upon the restorative cycles of the natural world. The vibrant series of works on paper combine painting and collage with soft, fluid forms and hard edges to embrace interconnection as a transcendent mode of survival. While Ruscha’s airbrush techniques produce smooth, ethereal forms, Gabbiani’s hand-painted paper collages add depth and texture, pulling the viewer into a pulsing landscape of fusion and duality.

Across the exhibition, Gabbiani’s collages of various cacti and their blossoms vibrate within Ruscha’s vivid psychedelic abstractions. The material use of paper echoes the delicate nature of each subject, while vibrant waves of radiating color allude to the unspoken presence of a deep spiritual power. Within Swelter, the jagged stalk of a flower rises through swirling hues of red and orange. The saturation gradually fades into an ethereal mist, framing two blossoms in a halo of light. The encircling beams of energy seem to emanate from the plant itself, as though it has been caught within the process of transformation. Whether withering or blossoming, the aura of each piece alludes to the sacred role of life cycles, reflecting upon the reciprocal forces of birth and death.

By inviting the viewer into a space of intuitive knowledge and spiritual resonance, The messengers explores the resilient adaptability of plants and the ways in which they can reinform notions of transcendence and survival. The largest piece in the show, Psyacti 6, centers a blooming agave plant. As an allegory of endurance in the face of adversity, the agave blooms just before it dies -- a final act which simultaneously imparts the symbolic beauty of life’s impermanence, while functioning as an evolutionary means of seed dispersal, bringing new life through death.

Amidst the upheaval of shifting landscapes and climate disaster, the regenerative nature of life on Earth continues, reminding us that visions of destruction bring with them an organic sequence of rebirth. Within The Messengers, Francesca Gabbiani and Eddie Ruscha impart their mutual reverence for the mystical teachings embedded within the Southern California landscape. By honoring those who have grown to adapt under harsh conditions, the exhibition summons the ancient wisdom of natural forces which call to us, offering themselves as sacred beacons of strength, healing, and harmony.