My body is fragile,

We fall in and out of portals,

I am thin-skinned,

We are rotten,

You are bitten,

cracked, and bruised.

over-ripe from the good times

too fresh for a war

You are sensitive to the mirror,

I’m allergic to the moon,

Together tangled in braided light,

There are holes in the sky,

We are winding together in spaces,

Adapting to meet the day, that melts and falls away.

-April Street

Vielmetter Los Angeles is pleased to present an online exhibition of works on paper by April Street. Entitled “Circling the Drain” it features 12 watercolors which are related to her recent exhibition at the gallery and translate the artist’s relief-style painting onto a flattened plane. Lines of braids and plump shapes mimic meandering vines and overripe fruit – root vegetables and flowers in vibrant utopian settings appear cracked or bitten. These still-lifes and fanged landscape portals are infused with equal parts dark humor and aesthetic joy. Created over the past several months while in quarantine, this body of work juxtaposes Street’s painterly practice which is influenced by specific art historical contexts with the uncertainty and turbulence of this pandemic.

April Street lives and works in Los Angeles. She studied bronze casting in central Italy and painting at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Recent exhibitions include Vielmetter Los Angeles; Santa Barbara Museum of Art; Maccarone, LA; Kinman Gallery, London, UK; Various Small Fires, LA; Carter & Citizen, LA; and The Underground Museum, Los Angeles. She is a grant recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts. Her solo exhibitions have been reviewed by ArtForum, Art in America, San Francisco Arts Quarterly, Contemporary Arts Review LA, Hyperallergic, Art Review, KCRW, and The Los Angeles Times.