After a small hiatus, we at Leiminspace are more excited than ever to get back into the swing of presenting solo shows! Amplifying our excitement, is the fact that we are reopening with an artist whose work we have loved for a very long time: Honda Rivera. It is our honor to present Rivera’s solo exhibition entitled Beloved which will open on the evening of May 4th, 2019 at 443 Lei Min Way, Los Angeles. The show will be open to the public during gallery hours Thursday - Saturday 1-6 pm until May 30th. 

 

In Beloved, Honda Rivera translates the gallery walls into a field of Candy Floss pink, evoking the serenity of a planet without cities or oceans. Floating and irregular, like pastel blobs in a lava lamp, Honda’s objects seem to be governed by unearthly forces. The final works result from a heavily-layered process. Beginning as hand-rendered ink drawings, the pieces pass through a digital treatment which gives them their distinctive contemporary texture. The subjects of Rivera’s works are complex and formidable creatures of her own composition. Culling gently from 1980s-1990s Anime and fashion illustration, Rivera’s figures successfully straddle flesh and fantasy. Rivera embraces the agency of her role as an illustrator by applying racial and bodily diversity within the context of these otherwise eurocentric pop-cultural references. These genderless femmes are lovingly adorned with objects and garments of Rivera’s invention. The razor-sharp linework reveals a time-consuming drawing practice that is an act of adoration and commitment. Rivera states that, through drawing, she has found a way to possess the objects of her desires. In materializing these fantasies, Rivera makes them available for contemplation not only to herself but also to the people around her.