Obsolete Gallery Presents Christina Bothwell And Marianne Kolb's 'Power In Each Step' (PHOTOS)

'Power in Each Step,' a new show at Obsolete Gallery in Venice, probes the depths of birth and death.

Marianne Kolb paints isolated portraits of affective states, like a possessed descendant of Francis Bacon’s. Her characters, made of paint more than skin, dwell in placeless fields of color defined by intensity and vulnerability. Her melting faces blend the grisly with the sweet.

While Kolb’s limbless subjects are often missing parts, glass sculptor Christina Bothwell’s contain too many. Her doll-like sculptures are anatomical anomalies rife with a morbid sensitivity somewhat reminiscent of Tim Burton. Part found artifacts and part mad-scientist masterpieces, Bothwell’s sculptures all contain figures within figures, toying with understandings of pregnancy and metamorphosis. Experience an emotional intensity rarely felt since childhood, captured through vivid images where explanation falls prey to mystery.

'Power in Each Step' will open on September 24 at Obsolete Gallery, 222 Main St. Venice, CA 90291