Artist George Evans: Native son in perpetual motion 2

If you walked into the intimate Matter Studio Gallery and were told nothing about the current exhibit, you’d be forgiven for wondering what unites the group of artists represented. Large neon figure slashes dance through space over dark brown-magenta grounds. Brilliant photographic prints capture big-sky panoramas with low horizon lines. Muted watercolors of figures and a couple of portraits are set onto handmade paper matte scrolls. Sharp, manipulated photo images range from an acid dream to surreal juxtapositions. In fact, what’s on view is a one-man show.

“George Evans: Matter in Motion” exhibits the work of a veteran Los Angeles artist, in a grouping so far flung as to suggest a mini-retrospective. Taken as a whole, the array of creative expression brings to mind the Zoot Sims pronouncement about his fellow tenor saxophonist, Stan Getz: “He’s a nice bunch of guys.”

You can also be forgiven if the name George Evans isn’t familiar. He’s shown in many group exhibitions and had a few one-mans, like “Deviation of Figure and Form” at the Wilshire Ebell (2019), but is perhaps better known for ad agency work and extensive teaching. Those tenures include Los Angeles Trade Tech College and Los Angeles County Museum of Art. You may know his 30-foot-long photo montage on metal panels, “Gifts of Freedom and Knowledge,” at the Willowbrook/Rosa Parks Metro station.

Evans grew up near Watts. His father had a small advertising office, and George’s first important painting activity was brushing letter forms for signs and banners. He took part in the Tutor/Art program, a post-Watts Riots program where talented inner city student artists were taught by working professional artists. (Tutor/Art gestated graphic fabulist Mark Steven Greenfield, graphic designers Glen and Stuart Iwasaki, Self Help Graphics co-founder Leo Limon, and muralist Richard Wyatt Jr., among others.) Through Tutor/Art, Evans studied with New Orleans-born watercolorist William Pajaud, whose loose, mercurial washes and flourishes swaddled deftly-indicated figures.

An apprenticeship with photographer Larry Valentine put a camera in Evans’ hand, and he’s used it ever since. Graphic work for agencies and as a freelancer sharpened up his photo and printing skills. Richard Wyatt Jr. was able to transfer the original images of his sun-scorched 1990 “Capitol Records Jazz” mural onto ceramic tiles–therefore restoring it—through Evans’ technical wherewithall.

Of course, Evans did personal work, independent of his jobs and teaching. Figure sketching—with drawing implements and watercolors—have been a near-constant with him for nearly fifty years. At Matter Gallery, an open sketchbook gives a glimpse of his quick-draw renderings. A nearby laptop allows an overview of his figure sketches—they’re spare and reductive, yet they convey all of the pertinent information of the models and poses.  

The five-figure pieces, on rugged handmade paper scrolls, are brushed sylphs that convey a kinetic elegance. Appropriately titled “Gestures,” they dance lithely on the paper. The large-figure acrylic paintings are even further reduced images. The eloquent-yet-vibrant brush strokes slit and slash the dark grounds. They fairly jump off the canvases with judicious shadow accents—with crimson and plum darks balancing canary yellow and pumpkin lights.  Taken together, they’re bracing, almost to the point of mildly shocking, and they’re the high point of this show.

A cluster of six Technicolor sunset photographs capture breath-taking crepuscules. They’re countered by the subtlety of one atmospheric soft-focus shoreline. But a handful of manipulated photo images are elaborate whimsical constructions.

Four abstract acrylics are studies in movement, color and texture, with judiciously placed sliver cuts of photo paper accents. For all of the non-representational elements, the hovering cloud in “Black Moon” contains a perfectly-rendered matte black sphere. The subtle airbrush highlight in it is a discreet wave from Evans to his advertising background. And the paper rods are photo paper cuttings, showing the artist’s thrift and resourcefulness.

Expressionism is the thread that runs through this show and unites the various grouping. Like the quick, gestural sketches of a working artist on his own time, Evans most always goes for the passionate response. It’s in the mercurial watercolors, the effusive cloud and sky photographs, the dancing acrylic figures, and the figurative references in the paint-and-paper constructions. In the end, Evans is seldom far from the human form, and the most interesting ways to depict it.

Evans will give an artist’s talk February 18, 2 – 4 pm.

Kirk Silsbee publishes promiscuously on jazz and culture.

George Evans: Matter in Motion | Matter Studio Gallery | thru March 3