ELASTIC TACTICS

Art Enables x Lolo Gem 

June 22 – October 26, 2024

Installation view. Racing animals adhesive wall prints and painting based on original drawing by Nonja Tiller. Racing bunny and dog transposed by Lolo Gem. 

Created in collaboration with Baltimore-based visiting artist Lolo Gem, "Elastic Tactics" immerses the viewer in an energetic landscape. Large, personified pink blobs are the backdrop for whimsical characters acting as guides and mirrors for our wide-ranging emotions. Vivid scenes—many displayed together in frame-like lines—borrow from the language of comics, cartoons, storyboarding, and film. Still, to move from work to work here is more like submitting to a series of jump cuts than gliding along a narrative arc. The works spring between hyper-cheerful, saccharine vignettes and moments of anxiety and fear, though their candy-colored forms undercut the latter’s unease. 

In one work, a mushroom cloud looms ironically behind a pink fairy-tale castle. In another, a gigantic worm descending on three scared children manages to be cute despite itself. In this context, sweeter images are also colored by a spillover of potential duality. Is there something about a composition of grins and rainbows that feels too cheerful to be trusted? The feelings conjured by each work mingle, evoking a giddiness that could tip over into joy or anxiety. Elasticity pervades here in the cartoonish sense of matter stretching, comically exaggerated. In an emotional sense, it recalls plunging into and bouncing back from a spectrum of intense experiences: the vast and flexible capacities of the heart. 

with work by Lolo Gem and Art Enables artists A.T., Maurice Barnes, Josephine Finnell, Mara Clawson, Jacqueline Coleman, Payman Jazini, Paul Lewis, Peter LoBrutto, CeeJ Maples, Kenny Mashishi, Charles Meissner, Vanessa Monroe, Gillian Patterson, Eileen Schofield, Matt Schwab, Nonja Tiller, and Imani Turner

Installation view. Flying monkeys adhesive wall prints based on "Animal Olympics" original drawing by Nonja Tiller.

Installation view. Pink blob landscape mural by Lolo Gem. Animal characters wall painting based on original drawing by Nonja Tiller, transposed by Lolo Gem.

Installation view. Wall painting based on original drawing by Charles Meissner, transposed by Lolo Gem.

Installation view. Pink blob landscape mural and line work by Lolo Gem. Bear/wolf adhesive wall print based on original drawing by Matt Schwab.

Lolo Gem (b. 1995, Westchester County, NY) is a Baltimore-based artist and illustrator. She received her BFA from The Maryland Institute College Of Art in 2017, and is currently an MFA candidate at Towson University. Working with saturated acrylic paint, drawing materials, and imagery culled from vintage comic books & early animation, Gem creates playfully absurd work populated by fragmented figures, sentient calligraphic lines, exuberant motion, and personified objects. Fusing nostalgia and innovation, Gem’s work offers an introspective glimpse into the intricate aspects of the human experience, by elevating the overlooked and illustrating ineffable, elusive emotions.

To learn more about the Art Enables artists in this show, please visit our Artists page.