artist Aimee Mandala

I’m not one to polish a pebble. When I stumble across a raw organic beauty, it catches my eye because of what it is, rather than what I can make it become.  Similarly, to shroud Aimee Mandala’s current exhibition “Blue is where the heart is” in an adage like, ‘these works transmute pain into a thing of beauty” feels dishonest; it’s too reductionist, too obvious.

Mandala’s work is undoubtably provocative and engaging, but as they say in writerly circles ‘there is pain on those pages’ if I’ve ever known it.  The theme sprawling through the first half of this show, is the immersive nature of intense emotions; loss, grief, loneliness. “Dark Parts” (Charcoal on Paper 30 × 22 in | 76.2 × 55.9 cm) for example, to me, a spinal cord zinging with anxiety. “Into the Woods” (Charcoal and Pastel on Paper) 30 × 22 in | 76.2 × 55.9 cm, an embarkment into the hollowness of loneliness and fear.

While Mandala metaphorically pays her respects to the fragility of the humanity beneath these emotions through details like delicate threads of cotton tailgating a flapping curtain or the sprawling vascularity of shed tree branches, this doesn’t negate the gaping sense of exposure felt in the realisation these pieces elicit; loss doesn’t feel good. Isolation isn’t a place we want to stay. Chronic fear robs us of wellbeing. Mandala’s work echoes this honesty, and as much as I want to turn away from some of the memories her work excavates within me, I can’t help but lean in closer instead, just to savour the bittersweet tang of lost loves and painful regret one last time.

Paradoxically, the latter half of the show the “Blue Room Series” is an arrangement of tender and light Still Life artworks that taunt the depths of the work that precedes it. Florals, fruits and China vases hang like coveted vintage earrings, suggesting a sentiment only the author knows.

‘Blue is where the heart is’ is striking in its accurate portrayal of the human condition; sometimes uncomfortable, sometimes harsh and unfair, sometimes bewildering yet nonetheless beguiling to those of us with poetry coursing our veins and optimism in our hearts.

It’s delicate beauty, all of it; the blue China and the charcoal poetry rife with the memories attached to it.

This is the final week of the show which features until 31st May at Shockboxx Gallery Hermosa Beach California. For the full list of works see online at artsy, the gallery or direct with the artist www.aimeemanadalaart.com. 

Written by Monique Di Russo May 2025.