Lauren Powell Projects is happy to present Ari Salka’s A Kind of Present Nostalgia, a show in collaboration with LPP Sunset Hiking Club and featuring both paintings and poetry. This unique experience takes both the paintings and the viewer on a walk, a tandem adventure to witness the sunset together over poetry readings, and share the inner walls of the gallery with the public at our neighbor, Griffith Park. 

This journey took place  on Sunday, December 17th when The Painting Procession moved from the gallery on Hollywood Boulevard past Griffith Observatory and up to the Berlin Forest. The paintings were installed for public viewing until sunset and accompanied by relevant poetry readings.

Ari Salka embraces a diaristic and autobiographical approach to mark-making, using abstraction, figuration, and poetry. Salka’s works on canvas and wood are a symphony of figurative and abstract painting. Bold strokes and enigmatic forms create a connection with the viewer that transcends that which cannot easily be identified. Salka passionately investigates repetition and fragmentation, resulting in a tapestry of notational entries. 

Ari Salka (b. 1993 in Seattle, WA) is an LA-based artist who primarily works through writing, painting, and drawing. Salka holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2016) and MFA in Painting from UCLA (2019). In addition, Salka studied at the Yale Norfolk Summer School of Art and received the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Fellowship in Norfolk, CT (2015). Salka has a solo show in May 2023 at Euclid Gallery and August 2023 at Lauren Powell Projects in Los Angeles, CA. In November 2023, Salka was included in the Visual Arts Lecture Series At Bennington College.Their work is featured in libraries and collections including the Los Angeles Contemporary Archive (LACA), the UCLA Arts Library, and the ROSA KWIR Archive in Mosta, Malta.