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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

Donna Huanca: Obsidian Ladder

June 28 – Dec 1, 2019
4357 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90010, United States

“Were I called on to define, very briefly, the term ‘Art,’” wrote Edgar Allan Poe in Marginalia, “I should call it ‘the reproduction of what the Senses perceive in Nature through the veil of the soul.’” Combining painting and sculpture with performance, the Berlin-based artist Donna Huanca is waking up the Senses with the help of many souls. Every Saturday, models painted to look as if they stepped out of a Huanca canvas or sculpture, mingle with the works on view. These “skin paintings” invite us to think about objectification, ephemerality, and how the energy of life differs from the energy of art. —J.V.