Reggie Burrows Hodges
The Reckoning
Karma
May 6 – July 7, 2023
There often come those times in life when we are due to take inventory of our internal landscape – a spiritual checkup, so to speak – to assess the symbolic forms peering back at us, what they might tell us about our cumulation of feelings and insights. Such is demonstrated in The Reckoning, a moody collection of works currently on view at Karma Gallery in Los Angeles. Here, artist Reggie Burrows Hodges takes us on a journey into the unconscious – particularly, the recesses of memory which must be brought into view for closer inspection. What we find are emotional realms carved from tones of love, passion, sadness.
Inner Impulse
This series, a variety of large-scale acrylic and pastel paintings on panel or linen (all created between 2022-2023), focuses on illusive themes of introspection, as many of the subjects are seen peering into reflective surfaces of one form or another. Much of Hodges’s brooding characters are represented in silhouette-like fashion, their faces muted so that the viewer’s focus lies not merely on the individual, but on the environment as a whole. Domestic domains like the bedroom, bathroom or living room, serve as amplifiers for inner dialogue.
December Wedding
In Flux, for instance, shows a woman gazing into a handheld mirror. The viewer doesn’t see the image presented before her, yet the path of her surroundings suggests revelations materialized into form, emphasized with an impish character peeking out from one of the corners. Perhaps she is thinking about the events which have shaped her and of those yet to come. Similarly, in Inner Impulse, we see a lady peering into a bolstered compact mirror, her backside additionally reflected in the large bathroom mirror behind her. The enclosing grey and ochre walls are implicated with indistinct eye and face-like blemishes. With a crude impressionistic style, Hodges breathes life into seemingly inanimate surfaces, making it feel as if his subjects are not entirely alone with their thoughts.
In Flux
His scenarios appear to have initially sprung from stark black backgrounds, from which subdued colors and details emerge. Despite their murky quality, these hues register loudly within sensitive compositions, as if Hodges is just as clever at playing our eyes as he is our emotions. Subtle notes of light interact with oozing edges, creating an effect more ethereal than tangible. Like a dream within a dream, or a reflection within a reflection, we don’t know if Hodge’s subjects are mere phantoms of his imagination, in turn contemplating their own imaginary realms, or if they in fact walk among the living. Nonetheless, we wonder whether they will eventually find the truths they seek, or if those shall remain just out of reach, much like the figures themselves.
Cover image: Alfred’s Gift; all images courtesy of Karma, photographed by the author.
