Lauren Satlowski’s Gadzinas Bell

Lauren Satlowski’s exhibition Gadzinas Bell, currently on view at Odd Ark LA,  features a group of psychological, future paintings. Satlowski’s lone protagonists, depicted as flimsy nebulous bodies, unlock a well of emotion typically reserved for human encounters with aliens or artificial intelligence. There’s a mix of love, empathy, and fear when we encounter these uncanny “others.” Borrowing cinematic tropes from horror and science fiction genres, Satlowski’s Seagull takes us down to Spielberg’s submerged Manhattan, where an AI boy-toy sits waiting for love inside an amphibicopter for two thousand years. With awe, we peer at these glossy depictions as though looking at a new life form through plated glass. Satlowski’s paintings attempt a reconciliation with a history that struggles through possession and power. First time viewers of Satlowski’s glossy, eerie paintings should do so to Photek’s pensive Solaris. -Claire Milbrath