In The Middle of Conscious Giving This Holiday Season
- Kristine Schomaker
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
By Marina Claire The Middle Becomes Eclectic II is an LA-made small works salon – a large-scale exhibition within an intimate space – of forty Los Angeles area artists. The show’s title is a play on the iconic KCRW alternative radio program that began in LA in 1977. The small works in this exhibit span a wide range of media and styles, all made during the past year, by diverse artists at all career levels, guest curated by Camilla Taylor. The show is on view at The Middle Room Gallery in Atwater Village from December 5, 2025 to January 11, 2026. There will be a closing reception with an informal artist panel on Sunday, January 11th, from 1-3pm.
The works in this show carry a throughline of quiet strength and resilience — salon style, no one piece exceeds 30 inches, and that intimacy of scale draws one in. And draw us in, they did: the Friday night opening was abuzz with artists, patrons, and supporters, many with faces inches away from the work musing process, others in the middle of The Middle Room happily chatting holiday schedules balanced with current economies. Speaking of economies, all works are $500 and under, so if you’re looking for conscious consumption this gift season, The Middle Room is a great place to do so.
Lilah Sniderman’s stoneware heart, ‘The Old Battlefield,’ declares a tough vulnerability above my brass and steel tetrahedron rings (yes, rings: please try them on!), denoting little secrets of the universe you can carry around on your finger. Their choice of glaze simulates a bronze cast of a barbed anatomical sacred heart, and its proximity to the tiny brazed pyramids creates a scene of formidable shrunken monuments.
Next to my ‘Ascension’ series of imperfect polyhedron tiles (again, promising metaphysical truths in a cute, compact tile form), I’m honored to share space with three powerhouses. Lydia Tjioe Hall’s woven houses whisper mightiness with their overlapping wire densities and crafted interior spaces. Her craft nod to Ruth Asawa blends the phenomenon of invisible labor effortlessly with nested domestic vignettes, bestowed with the rigid power of metal wire. Hyein Park’s ‘Salt on Table’ acrylic paintings on wood depict a commonplace household material with patient precision and focus. The shading on every single grain of salt is so palpable, I almost bump my nose on the panel surfaces getting in close to view nuance from every angle. Just below, Tarra Wood’s nighttime neon-chiaroscuro ‘Laundromat Study’ miniature is accompanied by an illustrious red dot sticker — a steal at these prices!
Nicole Belle’s studio photography portraits both conceal and reveal a subject bearing a headdress crafted from what appears to be set material. Beneath, and with a chromatic consonance, Alejandra Bautista (aka ‘Bravetwat’) plays with phallic cyanotypes that are simultaneously surreal, moody, and statuesque.
Stacy Dawson Stearns’ ‘Mollusc Fugue No. 1 in F Minor’ is a still from a claymation video that iterates trippy slug compositions. There’s something almost psychological but definitely anatomical about the pattern symmetry in each cell of the mirrored soft little gastropod appendages. Shannon Keller’s bleach prints on black rice paper create striking images of the fiercely omnivorous hyena, almost indexical of the matriarchal predator’s nap or corpse.
A trio of ‘Small Pearl Extraction’ paintings by Megan Koth measures only 5 x 7 inches each, and presents delicate portals painted in a nearly classical style. They triptych contrasts temporally with the “viral internet imagery” of its subject matter: close-ups of pearls being popped with a gloved hand from a mollusk, like pimples.
Katie Marshall’s poetic oil studies feature wiry barbed star tinsel subject matter that contrasts richly with the softness of their rendering. Nearby, Mary Lai’s ‘Thinker (Neutral)’ is an earthy palette composition with her signature tactility and raked application of paint, accompanied with a red dot on the wall. Above, Silvia Wagensberg’s ‘Busy’ presents a layered acrylic fish run with distracted phone usage, and a stoneware construction by Spencer Baird gives us a peek at the material infrastructure of what is suggested to be a letter from a sandwich shop sign.
The poetry on the wall continues with a corner of fiery works. Among them a collaged oil painting of a house on fire by Sally Baxter, made in part with reference images from her childhood home in the UK. Baxter explores citizenship and fraught political landscapes, stating that each layer in her compositions is informed by previous decisions, not unlike the experiences that form and reform the Self. Christine Atkinson celebrates California ecology with a deliciously dark and “slightly burnt” silver gelatin print titled ‘What the Wind Has Taken (Chaney Trail).’ Another masterfully painted miniature by Tarra Wood called ‘Phyllis’ shows us a 5x 5 inch photorealistic still life of five cigarette butts in an ashtray. Kim Kyne Cohen turns a nicotine-ring stain on a filter into the toe of a foot with a character-rich glazed porcelain sculpture of a cigarette butt in a vaguely sexy platform shoe.
Both the curation and installation of this show provides eloquence, sweetness, introspection, and a strongness that imprints and lingers with viewers, even after leaving the closeness of the gallery space. It is an exciting, off-beat exhibition that supports community-building, accessible art-collecting and art-gift-giving during the holiday season, and celebrates the current pulse of the art being made in LA, represented by forty diverse artists coming together…in the middle.
Marina Claire is a visual artist and writer based in Los Angeles, CA. She is currently illustrating a children’s book, fabricating museum displays, and making ideas physical in her Pico Union studio.