What is mesmerizing to find in Mr. Joe Koppal’s artworks presented in his Anthem, Arena, Sanctuary opening at Lauren Powell Projects is their proud independence. If there is one word to define the American Spirit, it is precisely this; and Mr. Koppal’s exuberant free spirit paints the mind with such medium of mania that we are left appreciating an entrance into a newfound looking glass.

His figures are zanity par excellence. They are not breeching the lines of violation; of presenting us with an anxiety of a bad trip. They are, for a lack of a better word, groovy, in the concatenation of playfulness, however erratically organized. Consider, the most dangerously whimsical of the lot, Matissetasized (2020).

Matissetasized, 2020
Acrylic on canvas
60×48 inches (152.4×121.92 cm). Courtesy of the artist Joe Koppal and Lauren Powell Projects. Copyright Joe Koppal.

It’s razor-bonsai-sun and exciting firework of a yellow and red starburst are in the backdrop of a hodgepodge of figures which meander into the sharp-tooth. The foreground is perfectly capable of balancing the frenzy in pink, with its own tense-cantilever psychedelic lumbering. The aim of which matters not in a dream-world which is bursting with nighttime light.

Dazed by the Complexity of social interaction (2022). acrylic on canvas
60x48inches (152.4 cm x 121.92cm). Courtesy of the artist Joe Koppal and Lowell Powell Projects. Copyright Joe Koppal.

Dazed by the Complexity of social interaction (2022) is my submission of the magnum opus of the opening. Its planar presentation of the diversity of human life is stripped to a majestic ubiquity of personal flavors. For how else are we supposed to approach an orange which is asking to be licked? The colors of each figure are this equipoised from redundancy; we have the further appreciation of medium; particularly where our social lives are concerned and the carnival of conversation becomes saddened with black scratches; and not with further vivid pregnancy as illustriously portrayed.

Collateral Damage (2019), acrylic on canvas. 60 x 48 inches (152.4 cm x 121.92 cm). Courtesy of the artist Joe Koppal and Lauren Powell Projects. Copyright Joe Koppal.

Collateral Damage, 2019 extends the ebullience of Mr. Koppal’s confident choice in primary colors with a kaleidoscopic burst outward; providing us with a calm, yet electric, scintillation of the kinetics circularly imposed as a zane idea of The Good. Notice in the inventiveness no entanglements with any of the figures trying to make it out alive. Their independent “spirits” moves them in circular agreement with universal yet subjective objectives. The bucolic background is sharded, perhaps with a breakage, but not ceramically disappointing. This is cosmic in its ambition, and it delivers a “post-psychedelic” thrill.

These works are intended to move the spirit towards a truer understanding of what is good with this adventurous play with the human imagination. All good art expands the human consciousness, and Mr. Koppal exceeds at exactly that.

For more information, please contact the gallery:

Lauren Powell Projects

5225 Hollywood Blvd • Los Angeles • CA 90027