Joey Cocciardi at the Lodge in LA

Review by Christopher J. Graham, guest contributor

Its Getting Dark, Joey Cocciardi’s current show at The Lodge features twelve explosive paintings. Their compositions vary between apparent firework-inspired bursts to glowing auras from an astral plane, leading the viewer to a place of ephemera. Their surfaces are worked over through layers of applied painted paper and surfaces whittled down, courtesy of an orbital sander. The result is a rewarding peek into the history of the painting’s structure.

The works in the show all have variations on the name FRWK, an abbreviation of the word firework. The largest painting in the show, FRWK 2203, features neon colors as they reach through a dark shroud. It is relatively centralized with an abstracted “burst” prominently featured in the work. The largest painting in the show seems to have a textural component in common with later Richter Cage paintings. With observation, the viewer can see how paint was removed from the surface and reapplied to others. In the depths of the void space, there are flecks of white- small illustrations of stars- allowing the work’s dark space to expand into the cosmos.

Many of the compositions in the show feature single “bursts” of a firework against a void that shifts once in color, usually in the shape of a halo. By painting variations on the same composition Cocciardi highlights key differences in the work, making slight compositional tweaks feel like a departure. An example of this is FRWK 2302 with its celestial burst transforming into cartoon-stylized stars along the outer frame of the piece and FRWK 2309. In 2309, Cocciardi wears down the surface just before they become unintelligible. With careful examination, the viewer can see the echoed compositional framework from 2302.

At times the bursts in the FRWK resemble things other than fireworks. FRWK 2306, features a washy pink, green and yellow form that seems to cut in ribbons through a darkened black and merlot-tinged void. The composition suggests palm fronds, so common in Los Angeles, they ground Cocciardi in a specific locale. In FRWK 2312, the artist hides faint green and yellow swirls that resemble patterns created through batik or tie dye against a cerulean halo.

Welcome is FRWK-2314, with its three-headed burst. The painting reminds me of some of Harold Ancart’s UFO paintings, with its ascending movement and jagged formal lines. These bursts illuminate the void space that they occupy. Elsewhere in the show, evidence of a Spirograph is present, this element of play comes across in the work through the slight resemblance to “scratch and sketch” style children’s coloring sets.

Since most of the paintings in the show are 14 x 11 inches, a sense of pictorial scale becomes quite important. How the bursts interact with the edges of the canvas surface, can indicate their supposed sizes. The pictorial shifts in scale, though slight, introduces variation where formal qualities remain lean.

Cocciardi’s Its Getting Dark at The Lodge shows an artist exploring the ideas of working a surface, and material reduction without being reductive. Flashing colored forms against contrasting void space unifies the compositions to create a cohesive body of work. The effect of these paintings has something in common with the moment after a firework explodes, the smell of gunpowder and the smoke hanging in the air. After the firework show there is often a moment of awe in the aftermath, spent marveling at the beauty and technicality of the feats on display, and this is no exception.

Joey Cocciardi Its Getting Dark, runs from July 22nd to August 12th 2023.