AM recently had the pleasure of dropping in on Deedee Cheriel at her sunny home and studio in the Echo Park neighbourhood of Los Angeles.  Her latest exhibition, ‘Abracadabra’, opens Saturday, October 9th at Merry Karnowsky Gallery in LA alongside the new show by Mark Whalen (Kill Pixie), ‘Paralleled Opposites’.

Cheriel uses animals to portray emotion, and the characters in her narrative pieces are often reminiscent of the anthromorphic deities depicted by the ancient Egyptians.  She describes the exhibition’s title as referring to the transformation of negativity into something positive, and making light of our egos, jealousies and other foibles.

We were given a sneak preview of the paintings that will be included in the show.  These were either hanging on her studio walls or leaning against them and other available free space.  Deedee’s pet Maggie, a Dachshund / Chihuahua mix, was courteous throughout the visit but unable to hide a world-weary expression indicating our presence was somewhat intrusive.

While taking in the artist’s work, it was difficult to resist the opportunity of also glancing over the selection of art and music books on her shelves.  After spotting a copy of ‘Please Kill Me’ by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain, we decided we liked Deedee even more.

‘Abracadabra’ continues until November 6th.  Check out more photos after the jump.

Text and photographs by Patrick Nguyen.