Molly Rose Lieberman at Matthew Brown

Molly Rose Lieberman, Respect the morning (2024). Flashe on masonite mounted to walnut. 23 3/4 x 48 inches. (60.3 x 121.9 cm). Image courtesy of the artist and Matthew Brown. Photo: Paul Salveson.

Each of the 29 works that populate Molly Rose Lieberman’s solo exhibition My paradise at Matthew Brown acts as an assemblage. In the paintings and works on paper, seemingly abstract surfaces mask a dense mesh of layers beneath, while the sculptures bring disparate materials (such as silver espresso cups, oil pastels, painted beads, and sound) into dialogue. The varied elements of each artwork aggregate but never coalesce into a singular whole, instead privileging the relations between them, whether harsh or harmonious.

The importance of interconnection is most readily apparent in the exhibition’s sculptures. In Ashtray (2024), a silver base, partly hollowed to store a neat pile of colorful cubes, sits on the floor, tethered to the nearby wall by a white power cord. On top of it lies a red metal “O,” which holds a small painted canvas within the letter’s central cavity. Jutting out from one edge of the “O” is a bright pink support that holds aloft an espresso cup, offered to the viewer as the titular ashtray. Installed snugly in one corner of the gallery, Fireplace (2024) gives new life to an antique Indian teak pedestal by recontextualizing its well-worn, patinated wood amidst an array of manually modified materials: xeroxed paper; a variety of beads; and painted plywood, such as a narrow, vivid green board at the base. At no point in either work is any individual element entirely subsumed into the whole. Instead, there is a simultaneous drive toward both the preservation of the particularities of each material and their perversion for the present use in an artwork.

A parallel procedure motivates Lieberman’s paintings and works on paper. Respect the Morning (2024) begins as text, the titular slogan inscribed onto masonite. While the phrase first operates as language, an almost mantra-like reminder to make the most of the start of the day, Lieberman then grapples with it materially. Asemic lines build on the initial structure to suggest new ways of mark-making, ultimately leading to the work’s tessellated patterns of drab green, red ochre, fleshy beige, and metallic grey tones. The work thus moves through different frameworks of comprehension, effacing the distinct and clear directive “respect the morning” into the realm of abstraction, where denotation is difficult to find. Throughout My paradise, meaning ceases to be something simple and stable, and instead, it becomes a process, activated and made alive.

Molly Rose Lieberman: My paradise runs from September 6–October 19, 2024 at Matthew Brown (663 N. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90036). 

Alec Recinos is a writer and researcher based in California and New York. His work focuses on the political and performative nature of aesthetics.

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