Bookstein Projects is pleased to announce a two-person exhibition of paintings and works on paper by mother and son artists Olive Ayhens and Ezra Johnson.

Call mom will present recent paintings and watercolors by Olive Ayhens alongside new paintings by her son, Ezra Johnson. In Ayhens work she continues to draw inspiration from her travels, including a recent residency in New Orleans. Swamp creatures, antebellum architecture, and even indigenous tribal costumes make their way into invented landscapes saturated with color.

Also on view are three new watercolors, each depicting kaleidoscopic views of the city, dense with invented incident. In all her work, color and form are used as a tool to articulate an otherwise Formalist structure, as opposed to direct transcription of the composition. Johnson’s paintings too are rich with saturated, dream-like color, although his compositions focus on the artist’s studio, home life and his immediate family.

In The mirror, the viewer is confronted by a picture in the picture – a reflection of what appears to be the artist painting his son, who is seated in front of a table scattered with paint, tape, and other art materials. Taken in context of this exhibition with his mother, it evokes thoughts about the family’s artistic legacy continuing with the next generation.