Lola Schnabel: Remember Me

Rating:
Summary: Remember her -- and this book
Review: A handful of artists try their hands at many media -- photography, painting, acting, and just about anything else. Lola Schnabel is one such artist. And she exposes her art in "Remember Me," revealing a scratchy collage of mind-bending photos and paintings. Warning: contents may take a bit of time to digest, but they're worth it.

Schnabel's drawings/paintings are vivid and sharp. Sometimes they're just pencil drawings, minimalistand deliberately smudged in places. Others have thin layers of bright paint on them. Her photographs are quite different -- much softer and blurrier, as if seen through a thick window. They seem much more distant and grounded.

Schnabel (who had a role in the movie "Basquiat") doesn't waste time trying to lure in viewers. Her work is just there, and it has no pretenses. Her work has a rough, exhilarating quality, like a an urban crazy quilt. As an added bonus, Rene Picard wrote an essay to accompany "Remember Me." It serves as a good counterpoint to the artwork, as Picard spins up some poetic prose about Schnabel's art and persona.

Schnabel's work is full of light and color. Specifically, her photos have light and her paintings/drawings have color. Splashes of vivid color spread over her drawings and paintings -- sometimes stylized, sometimes just accentuating the rough pencilwork. And her photographs are simply lovely -- horses in the woods, friends and family, graveyards.

Beautiful and vivid, budding artist Lola Schnabel's work is like a pile of rough diamonds -- unpolished but still precious. The title is a pretty fortunate one -- "Remember Me" shouldn't be forgotten.