L.A. Louver Gallery

L.A. Louver is pleased to present Tom Wudl: The Flowerbank World, an exhibition of new and recent works by the L.A.-based artist. Over the past two decades, Wudl has taken inspiration from the revered Buddhist teaching, the Avatamsaka Sutra (The Flower Ornament Scripture), to create an ongoing series of painstakingly detailed paintings, drawings and prints in response to the text's evocative and profound literary descriptions. Considered one of "the most colorful and dramatic rehearsals of Buddhist teachings," the sutra's primary purpose is to encourage meditation. It illustrates the world as it appears to the Buddha, where all things are interconnected and interdependent within a cosmos of infinite realms. Just as the sutra implicates the interdependency of all things, each work by Wudl is interconnected and may be viewed as fragments that inform the collective whole; every meticulous intricacy speaks to the wonderment and reverie demonstrated in the writings. Although inspired by Buddhist teachings, the works themselves are not intended to be sacred icons. However, Wudl follows the long tradition of artists, such as Caspar David Friedrich, Vincent Van Gogh, Piet Mondrian, Kazimir Malevich and Agnes Martin, who have merged aesthetics and mysticism by employing formal conventions to visually represent that which defies verbal description. A catalogue, with a foreword by Kimberly Davis and an essay by Tom Wudl, will be published on the occasion of the exhibition.