Las Vegas Weekly

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Photo: Kristen Peterson

Death comes in hues of darkness from mouths of poets. It’s ushered in by the Grim Reaper, perpetually illustrated as a dark knight of horror. Sometimes it flings you into a bright light, universally described by those who claim to have been. But rarely is mortality cradled in fun—a physical embrace by fuzzy trinkets, sparkly things and over-the-top, excessively colorful joy.

So when LA artist Bill Dambrova lures us into death with his dazzling streams of fuzzy miniature pom-poms in his sculpture at TastySpace gallery, we question whether he’s tweaking traditional morbidity or sucking us into a trap that already holds a skeletal victim. His paintings tell us that maybe he’s just trying to change our perceptions. The abstract portraits of innards are not grotesque, but filled with juicy, shiny, bright and bubblicious organs greeting viewers zealously from the canvas.

Pairing Bambrova’s work with the more serious and meditative abstract drawings and paintings by Brooklyn artist Tat-Dat Nguyen creates a perfect balance in The Space Between You and Me. And it’s that indefinable space rendered by both artists in their own style that makes this exhibit so intriguing.