Panda Landa "Hollow" Acrylic, Figurative Painting of a Figure and Hanging Stars in Black, California Desert Art, Original 20 X 25 Inches, 2025

Details

Description

A white figure, outlined in a wandering dark line, leans across a black field with one arm reaching toward a … Read more A white figure, outlined in a wandering dark line, leans across a black field with one arm reaching toward a small chalky smudge on the ground. Above, four tiny charms hang on thin strings like a baby's mobile, two stars and two fish, drawn in pale chalk-white against a dark teal band. The figure is hollow, its body a shape of bare white with a small loop at its side. The marks are soft and rubbed, with a velvety, nocturnal feel. Panda Landa's textile work leans on improvisation and play, and this painting has the same openness, the simplest possible drawing carrying a good deal of feeling. It is framed in black behind a white mat.

A graphic black-and-white piece that suits a bedroom, a study, a stairwell or a living room with neutral furniture. The strong contrast pairs with white walls, black metal, gray linen and pale wood, and gives a calm, nocturnal note over a bed, a desk or a sofa. Its upright format fits a slim wall and holds up well in a room with simple lines.

Acrylic, 20 x 25 x 1.5 in (50.8 x 63.5 x 3.8 cm). Framed in black, with a white mat.

The acrylic works are painted in thin, chalky layers with drawn line and softly scumbled color, and mounted behind a white mat in a black frame. Figures and gestures are reduced to a few clear shapes, such as a reaching hand, a profile or a hanging charm, set against fields of aqua, black and cream. They sit apart from the textile series but share its improvised, play-led way of working.

Panda Landa (b. 1982) is a queer, non-binary visual artist and filmmaker raised in the Nevada desert and now based in Joshua Tree, California. Self-taught, they work through instinct and improvisation, making mixed-media textile pieces from second-hand fabrics that are dyed by hand, stitched and stretched over frames. Sustainability is central to the practice, and every cloth arrives with its own history.

Their ongoing series, including PORTAL, ALTAR, ECLIPSE, VESSEL and RITUAL, touch on queerness, identity, ancestral narrative, healing and transformation, and more recent beaded panels carry short, tender phrases in color. Landa made the 2022 film In the Middle of Everywhere and has offered a workshop on giving new life to clothes at the Joshua Tree Music Festival. See less