JUXTAPOZ – JJ Manford “Jacaranda Ju” @ Nazarian / Curcio, Los Angeles
Nazi / Corsio I am pleased to present Jakaranda JuneJJ Manford Exhibition for the first time with the exhibition. in Jakaranda JuneManford continues to explore the imagined local interior and landscape, and weave together artistic historical references, personal memory, and popular culture – all against the background of famous architecture in Los Angeles. Inspiration was inspired by John Lutner Garcia’s house in Melholland Drive and Stevens House in Malibu, Frank Jerry and Losk, Rudolph Shendler homes, Charles, Ray Emes, Rai Cap, and Manford drained into a legacy in the middle of the century that formed a lot of southern identity in California. These homes – the haven for an era that defends innovation and smooth complementarity between the interior and the external – represents more than the structures; It embodies a cultural moment that still constitutes architectural discourse today.
By working with an oil stick, oil pulse, flashing on the burlap, Manford creates a rich boredom that radiates in color and atmosphere. Each composition is carefully organized, as architectural forms, artworks and decorations are converging in a quiet harmony. Its spaces, although they were constructed carefully, remain liquid and dream -like spaces – remember the imagined part, an imagined part.
Despite the absence of human figures, the paintings are saturated with human existence. Daily things and iconic furnishings appear alongside the artwork written by Isamu Noguchi, Viola Frey, Ed Paschke, Betty Woodman and Kenneth Price, among others. Each element works as a sign of internal life, which transforms local settings into pictures of their potential residents and converts documented spaces into imagined accounts. In many ways, home references raises a collective longing for optimism and modernity of the middle of the century in Los Angeles-the time when architecture promised new capabilities by mixing the natural environment with the built world.
Manford explores the thresholds between the interior, outside, the past, the present, the reality and the imagination. While his paintings are based on real architectural monuments, they are not a literal entertainment, but the emotional spaces that reflect the essence of modernity in Los Angeles – where the line separating the interior and the external is often unclear. These homes, with their open plans, glass walls, and a smooth relationship to nature, symbolize the spirit of innovation and idealism that are still resonance.
In the wake of the 2025 fires that extended many major landmarks across Los Angeles, Manford’s paintings stand as honoring the city’s architectural heritage and affirming hope for what can be preserved, even with climate change in an increasing future of its future. Through the bright photography of light, space, and shape, his work raises a vision of optimistic, intimate, and supernatural, which acquires a calm feeling. Like slow flower of Jagaranda in June, meaning that Manford’s actions are gradually appeared, and he called for thinking about what is characterized by change.
