Shadoobie (Shattered)

In downtown Los Angeles’s Toy District, commerce unfolds in a riot of color, language, and objects: hand-painted signs, banners, overflowing displays, and goods from everywhere in the world. Bradley Boboc brings this visual and cultural energy into his paintings, transforming the language of the neighborhood’s wholesalers and street vendors into a vocabulary of his own. Text appears throughout the series, recalling the hand-painted signage and commercial ephemera that fill the area. These sources often distort and merge languages, and Boboc adopts the resulting blend of English, Spanish, French, and Chinese—an abstracted, universal vernacular that both traces and embellishes the origins of goods on offer. Though text may seem at odds with the conventions of still life, it draws out the painterly quality of the district’s storefront displays. Hair gel, lipstick, and sunglasses gather on brightly colored tablecloths, staging arrangements that parody the opulence of Chardin and Cézanne. Traditional and contemporary references move freely through the work, compressing time and space.