”Wrong Time, Right Silence” by Los Angeles-based painter Jonni Cheatwood marks his fifth solo exhibition with Makasiini Contemporary, featuring nine evocative works that navigate the intersections of personal memory, collective history, and the unseen forces that shape human experience.
Cheatwood’s practice is defined by an experimental approach to materials and mark-making. In several works, he employs a new process of dyeing canvas with fig leaves from his backyard, layering it with cyanotype, and sun-printing orchid tree leaves collected on daily walks with his daughter—an alchemic process that merges nature and sustainability with the act of painting. This tactile engagement mirrors the organic, intuitive mark-making and brush strokes that runs throughout this body of work, where abstraction serves as both a veil and a means of revelation.
A quiet but persistent force moves through these paintings: the Santa Ana Winds. Described by Joan Didion as an invisible, destabilizing presence, these winds have long symbolized volatility in California’s landscape and psyche. Cheatwood treats these winds as much more than weather phenomena; they become a metaphor for instability, the power of things unseen, and the cyclical nature of destruction and renewal. In a rare parallel, the gallery space itself—situated near the historic Turku Cathedral—bears the scars of the Great Fire of Turku, reinforcing a shared narrative of resilience, displacement, and the haunting impact of loss.
Within these layered canvases, deeply personal narratives unfold. A father doing his daughter’s hair reflects Cheatwood’s own recent entry into fatherhood. ”One String Flamengo” subtly stitches together memory and material—the torso of a guitar-playing figure is cut and resewn, a quiet homage to Cheatwood’s late uncle, whose market in Rio de Janeiro always had a guitar available for anyone to play, creating a space for music and community. In another work, a bus scene merges with imagery from Los Angeles’ Skid Row, foregrounding the stark proximity of wealth and displacement in Los Angeles.
In these paintings, mask-like faces, fragmented figures, and layered textures converge with oil, oil sticks, acrylic, and sewn textiles, creating a visual language that is both familiar and quietly unsettling. While not overtly surreal, the works carry a cinematic tension, where light and abstraction distort reality just enough to suggest a world shaped by feeling rather than fact. ”Pay Per Eww” places two figures in a barren, windblown landscape, reflecting Cheatwood’s own transient life in the American West. ”Lionize Your Eyes” depicts a congregation of women in extravagant hats gathered beneath stained glass, where the interplay of color and form transforms a church scene into something both sacred and theatrical in times of tension. In ”Dooley Sittin’ on the Back Porch”, a young boy perches at the edge of a burning landscape, a Mitred Parakeet balanced on his head. Though uncommon in Cheatwood’s neighborhood, these parakeets appeared in significant numbers in the days following the Los Angeles wildfires, underscoring nature’s reaction to disaster.
Fire—both literal and metaphorical—threads through these paintings, a reminder that destruction and renewal are inseparable. By distorting faces, shifting colors, and layering textures, Cheatwood explores how personal histories, natural forces, and societal contrasts continuously reshape our understanding of place and identity, making the familiar feel simultaneously intimate and elusive.
Cheatwood’s works are in several prominent collections, such as Stanley & Gail Hollander Collection LA, USA, The Abraham Foundation Beirut, Lebanon, Carole Server & Oliver Frankel Collection NY, USA, Omnicom Institute Beirut, Lebanon, Rema Hort Mann Foundation NY, USA, Hort Family Collection NY, USA, Casa Malca Tulum, Mexico and private collections around the world.
Cheatwood’s practice is defined by an experimental approach to materials and mark-making. In several works, he employs a new process of dyeing canvas with fig leaves from his backyard, layering it with cyanotype, and sun-printing orchid tree leaves collected on daily walks with his daughter—an alchemic process that merges nature and sustainability with the act of painting. This tactile engagement mirrors the organic, intuitive mark-making and brush strokes that runs throughout this body of work, where abstraction serves as both a veil and a means of revelation.
A quiet but persistent force moves through these paintings: the Santa Ana Winds. Described by Joan Didion as an invisible, destabilizing presence, these winds have long symbolized volatility in California’s landscape and psyche. Cheatwood treats these winds as much more than weather phenomena; they become a metaphor for instability, the power of things unseen, and the cyclical nature of destruction and renewal. In a rare parallel, the gallery space itself—situated near the historic Turku Cathedral—bears the scars of the Great Fire of Turku, reinforcing a shared narrative of resilience, displacement, and the haunting impact of loss.
Within these layered canvases, deeply personal narratives unfold. A father doing his daughter’s hair reflects Cheatwood’s own recent entry into fatherhood. ”One String Flamengo” subtly stitches together memory and material—the torso of a guitar-playing figure is cut and resewn, a quiet homage to Cheatwood’s late uncle, whose market in Rio de Janeiro always had a guitar available for anyone to play, creating a space for music and community. In another work, a bus scene merges with imagery from Los Angeles’ Skid Row, foregrounding the stark proximity of wealth and displacement in Los Angeles.
In these paintings, mask-like faces, fragmented figures, and layered textures converge with oil, oil sticks, acrylic, and sewn textiles, creating a visual language that is both familiar and quietly unsettling. While not overtly surreal, the works carry a cinematic tension, where light and abstraction distort reality just enough to suggest a world shaped by feeling rather than fact. ”Pay Per Eww” places two figures in a barren, windblown landscape, reflecting Cheatwood’s own transient life in the American West. ”Lionize Your Eyes” depicts a congregation of women in extravagant hats gathered beneath stained glass, where the interplay of color and form transforms a church scene into something both sacred and theatrical in times of tension. In ”Dooley Sittin’ on the Back Porch”, a young boy perches at the edge of a burning landscape, a Mitred Parakeet balanced on his head. Though uncommon in Cheatwood’s neighborhood, these parakeets appeared in significant numbers in the days following the Los Angeles wildfires, underscoring nature’s reaction to disaster.
Fire—both literal and metaphorical—threads through these paintings, a reminder that destruction and renewal are inseparable. By distorting faces, shifting colors, and layering textures, Cheatwood explores how personal histories, natural forces, and societal contrasts continuously reshape our understanding of place and identity, making the familiar feel simultaneously intimate and elusive.
Cheatwood’s works are in several prominent collections, such as Stanley & Gail Hollander Collection LA, USA, The Abraham Foundation Beirut, Lebanon, Carole Server & Oliver Frankel Collection NY, USA, Omnicom Institute Beirut, Lebanon, Rema Hort Mann Foundation NY, USA, Hort Family Collection NY, USA, Casa Malca Tulum, Mexico and private collections around the world.
