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25-Year-Old Artist Amanda Charchian Makes Magic on Rodeo

By Natalie Alcala

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"Ginger Entanglement." Images via Tappan Collective

We already knew that Tappan Collective was on the cusp of cool, but the LA-based online art gallery's latest talent just took them to the next level. Last week, TC artist Amanda Charchian left Beverly Hills shoppers spellbound at the debut of her very first solo exhibition, The Collective Yes.

Held at Stephen Webster's Rodeo boutique, the event featured a series of mystifying images and sculptures dreamed up by the rising local, who's all of 25 years old. We stopped by to hear more about Charchian's world, both in and out of the studio.

What inspired your exhibit's name and theme?
"All the photographs were created from what I call a "Yes Moment"—an experience of transcending time and space, and having the world open and expand in a way it hasn't before for the act of creating something new and raw.

Are you satisfied with the way it turned out?
"It has been really rewarding to see how all the work relates to each other by accessing the unknown through an honest feminine perspective. In addition to the photographs, there are two new crystal sculptures in the show. They are placed by the window so that when the sun shines on the Swarovski crystals, a blast of rainbows splatters its surroundings. It's really magical!"

So magical! Where do you hang in LA when you're not working?
"My favorite place is the beach! I especially love El Pescador and El Matador in Malibu. I also love to visit the Self Realization centers in the Palisades and Mt. Washington." I also love going to see old films in the cemetery that my friends John Wyatt and Alia Penner put on for Cinespia every week in the summer."

The Collective Yes runs now through August 31st at Stephen Webster Beverly Hills.
· Amanda Charchian [Official Site]
· Tappan Collective [Official Site]
· The Tappan Collective's Jordan Klein's New Fave Shop on Beverly [Racked]