donnie molls

Sketches: Life in Landscape

April 18 - May 30, 2026

Los Angeles, CA — CMAY Gallery is pleased to present Sketches: Life in Landscape, the second solo exhibition by Los Angeles–based artist Donnie Molls. The exhibition introduces a new body of mixed-media works on paper that the artist refers to as “sketches”—intimate, immediate studies of the California landscape drawn from his ongoing travels.

Working from photographic images captured across the varied terrains of California, Molls employs a range of transfer processes to translate these moments onto paper. These works extend the visual language of his larger canvases, yet operate with a heightened sense of immediacy and experimentation. The resulting images retain traces of their photographic origins while embracing the material unpredictability of the transfer process, allowing chance, texture, and fragmentation to play an active role in the composition.

In Sketches, Molls turns his attention to the subtle and often overlooked qualities of the everyday landscape. His subjects—roadside vistas, quiet horizons, and transitional spaces—reflect a sustained engagement with the peripheral and the mundane. Rather than monumentalizing the landscape, Molls captures fleeting impressions, emphasizing atmosphere, light, and the passage of time.

More spontaneous and direct than his larger works, these sketches function as both independent artworks and a parallel record of the artist’s process. They offer glimpses into his movement through the landscape—moments observed, collected, and reinterpreted—revealing a practice rooted in both observation and transformation.

Sketches: Life in Landscape continues Molls’ exploration of place, memory, and perception, presenting a body of work that is at once personal and reflective of the broader visual language of California.