FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT ELIZABETH REINA OR DEIRDRE MAHER
BLUE MEDIUM // ELIZABETH@BLUEMDIUM.COM / DEIRDRE@BLUMEDIUM.COM
TEL: +1 (212) 675.1800
GREGORY MICHAEL HERNANDEZ: REBUILT HOMESTEAD
MAY 22 – JUNE 26, 2010
Opening reception: May 22, 6-9pm
LA><ART is please to present Mike Hernandezʼs Los Angeles solo debut, Rebuilt Homestead. For this project, Hernandez weaves his practice of photography, sculpture, painting, and installation to reconstruct an architectural found form that he has been documenting over time. Reincarnated as a truncated cuboctahedron, Rebuilt Homestead takes the three of the classic elements of architecture—wood, cement, and steel and treats them through a meticulous process that produces a monumental reproduction of a homestead now destroyed. Hernandezʼs use of wood from the original homestead structure then provides a visual and psychological reverberation between the real and the reproduced, history and the present, gesturing to the structureʼs function as a meditative portal between memory and forgetting, or like the artist states, as “a mental hole in the wall between the former structure ʻout thereʼ and the reconstructed sculpture ʻin here.ʼ” In addition to the structure, the walls of the gallery will be painted to mark the shadows produced when a light is placed at the center of the structure.
Mobilizing photography as a sculptural tool, Hernandez applies mechanisms of light manipulation inspired by photography and projection in order to map the shadows that would be produced when looking out from the original structure in situ. Painting these outlines on the walls of the gallery space, Hernandezʼs illusion generates an imaginary cartography of the landscape that surrounded the original homestead in the desert. In this context, Hernandezʼs highly formal sculptural work also acts as a lens whose projection and refraction of light give viewers a contested image of a lingering past in a reconstructed present.
Gregory Michael Hernandez has lived and worked in Los Angeles since 1995. His childhood in the Mojave Desert continues to inform his interrogations of the city and the wilderness that materialize in his landscape-based work. Recent group exhibitions have includedPhotocartographies: Tattered Fragments of the Map, G727 Los Angeles (2009); Patterns and Rhythms, Los Angeles Municipal Gallery(2008); and Beyond Image: Photography in Contemporary Art, Armory Center for the Arts (2007).
LA><ART PROJECT SPACE
COLTER JACOBSEN: SEARCHINʼ VS. BUILDINʼ
Curated by Malik Gaines
LA><ART is pleased to present San Fracnsico-based artist Colter Jacobsenʼs first solo show in Los Angeles, Searchinʼ vs. Buildinʼ. This exhibition brings together three of Jacobsenʼs ongoing projects to explore ideas of searching, teasing out the desire inherent in any search, while attempting to subvert the possibility that a searcher can ever find what he imagines he is looking for. Presenting a group of drawings, watercolors, and collages, Jacobsenʼs conceptualization of a quest is represented in Jacobsenʼs interrelated works, drawing on the ways search engines mobilize information, and extending from an interest in intimacy through online dating. Jacobsenʼs metaphor draws these ideas into art making and art viewing, practices the artist considers to be further modes of exploration. With these ideas in mind, Jacobsen builds a dynamic group of works drawing on multiple media, illustrating Jacobsenʼs own compelling mix of technical ability, intellectual curiosity, cleverness and flexibility.
The exhibition will include several works from Jacobsenʼs “Facelessbook,” a collection of images appropriated from online gay dating sites in which the seekerʼs face is obscured. Jacobsen has made a series of small watercolors, maintaining the original dimensions of the digital images as he translates their expedient form into beautifully detailed, hand-made works. Another group of works included in the show are drawn from the series, “Woods in the Watchers.” Each of these drawings, which depict men wearing watches, were made by Jacobsen within a one-hour time limit. Finally, Jacobsen will present two collages stretched as canvases, made from silver and gold wrappers found by the artist on the street. After walking and combing for these materials, which consist primarily of the remains of gum and cigarette wrappers, Jacobsen has built them into alluring, reflective works that refer to both abstract painting and assemblage traditions.
The opening of Jacobsenʼs exhibition will include a performance by his band, Coconut, a quartet that also includes musicians Tomo Yasuda, Keiko Kayamoto and Justin Loney. The acclaimed groupʼs lilting, melodic, lo-fi sensibility, complements the smart romanticism of the artistʼs visual works.
Colter Jacobsen has had solo exhibitions at the CCA Wattis Institute and Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco, and Covi-Mora, London. Since 2002, Jacobsen has shown work in numerous group exhibitions at venues including White Columns, New York; Samson Projects, Boston; Engholm Engelhorn Gallery, Vienna; Zero, Milan; and in the 2009 Baltic Triennial at the Contemporary Art Center, Vilnius, Lithuania. Jacobsen was born in Ramona, California in 1975 and earned a BFA at the San Francisco Art Institute in 2001. He lives and works in San Francisco.
LA><ART PUBLIC BILLBOARD AND LAPD – LA PUBLIC DOMAIN
Emilie Halpern, Midnight Sun, 2010, Stretched vinyl on billboard, 12.3 x 24.6 feet, Courtesy of the artist and LA><ART, Los Angeles
LA><ART ENTRYWAY
Emilie Halper, A collection of ten videos from 2000 through 2006, Video, Dimensions variable, Courtesy of the artist and LA><ART, Los Angeles
LA><ART WINDOW
Vincent Alpino, Residue, 2010, Image, adhesive and ashes, Dimensions variable, Courtesy of the artist and LA><ART, Los Angeles
LA><ART OFFICE
Sarah Cain, $ Mobile, 2010, Gouache and acrylic on $ bill, 6 1/4 x 2 1/2 inches, Courtesy of the artist and LA><ART, Los Angeles
ABOUT LA><ART
Responding to Los Angelesʼ cultural climate, LA><ART questions given contexts for the exhibition of contemporary art, architecture and design. With a renewed vision for the potential of independent art spaces, LA><ART provides a center for interdisciplinary discussion and interaction and for the production and exhibition of new exploratory work. LA><ART offers a space for provocation, dialogue and confrontation by practices on the ground in LA and abroad. LA><ART is a hub for artists based on flexibility, transition, spontaneity and change. The space responds to an urgency and obligation to provide an accessible exhibition space for contemporary artists, architects and designers.
L.A.P.D. – LA Public Domain features artistic and curatorial collaborations and interventions in experimental contexts.
LA><ARTʼs programs are made possible with the generous support of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; the James Irvine Foundation; Danielson Foundation; the G.L. Waldorf Family Fund; Foundation for Contemporary Arts; Wildman, Harrold, Allen & Dixon LLP.; Eve Steele and Peter Gelles; Phil Lord; Jennie Prebor; Larry Mathews and Brian Saliman; Gary and Gilena Simmons; Carlos Morera; John Rubeli; Gil Friesen; Stuart Spence; the Standard, Hollywood; City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs; and the LA><ART Board of Directors, Producers Council, Curators Council, founding members, and patrons.
This exhibition is supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.
Upcoming: July 17 – August 21, 2010: John Divola (Gallery One) and Amir Zaki (Gallery Two)
LA><ART is located at 2640 S. La Cienega Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90034 T.310.559.0166 F.310.559.0167
o f f i c e @ l a x a r t . o r g // w w w . l a x a r t . o r g
LA><ART is open Tuesday through Saturday 11am – 6pm.
