LA><ART

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT MELISSA GOLDBERG

323-951-9790, LAXARTPRESS@LAXART.ORG

2640 SOUTH LA CIENEGA BOULEVARD           

LOS ANGELES CALIFORNIA 90034

WWW.LAXART.ORG

LA><ART PRESENTS A NEW SCULPTURAL INSTALLATION BY LOS ANGELES-BASED ARTIST RUBÉN ORTIZ TORRES AND A NEW VIDEO BY JULIO CESAR MORALES, PART OF THE 2008 CALIFORNIA BIENNIAL’S OFFSITE PROJECTS

Rubén Ortiz Torres, Hi ’n’ Lo, 2008, chromogenic urethane, metal flake, hydraulics, batteries, steel, aluminum, and mechanic parts on scissor lift, 97 x 52 x 90 inches, courtesy of the artist with support from the Fabric Workshop, Philadelphia; MACLA; the Zero1 Festival; and LA><ART, Los Angeles; and Julio Cesar Morales, Interrupted Passage (still), 2008, two-channel Blu-ray projection with sound, TRT: 8:30, courtesy of the artist, LA><ART, Los Angeles and New Langton Arts, San Francisco

November 15, 2008 – January 3, 2009

LA><ART is pleased to present a new sculptural installation entitled Hi ’n’ Lo by Los Angeles-based artist Rubén Ortiz Torres. Originating from a proposal for Monster Garage—a TV show that takes viewers through the processes of customizing cars to complete specific and challenging tasks—Ortiz Torres’ Hi ’n’ Lo fuses a modified scissor lift with hydraulic pumps to create a dramatic intervention within the gallery space. An essential element in the staging of works of art within institutional contexts, Ortiz Torres herein reveals the labors of museological display by blending the function and form of the scissor lift with the aesthetics of custom car culture.

Rubén Ortiz Torres currently lives and works in Los Angeles. He received his MFA in 1992 from the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia. Having exhibited widely both nationally and internationally, solo exhibitions have taken place at Art in General, New York; Haus der Kulturen Der Welt, Berlin; Artpace, San Antonio; the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami; and Galería OMR, Mexico City.

Hi ’n’ Lo was produced with support from the Fabric Workshop, Philadelphia, MACLA, and the Zero1 Festival. Hydraulics by Salvador “Chava” Muñoz; painting, chrome, rims and grill by ADM Works.

House of Campari presents LA><ART Project Space

Julio Cesar Morales: Interrupted Passage

Concurrently on view is Interrupted Passage, a newly commissioned video installation by San Francisco–based artist Julio Cesar Morales. This project serves as the artist’s response to an invitation to create a site-specific work in Sonoma County, California. Interrupted Passage explores the complex and diverse history of California, focusing on the transfer of Alta California from Mexico to the United States in the year 1846. The project revisits and examines Mexican General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo’s last moments in power and the events leading up to his arrest. Morales’ reinterpretation of the dinner served by Vallejo to American militiamen—sourced together from Mexican and American perspectives—fuses both the official and personal historical narratives that have come to define this dramatic transfer. Taking the form of a two-channel video installation based on a performance Morales staged at Vallejo’s former residence Casa Grande with Max La Riviere- Hedrick, Interrupted Passage reads the history of California through the lens of food and social exchange.

Julio Cesar Morales currently lives and works as an artist, educator and curator in San Francisco. His work has been exhibited at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, Fototeca de Havana in Cuba, Peres Projects in Los Angeles, the Museo Universitario de Ciencias y Arte Roma in Mexico City, Harris Lieberman Gallery in New York, the Frankfurter Kunstverein in Germany, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Rufino Tamayo Museum in Mexico City. His work has also been included in the San Juan Triennial in Puerto Rico (2004), the Singapore Biennale (2006), the Tenth Annual Istanbul Biennale (2007), and is currently on view at the Orange County Museum of Art, as part of the 2008 California Biennial (CB08). Morales is the founder and co-curator of Queens Nails Projects, an artist run project space in San Francisco.

Interrupted Passage was commissioned by New Langton Arts, San Francisco and produced in association with LA><ART, Los Angeles, and OCMA, Newport Beach. It has been supported by the Nimoy Foundation, Tim and Nancy Howes, the Fleishhacker Foundation, the San Francisco Foundation Fund for Artists Matching Commission, Larry Mathews, Deborah Schneider, Ted Ridgway and Ellena Ochoa, and Christopher Vroom.

LA><ART PUBLIC PROGRAM Exhibition walk-through with Julio Cesar Morales and Aram Moshayedi

November 15, 6pm Artist Julio Cesar Morales and LA><ART curator Aram Moshayedi will lead an exhibition walk-through of Interrupted Passage, followed by an opening reception for Morales and Rubén Ortiz Torres.

About LA><ART

Responding to Los Angeles’ 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.

LA><ART’s programs are made possible with the generous support of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Peter Norton Family Foundation, the Kenneth T. and Eileen L. Norris Foundation, Danielson Foundation, the Audrey and Sydney Irmas Charitable Foundation, Campari, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Eileen Harris Norton, the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, ForYourArt, The Standard Downtown LA, 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.

These projects are affiliated with the 2008 California Biennial, organized by the Orange County Museum of Art.

LA><ART is located at 2640 S. La Cienega Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90034 T.310.559.0166 F.310.559.0167 office@laxart.org www.laxart.org

LA><ART is open Tuesday through Saturday 11am – 6pm.