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 LOS ANGELES-BASED ARTIST WALEAD BESHTYʼS PASSAGES, A SERIES OF PHOTOGRAPHS, A SITE-SPECIFIC INSTALLATION, AND A PUBLIC BILLBOARD

Walead Beshty, Dust (2007-2008), 2009, stretched vinyl on billboard, 12.3 x 24.6 feet, courtesy of the artist and LA><ART, Los Angeles

Walead Beshty: Passages

March 21 – May 2, 2009

LA><ART is pleased to present a series of projects by Los Angeles-based artist Walead Beshty. The exhibition Passages—comprised of a suite of photographs, a site-specific architectural intervention, a cinematic work, and a public billboard on La Cienega Boulevard—represents ongoing research into the relationships between the technological image and modernityʼs transitory and indeterminate spaces. Each avenue of Passages offers a distinct iteration of themes related to the traffic of images, hinging upon their spatial, representational, and material functions in contexts defined by movement and transition.

Included in LA><ARTʼs main gallery is a series of photographs Beshty produced by passing unused film through airport x-ray machines. The photographs from this series index their own traffic in washes of color and line, offering images of the limbo of air travel which directly represent these sites while resisting determined pictorial depiction of conventional photographic imagery.

In LA><ARTʼs project space, Beshty has installed a work that employs cinematic forms and pictorial imagery. American Passages (2001-) is comprised of an expanding collection of photographs gathered over an eight-year period. This work, centered around the architectural styles of defunct regional shopping centers throughout the country, further engages questions of public space, collective memory, and the role of photography in the comprehension and construction of the American landscape. American Passages (2001-) provides an archaeology of a building type in the process of disappearance, a condition that is echoed in its interwoven dissolving imagery of emptied and derelict shopping centers. LA><ART will also produce a forthcoming collection of this work titled American Passages (2000-2009) as part of LA><ARTʼs publication series.

In addition, Beshty has installed a mirrored floor of shatter-proof architectural glass that runs throughout the installations and into LA><ARTʼs offices and lobby space, framing the exhibition, its architecture, and the works it includes, along with the quotidian activities of the exhibition space itself.

Walead Beshty: Passages is made possible with the generous support of LA><ARTʼs Producers Council chair Adam Nathanson.

LA><ART PUBLIC PROGRAM

Exhibition walk-through with Walead Beshty and Aram Moshayedi

March 21, 6pm

Artist Walead Beshty and LA><ART curator Aram Moshayedi will lead an exhibition walk-through of Passages, followed by an opening reception for the artist.

LA><ART PUBLIC BILLBOARD

Walead Beshty: Dust (2007-2008)

Mounted concurrently throughout the month of March will be a billboard project by Walead Beshty, facing north on La Cienega Boulevard between Venice and Washington Boulevards.

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.

LA><ARTʼs 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, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Campari, Eileen Harris Norton, the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, ForYourArt, Art Services Melrose, Sima Familant, Lisa Schiff, John Rubeli, Laurie Deer, Marcia Goldenfeld, Gary Greener, Will Kopelman, Andrea Longacre-White and Brendan Fowler, Deborah Schneider, Joseph Varet, 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: May 16 – June 20, 2009: Drew Heitzler: Untitled (Baldwin Hills) and Chris Oliveria: A Garden for Losing Oneʼs Head

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.