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New Conversation | Watch Online Now!
Dennis Hollingsworth visits Adam Janes in his Chinatown studio to catch up on his recent show in Paris and discuss Adam's ongoing sculptural practice. In this interview the artists themselves operate 4 small digital cameras, while talking to each other.
New Conversation | Watch online now!
Michael Minelli and Miwon Kwon
Los Angeles based artist and writer Michael Minelli, talks to Miwon Kwon, UCLA faculty lecturer on Contemporary Art History, about his current studio practice and recent show at WPA Gallery.
Adam Janes ALTAR ALTER MINI STORAGE
January 14 – February 21, 2010
Opening January 16, 7-9pm
For ALTAR ALTER MINI STORAGE, Adam Janes retrofits The Company’s garage into a turquoise den filled with brightly hued wax candles molded in random shapes such as gambling die, skulls, diamonds, crystal shaped mountain, the artist’s teeth (with an incisor missing), a Chinese luck coin, and the iconic California brown bear. The cartoonish objects are displayed on wooden crates to form an altar, and a hanging carcass chandelier. The organized chaos is reminiscent of a cluttered new-age shop filled with crystals, trinkets, and tarot cards, each overwhelmed via display but significant in their individual meaning. Like crystals, which can be viewed as abundant glittering gems researched by geologists or as precious conduits for spiritual healing, the candles too can become fetishized depending on the viewer’s inclination.
Janes’ sculptural background, a discipline occupied with formal and structural concerns, loosens up in ALTAR ALTER MINI STORAGE. The balance between the completed product and the ever-changing one disrupts the formal obsessions and leaves everything to chance. Over the course of the exhibition, the burning candles will melt into other shapes, rendering the original forms unrecognizable and completing the cycle of total transformation.
The Company | 946 Yale Street | Los Angeles, CA 90012
Joe Sola: I found some Bic pens by the railroad tracks January 9th through February 13, 2010 Opening Reception: Saturday, January 9th, 6 – 8pm Performance: Saturday, January 30th, 7:30 pm
The Happy Lion is very pleased to present an exhibition with Los Angeles based artist Joe Sola featuring the debut of a new video work, A Short Film About Looking. With his signature dry wit Sola’s latest work is a meditation on looking, as positioned by his characters: the artist, the patron and the gallery. A parallel narrative unfolds as we follow the morning of the two males: the first a scruffy artist type, the second a wealthy consumer. They pause to gaze—at seemingly random but formally chosen objects, shapes, colors. The differences in the lifestyles of these men are clear, and Sola builds this opposition with each edit. Narrative anticipation is fully and hysterically satisfied in a gallery—the obvious authority on looking, as “artist” meets “collector” and is arbitrated by “gallerist”. With an unparalleled ease of economy, Sola deftly dissects the politics of looking.
In addition to the video the exhibition will include several works on paper and a special one-night performance. Lush yet minimal, Sola’s recent watercolors convey humorous self-reference, as in the piece titled a painting of a book of ridiculous paintings and another me’n Kippenberger, and refer also to image production as in Industrial film. Sola’s highly physical performances use slapstick, live music, and Dada-ist abstraction to hilarious results. His newest piece, in collaboration with musician Michael Webster, will premiere on January 30th.
The Happy Lion is located at 963 Chung King Road in Los Angeles. Gallery hours are Weds through Saturday, 12-6 and by appointment. For additional information or visuals, please contact the gallery at 213.625.1360 or happylion@pacbell.net.
