ME, MYSELF, I
Seven Artists Who Use Aspects of the Self as Artistic Material
Moyra Davey,
LaToya Ruby Frazier,
Richard Hawkins,
Heinz Peter Knes,
Sean Landers,
Emily Mae Smith &
Frances Stark
Organized by John Morace
China Art Object's summer group show Me, Myself, I brings together seven artists who explore ideas of the self as an artistic medium. This group uses the self not only as a subject, as found in self-portraiture or autobiography, but rather as a basic building block to create artistic works.
In philosophy and psychology there are clear cut, negotiated ideas of what
the self is and how it exists in the world. These negotiated ideas have a
history and were developed through the academic process which is one of
peer review and consensus. For an artist making physical objects, these
definitions frequently can be an uneasy fit.
In his monumental canvas We're All, Sean Landers paints a birch tree stand scarred by graffiti. Revealing the artist's inner thoughts as public
subject matter, Landers presents the illusion of his stream of
consciousness. Yet, these fleeting moments don't rest easily with the
lengthy process of creating an intricate representational oil painting.
Another example can be seen in the work of Moyra Davey. In this show her photographic works capture the physical accumulations of her
intellectual pursuits and personal life that create an impression of peering
into the actual workings of her mind. By mailing them in fragments to others,
she seems to be deconstructing her past and asking the recipients to project
meaning and value on it. Yet when the artist reassembles these parts new
meanings open.
Making her California premier, 2015 McArthur Fellow LaToya Ruby
Frazier uses photography to record the specifics of her life and community
in Braddock, Pennsylvania. Through the intensity of the images she chooses
to capture, she is able to build a visual conversation about America's past
and present while exposing the workings of some of our most fundamental
national myths.
Richard Hawkins contributes The Mark Hanter Series, a four part work
from 1999. This early work explores the idea of internet catfishing as a
deceptive construction of persona before the term catfishing existed.
In a recent interview with Maurizio Cattelan, Emily Mae Smith described
her work as existing in "the disconnect between the way I know/believe the
world to be and the way the world is presented to me."
In photographer Heinz Peter Knes' work, there seem to be flickering
moments of internal thought that range from personal amusement, to
profound connection, to blind drunkenness.
Frances Stark, subject of a recent Hammer Museum survey, creates work
that revolves around the use and meaning of language, and the often
difficult personal anxieties of translating thought and ideas into a work of
art.
As part of this exhibition, there will be a screening of Moyra Davey's
acclaimed 60 minute narrative video work Les Goddesses at 356 S. Mission
Road on July 28th, 2016 at 8PM which was included in the Guggenheim's
recent exhibition Photo-Poetics.
John Morace is a local collector, former longtime chair of the Drawing
Acquisition Committee at Moca, LA and founding member of the Mountain
School of Art.
Exhibition runs from July 16th through August 20th, 2016
Gallery hours are 11:00 am through 6:00pm, Tuesday through Saturday.
ME, MYSELF, ISeven Artists Who Use Aspects of the Self as Artistic MaterialMoyra Davey,LaToya Ruby Frazier,Richard Hawkins,
