Bodies in Singularity
April 24 - May 23

Jamison Carter
Andrea Chung
Megan Cotts
Sarah Cromarty
Sienna DeGovia
Rebecca Farr
Christine Frerichs
Katie Herzog
Bettina Hubby
Jonesy
L.E. Kim
David Lloyd
Morgan Mandalay
Nancy Popp
Rebecca Ripple
Rodrigo Valenzuela
Alexandra Wiesenfeld

Click here to view exhibition on Artsy

Bodies as Singularity is an online exhibition that brings together works from each of our represented artists that converge in unexpected ways around this unique moment in our history; a moment in which we are globally united in recognition of our animal vulnerability, while simultaneously becoming more digitally projected in our identities than ever before.

I have been slow to put this show together.  Our artists have been ready and so very supportive, and our staff has been ready and so very supportive.  And yet I have found myself paralyzed in this moment; wanting to say something meaningful and yet also recognizing the conceit of trying to make meaning while in the midst of a historically unprecedented global experience, a societal trauma of a different kind than we have lived, or than most of us have imagined.

In an attempt to find ground, I keep coming back to the curatorial motivations that have been my compass since we first opened the original gallery space in 2010, and in other areas of my life much longer: my artists, my community, the space between cultural constructs of reason and emotion, visual storytelling and myth-making, the romance between rigor and beauty and pain. And most of all, the body.

The medium for this show is Artsy, and I’ve always felt that the most powerful use of any medium happens when it is shaped in a way that would only be possible in that form. To bring you something that exists only online then, I wanted to create a combination of works that would be very unlikely for me to show you together in a physical space, especially the just over 2000 square feet of our gallery space in Los Angeles.

And so, we will be trying out methods of engagement specific to this platform which we hope you will enjoy; new works will be added to the show over the coming weeks, the artists and I will be adding personal written content about many of the individual works, and we have chosen works from each of our represented artists that would be damn difficult to see in person in one physical space. Some of the works are huge, some are in Chicago, in Mexico City, in pieces in Altadena. And while I am a True Believer and think nothing can replace the in-person experience of physical engagement with works of art, I’m excited to offer this combination of works to you outside the usual parameters of a group show at a commercial gallery--in which most of the works would be recent, salable, limited by shipping and production budgets, clearly coherent and coexisting with one another comfortably, or with just the right kind of targeted discomfort. This combination of works, on the other hand, is messy, engaging, impractical, and breaks the arc of many years and often many different styles within one artist’s oeuvre.

In representing artists, I find that I walk around with years of their work in my head at any given moment.  I think about David Lloyd’s “Tornado” series from 2012, or Katie Herzog’s “Captain’s Log” embroidery painting from the same year, or Rebecca Farr’s ‘Puritan” series from 2009 or Jamison Carter’s stamp drawings from 2007 (none of which are in this show--see how mean I am? Now you have to go look all of them up!) way more often than any of them would ever know.  Favorite pieces jump out at me in moments when my mind has found them just waiting to engage with a particular situation or conversation.  And this time, in this strange space, I get to share that with a little more directly with all of you than I have before.

Mostly, this show is a chance to start a conversation with my artists and with all of you, and keep us connected in ways that are outside the cycle of the news and our own insular spaces.

This is a really, really weird time.  A simple protein-based virus has successfully turned us into molecular copy machines in its bid to take over the world, and we are losing so many wonderful people as a result. Those of us lucky enough to find ourselves safe at home are losing people we love, losing savings, losing jobs, becoming armchair online philosophers and activists (if we weren’t already), working and teaching and schooling from home, and many people in my personal social circle find themselves deeply relating to a pseudo-documentary about big cat breeding and polygamy. So. Please be kind to yourselves and each other.

And please do support artists and the arts right now in the ways that you can. If you aren’t in a position to buy work, it really does make a difference to share works by artists you love on your social media and say why, spread the word to friends, write about the last show you saw in person and why it spoke to you. And of course if you are in a position to buy work, that would be wonderful and will have real impact. Right now, a significant portion of artists and those who work in the arts in all capacities have lost their jobs--professors without tenure (and those with it fear their programs may lose funding), museum staff all over the country, gallery staff, non-profits of all sizes, working artists in all capacities. Those of us who chose this life have always known it comes with risks, and right now those risks are manifest.  If you can send donations to some of your favorite art spaces and programs, I promise you it will be meaningful to them. All of us hope to work in a way that will add magic and meaning to your world, and your support truly means everything to us.

As for this show, our artists will be receiving their full commission for any works purchased from the exhibition, and the gallery will be donating half of our commission to ArtistsRelief.org, an incredible collaborative effort from arts organizations across the country that will be awarding one hundred $5000 grants a week to artists impacted by Covid-19 until September.  We are proud to be able to support them, and grateful to be part of such a powerful, creative, problem-solving and resilient community.

Huge thank you to our artists: Jamison Carter, Andrea Chung, Megan Cotts, The Estate of Sarah Cromarty (thank you always to Tommy Mabson and Sarah’s parents), Sienna DeGovia, Rebecca Farr, Christine Frerichs, Katie Herzog, Bettina Hubby, Jonesy, L.E. Kim, David Lloyd, Morgan Mandalay, Nancy Popp, Rebecca Ripple, Rodrigo Valenzuela, and Alexandra Wiesenfeld.  Thank you to our Director Tyler Park, Manager Nancy Garcia, and Preparator Shawn Batson, who make all things happen.

With love,
Deb

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