Exegesis Eisegesis Encaustic (Rebel Hands Press)

Exegesis Eisegesis Encaustic is a collaborative series of encaustic diptychs depicting signs in and around Los Angeles. The painter Katie Herzog teamed up with the poet Andrew Choate to paint representations of the original signs, and refracted versions of the signs with all-new text written by Choate.

This book collects all twenty-two of the diptychs as well as installation views of the original exhibition alongside several essays that approach the collaboration from different angles: Kenneth Lapatin (J. Paul Getty Museum) discusses the work in the context of the history of encaustic; Carol Cheh (Another Righteous Transfer!) speaks towards Los Angeles signage and public symbolism in relation to pop culture; Blanca Pujals (BxNU Institute) provides a bi-lingual consideration of the works spatial intersection with the structural world; Mace Ojala (Information Science Triwizard) examines functional illiteracy as cultural critique.

Exegesis Eisegesis Encaustic texturally mirrors and refracts Herzog and Choate’s arrangements, collapsing the distinction between art show and artist catalogue; the book becomes an extended component of the series, which first exhibited at Klowden Mann in Culver City from June to July of 2016.

This event will include readings and presentations by the artists, as well as contributors Carol Cheh and Deb Klowden Mann.

*Katie Herzog’s Yankee Candle series will be on exhibition at Klowden Mann in Culver City Jan. 18 – Feb 22

Andrew Choate‘s books include Learning, Langquage Makes Plastic of the Body, Stingray Clapping,and Too Many Times I See Every Thing Just the Way It Is. As a passionate admirer of bollards – the concrete and steel posts that protect buildings, equipment, and people from vehicles – Choate adopts the persona of Saint Bollard, performing with and photographing these ubiquitous objects (IG @saintbollard), leading Slate to call him “the world’s foremost bollard photographer.” He curates a concert series dedicated to the international world of improvised and otherwise music under the name The Unwrinkled Ear.

Katie Herzog lives in Parkfield, California, where she works for Monterey County Free Libraries. Her work has recently been shown internationally at the Przy Rektoracie Gallery in Wrocław, Poland (2019), the Takesada Matsutani Book Lab at Hauser and Wirth in Somerset, England (2018), and at the Soulangh Cultural Park in Tainan, Taiwan (2018). She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2001 and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of California, San Diego in 2005. She has participated in artist residencies including The Skowhegan School for Painting and Sculpture, The Banff Centre, Bblackboxx, Ox-Bow, and Program Initiative for Art and Architecture Collaborations in Berlin.  Her work has been written about in Artforum, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Wall Street International, Art and Cake, The Huffington Post, The Advocate, Notes on Looking, and Transgender Studies Quarterly, among others. Her work is represented by Klowden Mann Gallery in Culver City, California, and institutional collections include the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the University of Connecticut Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.

Deb Klowden Mann is the owner of Klowden Mann gallery in Los Angeles.  The gallery opened in 2010, exhibiting conceptually-driven, formally innovative work across mediums, with a strong focus on and commitment to Los Angeles artists. Many gallery artists engage in practices that challenge the conventional medium-based approach to categorization, working across formal languages: highlighting collaboration, social engagement, and a commitment to artistic community and dialogue.  Before opening the gallery, Klowden Mann was the co-founder and co-editor of No: a journal of the arts in New York, along with celebrated writer Ben Lerner.  She is currently on the board of Michelle Dorrance’s New York-based dance company Dorrance Dance, and is an occasional co-host on The Conversation podcast with Michael Shaw.  She lives in LA with her husband and two children, and is working on a book on endometriosis, chronic illness and feminism in the digital age of pre-apocalyptic enlightenment.

Carol Cheh is a writer and curator based in Los Angeles. She is the founder of Another Righteous Transfer!, a blog that explores LA’s performance art scene, and Word is a Virus, an Art21 column exploring the intersection between the visual and literary arts. Her writing has also appeared in LA Weekly, KCET Artbound, ArtInfo, Art Ltd, Artillery, Palm Springs Life, and East of Borneo, among other outlets. Her curatorial projects have included #OccupyArt21 (2012), a two-week guest stint on the Art21 blog in which 10 artists contributed written works addressing the Occupy LA movement; You Don’t Bring Me Flowers: An Evening of Re-Performances (PØST, 2010); and Signals: A Video Showcase (Orange County Museum of Art, 2008).