Wednesday, October 20, 2010

'Doug Harvey: Unsustainable' opening Friday Oct 22, 6 – 9


Doug Harvey Unsustainable

Jancar Gallery

961 Chung King Rd (in Chinatown)
Los Angeles, CA 90012
213.625.2522

Oct 22 – Nov 13
Wednesdays – Saturdays (12 noon–5 PM)

Expanding on the body of Rotted and Pre-rotted works exhibited as part of the Untidy Retrospective (LA Valley College 2008) - which consisted of paintings that had been left to molder and rot outdoors for more than a decade, then sometimes altered, and further decayed – the works in Unsustainable follow the arc of this chance-based collaboration with the forces of entropy further into the realms of the indefensible by incorporating or building on the deliberately and/or accidentally weathered artworks of others.

These Unauthorized Collaborations include Eusanathia 1, a post-apocalyptic icon painting of St Eustace’s visionary encounter; St Vincent on Arrakis, which reimagines the 17th century French patron of leprosy and thrift stores in an alien landscape of aquarium gravel; and the epic As-is Is As As-Is Does, which also utilizes aquarium gravel, and may be misread as an allegory on the role of popular culture in the fall of the Soviet Union.

Other works in the show include The Eye of Horus, a minimalist geometric composition painted on an obsolete found home video projection screen with dirt from the grave of Bobby Fischer; Clear the Grid II, a collaborative painting with 18 other artists which depicts the teenage chess champion in action; and The Dignity of Labor, an interspecies collaborative interrogation of insect architecture.

Unsustainable opens simultaneously with solo shows at Jancar Gallery by Nancy Baker and Cyril Kuhn.

The opening reception is Friday, Oct 22nd from 6 – 9 and features a live solo electrified pepperocini jar performance by Daniel Hawkins and the turntable stylings of DJ Scotty Lazr.


Image: Dream House (completed 2010). Acrylic, latex, enamel, spray foam, collage, aquarium gravel, and appropriated foam-core architectural model. (Unauthorized collaboration with unknown architect)

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