Installation view
Objects to Identify, 2018
Photograph courtesy of Morán Morán

Objects to Identify

Objects to Identify marks the gallery’s ten-year anniversary. With a text authored by Brontez Purnell, the exhibition features work by Diana Al-Hadid, Brian Belott, Charlie Billingham, Keltie Ferris, Eve Fowler, Michael Genovese, Luis Gispert, Bendix Harms, George Herms, Terence Koh, Eric N. Mack, Robert Mapplethorpe, Anders Ruhwald, Jacolby Satterwhite, David Benjamin Sherry, Agathe Snow, Willie Stewart, Torey Thornton, Kon Trubkovich, and Nick van Woert.

OBJECTS TO IDENTIFY
by Brontez Purnell

We would stand around galleries at night, blank as white walls. Art is great and all but we mostly came for the free white wine, the hummus platter (“broke as fuck – spent all my money on (whatever) last night”) and the shit talking. Dear God, the sweet holy SHIT TALKING…

“That bitch got HOW MUCH?!?!?!?!?” alongside, “I DO LOVE THEIR ART THO” yet still, “THAT POSEUR FUCKED HIS WAY INTO W H A T GALLERY?!?!?!?”

We could say more about it I guess… like “well, what does the work DO?!??!?!?”

We move it to up, or get down on the floor to meet it – intercept it. Feel the work up to our face… Does it feel cold? Or is it incredibly on fire?

“There’s a word for what this is!!!!” It’s at the tip of her tongue.

Truth?

Beauty?

Droste Effect? – (there is lots of things that are true about this thing you’re seeing).

But even before you can pretend to name it, you remember why you are naming it because you did not just make a deeply irresponsible financial decision by going to art school – you made a lifestyle choice. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK… ew?

But fuck at that hater-ation. No. This was a good choice. This was the ONLY choice.

You came into this here right?

You said “I’M GOING TO START A DIY ART SPACE. SEE ME? I’M PUSHING THIS WORK WITH TWO HANDS. GIVE ME YOUR HAND. HELP ME HELP YOU.”

The hand was handed to you.

This is all started in Miami.

Miami – that place that’s like a city and a whole other country on its own.

Miami – that place where you got Sea Lice once.

Miami – where they drink Rum and Pineapple Juice cocktails at clubs.

Miami – Vice?

Miami – where the air is so thick there around your body it feels like you are walking through a fucking swimming pool…this sweaty place from where you start.

You did some left coast leaning. You balled out HARD. You wanted to taste the water on the other side of the Kingdom.

And no, I am admittedly not a fan of Jim Morrison, but I too say “Los Angeles.”

Los Angeles – I thought there were supposed to be angels here?

Los Angeles – oh wait, there they are hiding in a corner…

Los Angeles – or balconies.

Los Angeles – the city where we pretend this isn’t a desert. LOL.

This work keeps moving though. I think the verbiage is “locomotive?”

It’s a thing. Once you peddle enough wares you will want more.

In the words of the late great Ms. Warhola if “art is what you can get away with” – then that is a concept – there are harder facts here.

What’s the price of a nail? A hammer? A piece of wood? An air conditioner? A place to hold it all in? If you can just answer that. YES. YES. That’s the WORQ!!!

“Oh, shit you guys! Here’s an idea! Let’s paint the space ALL WHITE!!!!!!!”

Brontez Purnell, originally from Triana, Alabama, has been publishing, performing, and curating in the San Francisco Bay Area for more than ten years. He is the author of the cult zine Fag School, frontman for the band the Younger Lovers, and the founder and choreographer of the Brontez Purnell Dance Company. He has written for various publications, including the online edition of Jigsaw, San Francisco Weekly, and Maximum Rock & Roll. Purnell is 2018 Whiting Award recipient in Fiction for his novel Since I Laid My Burden Down.

Dates

November 10 - December 22, 2018

Opening Reception

Saturday, November 10, 6-8pm

Location

937 N. La Cienega Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90069

Artists

Diana Al-Hadid
Brian Belott
Charlie Billingham
Keltie Ferris
Eve Fowler
Michael Genovese
Luis Gispert
Bendix Harms
George Herms
Terence Koh
Eric N. Mack
Robert Mapplethorpe
Anders Ruhwald
Jacolby Satterwhite
David Benjamin Sherry
Agathe Snow
Willie Stewart
Torey Thornton
Kon Trubkovich
Nick van Woert

Installation Views

All images: Objects to Identify, 2018. Photography courtesy of Morán Morán

Installation view
Objects to Identify, 2018
Photograph courtesy of Morán Morán

Artworks

Diana Al-Hadid
Untitled, 2018
Conté, charcoal, pastel, and acrylic on mylar
43 x 33.25 inches
(109 x 84.5 cm)
Photograph courtesy of Morán Morán

Brian Belott
Untitled (blue puff), 2018
Cotton batting, colorfast paper, acrylic paint, matte medium, rope, and rubber
27.5 x 22.5 x 5 inches
(70 x 57 x 12.5 cm)
Photograph courtesy of Morán Morán

Charlie Billingham
Ten Fingers, 2018
Oil on linen
70.75 x 59 inches
(180 x 150 cm)
Photograph courtesy of Morán Morán

Keltie Ferris
Showman, 2017
Oil and powdered pigment on paper
40 x 26 inches
(101.5 x 66 cm)
Photograph courtesy of Morán Morán

Keltie Ferris
Chorus, 2017
Oil and powdered pigment on paper
40 x 26 inches
(101.5 x 66 cm)
Photograph courtesy of Morán Morán

Eve Fowler
War and peace, 2018
Oil and powdered pigment on canvas
69 x 48 inches
(175 x 122 cm)
Photograph courtesy of Morán Morán

Michael Genovese
Doxa (to appear, to seem, to think, to accept), 2018
Mirror-polished black nickel-plated steel
103 x 108 x .25 inches
(261.5 x 274.5 x 1 cm)
Photograph courtesy of Morán Morán

Luis Gispert
Digital Drought, 2018
High-polished cast bronze and teak
37.5 x 38 x 15.5 inches
(95.5 x 96.5 x 39.5 cm)
Photograph courtesy of Morán Morán

Bendix Harms
Hope is my Milk, 2017
Oil on canvas
70.75 x 47.25 inches
(180 x 120 cm)
Photograph courtesy of Morán Morán

George Herms
A Door, c. 1990
Assemblage
43.5 x 33 x 4.5 inches
(110.5 x 84 x 11.5 cm)
Photograph courtesy of Morán Morán

Terence Koh
Untitled, 2018
Colored pencil and burn hole on archival drawing paper
Diptych: 17 x 14 inches each, (unframed)
Diptych: (43 x 35.5 cm each, unframed)
Photograph courtesy of Morán Morán

Terence Koh
Untitled, 2018
Ink on archival drawing paper
17 x 14 inches, (unframed)
(43 x 35.5 cm, unframed)
Photograph courtesy of Morán Morán

Eric N. Mack
Thyme, 2018
Silk and cotton
85 x 141 x 54 inches
(216 x 358 x 137 cm)
Photograph courtesy of Morán Morán

Robert Mapplethorpe
Lisa Lyon, 1981
Gelatin silver print
Paper: 20 x 16 inches
(Paper: 51 x 40.5 cm)
Photograph courtesy of Morán Morán. © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Used by permission.

Anders Ruhwald
Old Man (Gazer), 2018
Glazed ceramic with yellow zinc plated steel
64.5 x 36 x 18.5 inches
(164 x 91.5 x 47 cm)
Photograph courtesy of Morán Morán

Anders Ruhwald
Old Man (Primitive), 2018
Glazed ceramic with yellow zinc plated steel
68 x 16 x 21 inches
(173 x 40.5 x 53.5 cm)
Photograph courtesy of Morán Morán

Jacolby Satterwhite
Satellites (breed), 2014
C-print in artist’s frame
85 x 58 x 3 inches
(216 x 147.5 x 7.5 cm)
Photograph courtesy of Morán Morán

David Benjamin Sherry
Extensions and Dimensions, Point Lobos, California (for Edward Weston), 2014
Traditional color darkroom photograph
90 x 70 inches
(228.5 x 178 cm)
Photograph courtesy of Morán Morán

Agathe Snow
Jean, 2010
Orange chain, shaped balloons, painted parachute fabric and foam mattress, metal hardware and hooks, ropes, sliced tree trunks, varnish, and beads
92 x 24 x 26 inches
(233.5 x 61 x 66 cm)
Photograph courtesy of Morán Morán

Willie Stewart
Nothing Left To Lose (If Everything Is Perfect), 2018
Color pencil on illustration board, pigmented inkjet print on polystyrene board,
and acrylic on canvas over panel
59 x 40 x 2 inches
(150 x 101.5 x 5 cm)
Photograph courtesy of Morán Morán

Torey Thornton
The Rest (Cabbie), 2016
Wood, plexiglass, aluminum, wire basket, galvanized steel mending plates, ceramic wooden and metal mugs and vessels
100.75 x 33.75 x 24.25 inches
(256 x 86 x 61.5 cm)
Photograph courtesy of Morán Morán

Kon Trubkovich
The Immobile, 2018
Oil and acrylic dispersion on canvas
72 x 60 x 2 inches
(183 x 152.5 x 5 cm)
Photograph courtesy of Morán Morán

Nick van Woert
If I made a list of everything I touched in a day it would be a poem that could have never happened at any other time in history, 2018
Stainless steal exhaust, cat litter, spark plug, geodes, Celluclay, Foosballs, magnet, steel, Juul pod, pin, plastic skull, titanium anodized crystals, tubing, electro-formed copper, platinum silicone thumb, coal slag, plastic cup, nickel plated electro-formed copper, base coat, joint compound, tweezers, and propoxy
36 x 22 x 22 inches
(91.5 x 56 x 56 cm)
Photograph courtesy of Morán Morán