Your Face In The Mirror Isn’t Your Face, Similar To Plastic SilverwareCurated by Torey Thornton
Your Face In The Mirror Isn’t Your Face, Similar To Plastic Silverware is a group exhibition curated by Torey Thornton including 12 artists: Steven Baldi, Anna Betbeze, Keltie Ferris, Louise Fishman, Rosy Keyser, Cady Noland, Annie Pearlman, Trevor Shimizu, Odessa Straub, Marisa Takal, Rose Wylie, and Kelly Zutrau.
There are many variations on personal definitions of the term abstraction. The contradiction within these definitions, and the broad spectrum in which works may sit, is interesting. The line between something that is recognizable and that which is less so or not at all can be thin or pushed; furthermore, it could be argued that all things are representational, and simultaneously, all things are abstract.
It’s also interesting to see artists who are generally associated with producing mostly representational artworks, or art with recognizable objects or figures within them, drift into constructing abstract work via cropping or other methods that pare down the picture plane in a particular way. This also brings up this idea of language and how subjective it can be. Artists are often placed in categories or pinned to words that they may not readily relate to. These situations can be used to the artist’s advantage or pushed against in order to produce new work or ways of working, but in the end, it’s others who place artwork on a spectrum of terminology or within historical contexts.
I find various social structures fascinating – how they work and/or how they are in many ways destroyed. Subsequently, an interest arrives to introduce collaborations, which also introduces instances to curate works. The overlap of concepts, materials, colors, and scale in artworks is endless, so by focusing on abstraction alone, this exhibition allows the works to converse in closer proximity, further pushing the definition of abstraction.
To flatten the definition is beneficial to healthy production, and without the language given to us, we would possibly enter artworks differently. This show is clearly related to the word abstraction, therefore, it is also most clearly related to that of its opposite. – Torey Thornton, 2016
Steven Baldi (b.1983, Huntington Beach, CA) Lives and works in Los Angeles, Courtesy of Keonig & Clinton; Anna Betbeze (b.1980, Mobile, AL) Lives and works in New York, Courtesy of Nina Johnson; Keltie Ferris (b.1977, Louisville, KY) Lives and works in New York, Courtesy of Mitchell-Innes & Nash; Louise Fishman (b.1939, Philadelphia, PA) Lives and works in New York, Courtesy of Cheim & Read; Rosy Keyser (b.1974, Baltimore, MD) Lives and works in New York, Courtesy of Maccarone; Cady Noland (b.1956, Washington, DC) Lives and works in New York, Courtesy of Private Collection; Annie Pearlman (b.1982, Johnson, VT) Lives and works in New York, Courtesy of the artist; Trevor Shimizu (b.1978, Hawaii) Lives and works in New York, Courtesy of 47 Canal; Odessa Straub (b.1989, Brooklyn, NY) Lives and works in New York, Courtesy of the artist; Marisa Takal (b.1991, Montclair, NJ) Lives and works in Los Angeles, Courtesy of the artist; Rose Wylie (b.1934, Kent, UK) Lives and works in Kent, Courtesy of Union Gallery; Kelly Zutrau (b.1988, Jamaica Plain, MA) Lives and works in New York, Courtesy of the artist.
Dates
November 19 - December 23, 2016Opening Reception
Saturday, November 19, 6-8pmLocation
937 N. La Cienega Blvd.Los Angeles, CA 90069
Artists
Steven Baldi
Anna Betbeze
Keltie Ferris
Louise Fishman
Rosy Keyser
Cady Noland
Annie Pearlman
Trevor Shimizu
Odessa Straub
Marisa Takal
Rose Wylie
Kelly Zutrau
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Installation Views
All images: Your Face In The Mirror Isn’t Your Face, Similar To Plastic Silverware, 2016. Photography courtesy of Morán Morán