FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: dreams@dreamlandshow.info
I am accustomed to sleep and in my dreams to imagine the same things that lunatics imagine when awake. – René Descartes
Reality is wrong. Dreams are for real. – Tupac Shakur
LOS ANGELES, March 20, 2008 – Exploring escapism in this time of war, political uncertainty and economic downslide, a new exhibition entitled DREAM(land) will open at Jail Gallery in Los Angeles’ Chinatown. In this new exhibition comprised of sculpture, painting, drawing, installation and video works, the show opens May 10 and runs through June 14, 2008. There will be an opening reception from 6-10pm on May 10.
Artist and exhibition curator Annie Wharton points to the resurgence of fantasy in literature, television and film as an indication that now, more than any time in recent memory, Americans are looking to outside the known world for solace. This exhibition includes artists from Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Reykjavík, San Diego, Seoul, Gotenburg, Tallahassee, and South Wales to provide their own metaphors for outer realms of consciousness, the bridge between lovely and scary, the other-worldly, the space-age, and the illusion. Elisa Turner, an art critic based in Miami who recently wrote the forward for “Miami Contemporary Artists” (Schiffer, 2007), wrote the exhibition essay for the show.
“In 2008, contemporary society seems to look outside to find the center. It appears we all desire our own personal Shangri-la,” Wharton says. “DREAM(land) finds succor in both its pretty and its ugly. In a war-riddled world, we seek the twinkle. The fantasies that carry us far, far away.”
Simultaneously sumptuous and grotesque surfaces are educed in Neal Rock’s installations. Gregory Kucera’s elliptical cyclones and clouds (generated from actual U.S Naval satellite data) turn the concept of gas into solid using the industrial material Corian. Joshua Levine creates meticulously crafted mutant animal sculptures that are simultaneously beautiful and disturbing. Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir will screen a video comprised of hundreds of vignettes created from animated drawings and photography. In Jiae Hwang and Nicholas C. Raftig III's collaborative video, the artists amalgamate a surreal landscape, brain algorithms, and Hwang's mediated image as a portal to other dimensions. Jim Roche will present a vintage video where Florida redneck culture engages a discourse with our current germ phobia. Dream-state imagery is evoked by Carlton DeWoody’s mixed media works depicting stadium crowds, Matilda Forsberg’s “ghost” paintings, and Jiae Hwang’s luminous drawings. Felice Grodin’s architecturally-based drawing refers to explosions and deconstruction. Leigh Salgado’s painstaking mixed media on paper cut-outs refer to sex and reveal the shadow. Elizabeth Perikli’s photographs of nature appear to be extra-terrestrial. The TM Sisters employ a deejay-like “sampling” of punk rock shows, interactive media, and photography in their collage technique to both their video and works on paper.
“Watching this show come together has been a truly amazing experience,” says Jail gallerist/owner Lisa Nardoni. “DREAM(land) hits the viewer on so many different levels — emotional, intellectual and visual. I am looking forward to seeing how audiences react to these unexpected and timely works.”
“These great young artists are on the rise,” said prominent Miami art collector and hotelier Cricket Taplin. “The works position themselves in a special place somewhere between dreams and insight.”
ARTIST LIST
Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir (Iceland) – Video
Carlton DeWoody (New York) – Mixed Media
Matilda Forsberg (Sweden) – Painting
Felice Grodin (Florida) – Drawing
Jiae Hwang (South Korea) – Drawing
Jiae Hwang/Nicholas C. Raftig III, (South Korea/Florida) – Video
Gregory Kucera (New Mexico) – Photography
Joshua Levine (California) – Sculpture
Elizabeth Perikli (California) – Photography
Jim Roche (Florida) – Video
Neal Rock (Wales) – Installation
Leigh Salgado (California) – Mixed Media on Paper
TM Sisters (Florida) – Collage and Video
ABOUT ANNIE WHARTON
Though she’s helped to organize many exhibitions, this is the first solo curatorial endeavor for Wharton, a painter from Florida who recently moved to Los Angeles. She’s shown internationally in galleries, museums, alternative spaces and art fairs, and her works are included in important public and private collections. Approaching her research for this project with Tinkerbellian candor, she found a simultaneous thread of progressive idealism, penchant for beauty, and clever irony in these artists’ works. Wharton believes, as Anaïs Nin once mused, “Dreams are necessary to life.”
For more information about Annie Wharton, go to:
www.anniewharton.com
ABOUT JAIL GALLERY
Jail Gallery, located across from the Los Angeles County Jail in Chinatown, was opened in February, 2007 by Lisa Nardoni. Jail is open Wednesday-Saturday, 12-6pm.
For more information on the gallery and its exhibitions, go to:
www.thejailgallery.com
