L.A. LOUVER
CELEBRATES 45 YEARS
WITH 45 ARTISTS
20 OCTOBER 2020—30 JANUARY 2021
45 in Focus:
Palimpsest
A term most readily associated with the study of manuscripts, “palimpsest” refers to text that has been obscured or effaced to make room for new text -- a common practice in times when paper or parchment were scarce and costly. Palimpsests are layered documents that contain multiple histories. In this viewing room, our last in a series of 45 In Focus presentations, we expand the concept to include works whose layers are integral in both concept and execution. Gajin Fujita, Patrick Martinez, and Elliott Hundley most deliberately obscure, defile, and rework their own surfaces, while Christopher Pate, Rebecca Campbell, and Gabriella Sanchez offer a more conceptual sense of layering. Jiha Moon looks to inherited culture for inspiration, but speaks profoundly to her current time and place.
Elliott Hundley
Changeling, 2020
oil, encaustic, photographs and collage on linen
80 x 96 x 2 1/4 in.
(203.2 x 243.8 x 5.7 cm)
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The complex surfaces of Elliott Hundley’s works appear to be pure expressionistic abstraction from afar, but at close range reveal themselves to be riotous amalgamations of paint and collaged materials. Simultaneously withholding and revealing, close looking can suggest narratives that never fully resolve, with text, painted forms, original photography, and collaged imagery all coming into play. This push-pull of meaning draws the viewer into the composition by offering a panoply of visual information within a vivid palimpsest. Changeling is just that -- a slippery notion, or perhaps the figure suggested in the mid-left foreground, that is constantly out of one’s grasp, but brilliantly, vibrantly so.
Elliott Hundley
Changeling, 2020 (detail)
oil, encaustic, photographs
and collage on linen
80 x 96 x 2 1/4 in.
(203.2 x 243.8 x 5.7 cm)
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Rebecca Campbell
Which Side Are You On?, 2019
oil on canvas
67 x 100 1/2 in.
(170.2 x 257.8 cm)
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Rebecca Campbell’s conceptual palimpsest layers time rather than space, condensing centuries of family history into a single surface. Which Side Are You On? interweaves three distinct veils of the Campbell story. The central figure, who takes aim at a target outside the frame in a scene drawn from a 1940s snapshot, is the artist’s aunt, a family black sheep who was ostracized for marrying outside of the family’s faith. This aunt disappeared from the family story, and her reintroduction during the artist’s 1980s youth was a pivotal moment in Campbell’s own self-realization; the winking sunset on the painted horizon sets on this moment in time. Traditional Campbell plaids painted in richly textured pigment, a nod to ancient Scottish roots, intermingle with glowing clouds. Campbell embarked on this body of work after the 2016 election, and with it teases out the slippery nature of history -- full of “alternative facts” and obscured stories -- and endeavors to close the gap between who we think we are and who we are.
Installation view
45 at 45: L.A. Louver Celebrates 45 Years with 45 Artists
(left to right: Rebecca Campbell, Daniel Crews-Chubb, Eduardo Sarabia and Jason Martin)
Rebecca Campbell
Which Side Are You On?, 2019
oil on canvas
67 x 100 1/2 in.
(170.2 x 257.8 cm)
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Christopher Pate’s Crackup series features portraits of artists taken by Pate, which he systematically dismantles into geometric parts and pieces into complex arrangements that merge the subject’s visage with images of their own artwork. Pate’s practice investigates our metaphysical relationship with the world through abstraction, and the Crackups in particular reveal the intimacy between an artist and their art. The format allows for both severity and whimsy, and each work keeps the eye in constant motion across the composition. They also hint at Pate’s robust curatorial practice, offering insight into one network of interconnected artists.
Installation view
45 at 45: L.A. Louver Celebrates 45 Years with 45 Artists
(left to right: Christopher Pate, Wallace Berman and Jimmie Durham)
Gabriella Sanchez’s work is rooted in a combination of deeply felt freeform reactions to the world and strong ties to the city of Los Angeles. Her background in graphic design informs an aesthetic that celebrates the Latinx community, with distinctive gothic lettering and allusions to history. Good and Bad Omens features imagery from social movements that form part of the fabric of LA’s story and yet have been often left out of the larger collective history, including the Zoot Suit Riots and the Chicano Moratorium. Sanchez also tells the stories of these movements in text around the edges of the canvas, intermixed with fragments of recollections from her mother and grandmother that bring the history into a more personal focus. These histories feel newly relevant in 2020, and the “flipped” orientation of this canvas reflects the opposing forces in the country and around the world at this moment.
Gabriella Sanchez
Good and Bad Omens (This Side Up), 2020
acrylic, oil stick, oil pastel, archival pigment prints on canvas
60 1/4 x 48 in.
(153 x 121.9 cm)
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“The foundational concept of this piece can be seen as a multi layered retelling of history from varying perspectives in aid of a more complete history” - Gabriella Sanchez
Installation view
45 at 45: L.A. Louver Celebrates 45 Years with 45 Artists
(left to right: Leon Kossoff, Flora Yukhnovich, Sui Jianguo and Gabriella Sanchez)
Jiha Moon
Yellowwave (rose), 2020
ink, acrylic, nail decals on Hanji
41 1/2 x 36 in.
(105.4 x 91.4 cm)
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Jiha Moon works with the traditional Korean materials of ceramic and handmade paper but infuses both with pop art references and contemporary detail that recall both Eastern and Western visual histories. Her playful sensibility comes through in Yellowwave (rose) through splashes Lichtenstein-yellow augmented by nail decals, mythical animals, and tattoo-inspired details. This riotous explosion of form and color comes together as a layered surface that reflects the complex nature of identity in a globalized world.
Gajin Fujita
Home Field LA, 2020
24k gold leaf, 12k white gold leaf, spraypaint, acrylics, paint markers, Sakura streaks on three wood panels
72 x 60 in.
(182.9 x 152.4 cm)
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Palimpsest is the central idea in Gajin Fujita’s practice. He creates his own gold-leafed walls, where graffiti tags intermingle with images of warriors, demons, myths and lovers. The powerful, personal Home Field LA mines autobiography for rich detail and confidently signals an artist at the top of his game. The central figure is the artist himself, a self-portrait as heroic figure, his gold-leafed silhouette standing proudly over his city with hood up and spray can in hand. The figure seems simultaneously full of potential energy and calmly contemplative; as if pausing to consider his next target yet always poised for action. The composition is bursting with detail, beginning with a dense layer of tags from the KIIS and KGB crewmembers, all the way down to a hidden slice of cheese that has caught the eye of a rat stickered to the stop sign, celebrating 2020 as the year of the rat.
Patrick Martinez
Desecrated Jaguar Figure (Resilient Kat), 2020
stucco, ceramic, ceramic tile, acrylic paint, reflective adhesive letter, mean streak, spray paint and latex house paint on panel
60 x 72 in.
(152.4 x 182.9 cm)
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Where Fujita takes a panoramic view of the city, Patrick Matinez embraces the streel-level visual landscape of Los Angeles in his complex, layered works. Desecrated Jaguar Figure (Resilient Kat) belongs to a series that fully embraces the idea of the palimpsest: its surface is built up in stucco, ceramic, tile, paint, and spray paint and has been physically excavated using a power washer almost like a rampaging paintbrush. Its central figure in a jaguar headdress references Mayan mythology, which revered the night-stalking big cats as powerful protectors and gods. The jaguar’s penchant for darkness led to associations with the underworld, an idea punctuated by Martinez here with ceramic roses that echo street memorials for those who have passed and celebrate the resiliency of those still with us.
Installation view
45 at 45: L.A. Louver Celebrates 45 Years with 45 Artists
(left to right: John Zane Zappas and Patrick Martinez)
45 at 45
L.A. Louver Celebrates 45 Years with 45 Artists
20 October 2020 – 30 January 2021
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