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8/5/2003

Lawrence Gipe

Joseph Helman, New York

Confluence

Joseph Helman is pleased to present Confluence, an exhibition of new drawings by Lawrence Gipe, and his ninth solo exhibition with the gallery.

In these recent series of drawings, Lawrence Gipe continues to explore issues of ideology, technology and aesthetics through the deconstruction of propaganda imagery, using a new process that he calls "postDrawing". Forgoing the blank ground that is the starting point of conventional drawing, Gipe begins with an image-laden surface that is prepared using various digital media. The collaged images are digitally manipulated, enlarged and printed on banner vinyl; Gipe then reworks the images with oil pastel and paint, producing a hybridized work that exploits the flexibility of the computer without sacrificing the touch of the artist.

The first series of drawings, titled Confluence, consists of a suite of seven works. Within each drawing Gipe merges two contrasting images originating from a single source, the photographer Dr. Paul Wolff, sometimes referred to as "Hitler's second favorite photographer". Selecting images from Dr. Wolff's banal, genre-based series "Bathing Beauties", which feature young blond women in repose, and the equally cliched pictures of "Men at Work", Gipe superimposes the contrasting images in order to subvert their encoded banality. For example, in Confluence 2 (Die Jung Frau), a close-up shot of a golden blond in a swimming cap and revealing suit is layered over the image of a majestic mountainscape, upon which tiny figures appear to be trekking. As the woman tilts her head back in a sort of reverie, her fingers languidly trace a path on her neck that coincides with the arduous path of the distant hikers, as though their struggle is transmuted into her longing. Through this process of superimposing contradictory imagery, Gipe undermines the totalitarian structure that inspired the original images, and in doing so he creates a more provocative confluence of ideas.

The second series, Algorithm, consists of two large-scale banners that are derived by merging many propaganda photographs from various countries during the late 1930s. Sources include Soviet Stalin-era Five-Year Plan books, and American, French and British photo annuals. Gipe's intentionally ambiguous amalgam of images posits a "pan-propagandistic" aesthetic that is disconcerting. In Algorithm 2 (One Hundred Children and a Goose), the incessant repetition of smiling faces of children in a non-hierarchical, flowing stream make no specific reference to any propagandistic agenda, but does incite a very disturbingly eerie and false notion of joy.

Lawrence Gipe's work is collected by individuals and institutions all over the world including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Museum. A traveling mid-career survey, "3 Five-Year Plans: Lawrence Gipe 1990-2005", is currently being organized by Marilyn Zeitlin at the University Art Museum, Tempe, Arizona, with venues including the Contemporary Arts Forum in Santa Barbara, CA. He recently completed a mural commission for the lobby of the Federal Reserve Bank Headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia in a building designed by Robert A.A. Stern. Currently, he teaches art studio (painting and drawing) and the History of 20th Century Art at UCSB.

Articles and reviews of Gipe's works have appeared in Kunstforum, The New York Times Magazine, Art and Antiques, L.A. Weekly, Architectural Digest, Elle, The Los Angeles Times, Talk, ArtForum, ArtNews, Art in America, Flash Art, Santa Barbara News Press, Vanity Fair, Village Voice, Bomb and many others. A back catalogue of his works can be viewed on gipepictures.com.

Opening Reception: Friday 9 May, 6-8 pm

Image: Confluence 2 (Die Jung Frau), 2003
mixed media on banner vinyl
59 x 40 1/2 inches

For further information or images, please contact Peter Ryan at (212) 929-1545

Joseph Helman Gallery
601 West 26 Street
New York

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