Two Exhibitions
dal 10/1/2014 al 7/2/2014
Segnalato da
10/1/2014
Two Exhibitions
Jonathan LeVine Gallery, New York
Love Lock: Cycle of Violence. New works by Jesse Hazelip in what will be his first solo exhibition in New York. Based on Actual Events. A group exhibition of intricately detailed works offers an exploration into various forms of contemporary realism.
Jesse Hazelip
Love Lock: Cycle of Violence - Solo Exhibition
January 11—February 8, 2014
Jonathan LeVine Gallery is pleased to present Love Lock: Cycle of Violence, new works by Jesse Hazelip in what will be his first solo exhibition in New York. In conjunction with the event, the artist will release a 2-color screen print, available for purchase during the opening reception.
Hazelip will build a site-specific installation out of plexiglass, replicating a jail cell using the measurements of a solitary confinement unit (six by nine feet), which he will occupy during the reception alongside musician and visual artist Bianca Casady (of CocoRosie).
In preparation for this performance component, Hazelip shaved his head and eyebrows for three new tattoos that correspond with the project. On the back of his head is a symbolic Ouroboros (snake eating its own tail), the subject of one of his drawings, referring to the cycle of violence within the Prison industrial complex. Across his eyebrows is the show title Love Lock, which was inspired by the name of a prison in Nevada. Finally, on the backs of his forearms, stylized text reads Nique la police (Fuck the police in French), readable when assuming the handcuff position (with arms behind the back).
Works in the exhibition include bull skulls carved in a scrimshaw technique, mixed media works on wood salvaged from an abandoned prison, as well as studies drawn with ink on paper. Some of the works are collaborations with James Allison, a friend of the artist's who is currently incarcerated.
Hazelip uses animal subjects in his imagery to explore themes of injustices within our legal system and underlying corruption in the prison industrial complex. The bull with butcher markings emphasizes the systemized labor practices and division of value. The wolf relates to a pack mentality created through incarceration sub-cultures, as individual prisoners align with hierarchical groups or gangs for protection and survival. The vulture, as a predator who preys on the disadvantaged, symbolizes the prison system as a whole.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Jesse Hazelip was born in 1977 in Cortez, Colorado amidst Navajo and Ute Nation territory. At the age of 13, he relocated to Santa Barbara, CA—a vastly different environment from that of his childhood. There, Hazelip became involved with graffiti. This led to him developing an aesthetic and technique that is woven into his artwork alongside the imagery and history of his native southwest. In 2007, he received a BFA from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA. He is currently based in New York.
Opening view Saturday, January 11th, 2014 from 7—9pm
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Based on Actual Events
Group Exhibition of works by: Alyssa Monks, Diego Koi, Eloy Morales, and Joel Rea
January 11—February 8, 2014
Jonathan LeVine Gallery is pleased to present Based on Actual Events, a group exhibition of works by: Alyssa Monks, Diego Koi, Eloy Morales and Joel Rea. The included selection of intricately detailed works offers an exploration into various forms of contemporary realism with overlapping elements of photorealism, hyperrealism and surrealism created in a range of style, medium and subject.
Alyssa Monks was born in 1977 in Ridgewood, NJ and is currently based in New York. She received an MFA from New York Academy of Art in 2001 and has been awarded the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant for Painting three times. The artist has said, of her work: “In a contemporary take on the traditional bathing woman, my subjects are pushing against a glass window, distorting their own body, aware of and commanding the proverbial male gaze. Thick paint strokes in delicate color relationships are pushed and pulled to imitate glass, steam, water and flesh from a distance. However, up close, the physical properties of oil paint are apparent. When I began painting the human body, I was obsessed with it and needed to create as much realism as possible. I chased realism until it began to unravel and deconstruct itself. I am exploring the possibility and potential where representational painting and abstraction meet—if both can coexist in the same moment."
Diego Koi was born Diego Fazio in 1989 in Lamezia Terme, and is currently based in Feroleto Antico, in the province of Catanzaro, Italy. As a self-taught artist, he began as a tattoo designer and has since developed a skillful hyperrealist approach to drawing the human form in pencil. In 2012, he was awarded the prestigious Cairo Prize in Milan. He has been featured in numerous publications such as The Huffington Post, BuzzFeed and Juxtapoz.
Eloy Morales was born in 1973 in Madrid, Spain. The majority of his works are large-scale hyperrealist portraits (often self-portraits) rendered in oil on canvas and pencil on paper. On the subject of his work, the artist states: “I try to adhere to the line where reality coexists in natural form with my inner world. I believe in the immense power of the images and their infinite possibilities.”
Joel Rea was born in 1983. In 2003, he received a BFA from Queensland College of Art in Brisbane, Australia. In 2013 he was selected for the Black Swan Award for Portraiture in Perth, the Fleurieu Landscape Prize in Adelaide and received the ANL Maritime Art Award in Melbourne. In a 2013 review of his paintings, Jane Denison wrote: "Intrigued by chance, duality and alternate possibilities, Rea’s hyperrealist paintings delve into the depths of our minds. Using the physical elements as a metaphor for human emotion and experience, Rea portrays nature as pulsating energy that is both majestic and threatening. Rea describes himself as a Contemporary Surrealist Painter, but his work is also a twist on the aesthetics of the sublime in 18th century Romantic art. In common with Romantic artists, Rea is interested in the duality of opposites where nature is a source of purity and timelessness while also a dark sentiment and force of destruction.''
ABOUT JONATHAN LEVINE GALLERY
Jonathan LeVine Gallery is committed to new and cutting edge art. Our roots go back to 1995, when Jonathan’s life-long participation in punk and underground music grew into a curatorial experiment with the visual culture that surrounded him. We moved to Chelsea in 2005, with an eye towards honoring and connecting with the history and context of Post War art. We contribute to the dialogue by challenging the conventions of the canon – exploring the terrain of the high/low and everything in between.
Opening view Saturday, January 11th, 2014 from 7—9pm
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Jonathan LeVine Gallery
529 West 20th Street, New York
Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 11am to 6pm
Admission free