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5/10/2007

Two exhibitions

Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica

Kim Rugg

Mark Moore Gallery is pleased to present new works by emerging artist Kim Rugg. Rugg’s work involves reducing and dismantling an object to its most elemental parts and then reconstructing it to reveal new meanings, to obliterate original ones, to change or destroy its function and to prompt the viewer to consider the familiar from an entirely new perspective. Often this method of deconstruction and reconstruction becomes politically charged. Her newspaper works -- through her removal of the message -- allow the viewer to consider the vehicle for the message, to contemplate the unquestioned ephemera of the day to day. Rugg exposes the hidden meaning within each structural component, and shows how the information we process is “informed” before we even begin to think.

By demonstrating the ease at which information can be rearranged and altered, Rugg calls into question what is commonly assumed to be neutral documentation. Somewhat paradoxically, Rugg’s stamp and envelope pieces - whilst visually being very different - retain their original function; they are sent through the mail unperturbed. Consequently, these works are far more subversive as, to a degree, they actively undermine established, regulated systems. Rugg’s work inspires the viewer to not only reconsider, but perhaps to even challenge, what is so casually understood as the accepted and unchangeable.

I like to think that Rugg is changing the world, if only in her imagination, alchemically blasting the news out of existence by snipping it up into a million little pieces. Emma Gray

Kim Rugg graduated with a BA in painting from the City and Guilds of London Art School in 2002. In 2004 she received her MFA from the Royal College of Art, London, where she was awarded the Thames and Hudson prize. Recently, she has predominantly exhibited in London, as well as participating in numerous art fairs across the United States, including Pulse New York, Art Chicago and Pulse Miami. This will be Rugg’s inaugural solo show at the Mark Moore Gallery as well as being her first in the United States.

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Kenichi Yokono

Mark Moore Gallery is pleased to present new works by innovative Japanese artist, Kenichi Yokono, in the Project Room. Yokono produces intricate and complex wood blocks, whose aesthetically pleasing blood-red and white surfaces belie their disturbing details. His works highlight the subtle conflict between the “normalcy” of everyday appearances and the darkest recesses of human imagination - fueled by horror movies, Manga and monsters -- that constantly threaten to rise to the surface. This unsettling quality evokes the darker, sinister elements of traditional Japanese culture that have largely been overwhelmed by the simplified, cutesy, plastic cartoon characters of contemporary Japanese pop-culture. By installing the wood block itself as the finished piece, Yokono subverts its traditional function, transforming something that is traditionally a genesis, into a finality. He also eliminates the possibility of copies, and therefore any notion of “mass production”, again s ubtlety referring to and undermining Japanese pop-culture.

By working directly from enlarged initial sketches, Yokono’s work retains an energy and freshness that, somewhat paradoxically given it’s content, transform his works into attractive and appealing objects, despite their grim overtones. Then again, perhaps the viewer relishes this dark and gory folly and, rather than being overly distracted by their unexpected beauty, welcomes an opportunity to indulge the morbid side of human nature. Kenichi Yokono graduated from Kanazawa College of Art, Japan in 1997 and has since been awarded both the Tom Eccles Prize and the Eriko Ousaka Prize. He represented himself at Pulse New York in 2005 and has exhibited widely in his native Japan. This will be his inaugural solo show, not only at the Mark Moore Gallery, but also in the United States.

Opening Reception: Saturday, October 6th, 5-7pm

Mark Moore Gallery
2525 Michigan Avenue - Santa Monica
Hours: tues - fri: 10 - 6; sat: 11 - 5
Free admission

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