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30/1/2014

Far And High

Fahrenheit, Los Angeles

Laure Prouvost, David Douard, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Alicja Kwade, Tamara Henderson, David Gilbert, Vincent Ganivet.

Far and High is the inaugural group exhibition at Fahrenheit – an interrelated residency program and a space dedicated to exhibitions, performances, film programs and talks, initiated by Flax Foundation and developed by director and curator Martha Kirszenbaum.

The exhibition Far and High inscribes Fahrenheit into the visual culture of Los Angeles, the post-industrial environment of Downtown and its methods of production. It further acts as a teaser for the residency program that aims to provide a platform for French-related emerging artists, curators and critics, confronting them with the local and international art-scene. Seven artists from Europe and North America have been invited to contribute to the project in a variety of media including sculpture, installation, film, photography and print.

Some artists in the exhibition interpret and reshape industrial material, raw matter, and convenience objects into a contemporary language and a distorted world of representation. David Douard’s (born 1983, lives and works in Paris) installations composed of tweaked everyday objects, obsessive soundtracks and disturbing videos are inspired by mechanisms of organic transformation and biological mutation, evoking the propagation of corporal fluids, such as saliva or milk, as well as physical and technological contamination. His two sculptures Dreamz in Hands and hands and SH4 (green angel) (2013) evoke swollen and crackled objects, grotesque matter lying at the border of a hybrid of popular culture referencing zombie movies, urban poetry and video games. Commonly employing base materials such as steel, glass or metal in her practice, Alicja Kwade (born 1979, lives and works in Berlin), deploys an elaborate modus operandi, in which she transforms objects into sculptures that extend time and space and present themselves as solid, heavy objects created through industrial processes or with everyday items such as clocks and lamps. Yet in Kwade’s hands, they invert, misalign, and melt. The bent sculpture presented in the exhibition reminds us that even the ordinary things that we once thought were solid may be more malleable than ever imagined. Fascinated by architectural principles and unprocessed material, Vincent Ganivet (born 1976, lives and works in Île-Saint-Denis), develops a lexical field balanced between construction and destruction. His arches and wheels challenge laws of gravity as they rely on the mathematical principle of catenary and echo industrial production in his use of concrete cinder blocks.

Others convey notions of desire, oneirism and a fantasized depiction of nature. In her immersive films, Laure Prouvost (born 1978, lives and works in London) challenges the relationship between language and understanding though complex stories and surreal moments with an unusual approach to cinematic conventions and imagery. Swallow (2013) is a sensual meditation on pleasure staring nude women bathing; crushed raspberries; a breast pushed into a peeled fig, a pineapple emerging from the water and palm-trees waving against azure sky. Tamara Henderson’s (born 1982, lives and works in New York) films and sculptures evoke desirable objects, and her practice is based on notes about objects and their representation in dreams or as imagined under hypnosis, hinting at the Surrealists’ artistic motto. Henderson’s films are always edited on a 16mm camera and result in choreographed scenes achieved through mechanical cuts and cross fades, such as Accent Grave on Ananas (2013), a work that conveys a tropical setting marked with punctuations of jaunty yet strangely generic beach rock. Furthermore, Felix Gonzalez-Torres (Guáimaro, Cuba 1957– Miami, 1996), one of the most influential artists of his generation, produced works of uncompromising beauty and simplicity that transform the everyday into profound meditations on love and loss. Evoking the legacy of Minimalist sculpture, his elegant pieces are imbued with poetic intimacy. Untitled (Last Light) (1993), a light string piece composed of 24 bulbs spaced evenly along a brown electric cord that may change configuration each time it is installed, suggests the optimism and endless possibilites inherent in transformation.

At last, inspired by the atmosphere and creative process of his own studio, David Gilbert (born 1982, lives and works in Los Angeles) uses the studio background to construct a domestic set of paintings, tools, fabric, pieces of wood and junk for his still-life photographs that reveal a striking attention to composition and color. His large-scale pictures provides every single element with a statuesque aura, while a fierce L.A. emerges through the purple and orange tones Drama at Sunset (Summer) and Dawn (2013).
Artist Bios

Laure Prouvost (born 1978 in Croix-Lille, France) lives and works in London. She studied at Goldsmiths College and Central St Martins, London. Her recent solo presentations include the Max Mara Art Prize for Women, Whitechapel Gallery, London, and Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia (2013); Schwitters in Britain, Tate Britain, London (2013); Why Does Gregor Never Ring? Shut Your Lips, Somewhere Under That Bridge Lies the whole Truth (The Wanderer Sequence 5), Motinternational, London (2012); and Frieze Projects, Frieze Art Fair, London (2011). Her numerous group exhibitions include 12th Biennale de Lyon, Meanwhile… Suddenly and Then, Lyon (2013); Soundworks, ICA, London (2012); Time Again, Sculpture Center, New York (2011); and Flaca, Portikus, Frankfurt (2011). In 2011, she received the Max Mara Art Prize for Women and in 2009 the EAST International Award in Norwich, UK. She is the recipient of the 2013 Turner Prize.

David Douard (born 1983 in Perpignan, France) lives and works in Paris. He received his MFA from École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Recent solo exhibitions include Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2014); Signal, Malmö (2013); Marbriers 4, Geneva (2013); Rongwrong, Amsterdam (2012); Bétonsalon, Paris (2012). His work has also been featured in the following group exhibitions: 12th Biennale de Lyon, Meanwhile… Suddenly and Then (2013); Geographies of Contamination at the David Roberts Art Foundation (2013); Works sited – keeping is not collecting, Annenberg Gallery, Los Angeles (2013); Evocateur, Prix Ricard, Fondation d’Entreprise Ricard, Paris (2012). In 2014, he will have solo presentations at the Sculpture Center, Long Island City and Musée d’Art Contemporain, Lyon.

Tamara Henderson (born 1982 in Sackville, Canada) is currently based in New York. She holds an MFA from Royal Art Institute in Stockholm and also attended Städelschule, Frankfurt and Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Her work has been included in recent group exhibitions: Burn these Eyes Captain, and Throw Them in the Sea, Rodeo, Istanbul (2013); dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel (2012); On the Tip of My Tongue, Magasin 3 (2013); Edible Glasses, Western Front, Vancouver (2013). Recent solo exhibitions include: Evergreen Minutes of the Phantom Figure, Nuremberg Kunstverein (2013); Bottle Under the Influence (with Julia Feyrer), Walter Phillips Gallery. Upcoming exhibitions include Galerie Nordenhake Stockholm, Apartment, Vancouver, and Grazer Kunstverein, Austria. Henderson was also a finalist for the Sobey Art Award 2013.

Alicja Kwade (born 1979 in Katowice, Poland) lives and works in Berlin. She studied at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. Recent solo exhibitions were presented at Kunstmuseen Krefeld, Haus Esters, Germany (2013); Kunsthal 44 Møen, Denmark (2012); Oldenburger Kunstverein, Oldenburg, Germany (2011); Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster, Germany (2010) and at the galleries Johan Koening in Berlin; Harris Lieberman and Lisa Cooley in New York; and Kamel Mennour in Paris. She will have a solo presentation at the Kunstmuseum and Kunstverein St. Gallen, Switzerland in 2014. Her work has also been included in group exhibitions at the Sculpture Center, Long Island City (2012); CCA Wattis Institute, San Francisco (2012); Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit (2013); KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2012); Witte de With, Rotterdam, The Netherlands (2012) and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan (2011).

Felix Gonzalez-Torres (born 1957 in Guáimaro, Cuba, died 1996 in Miami). He earned a BFA in photography from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, in 1983. Printed Matter, Inc. in New York hosted his first solo exhibition the following year. After obtaining an MFA from the International Center of Photography and New York University in 1987, he worked as an adjunct art instructor at New York University until 1989. Throughout his career, Gonzalez-Torres’ involvement in social and political causes as an openly gay man fueled his interest in the overlap of private and public life. Gonzalez-Torres received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1989 and 1993. He participated in hundreds of group shows during his lifetime, including early presentations at Artists Space and White Columns in New York (1987 and 1988, respectively); the Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1991); the Venice Biennale (1993); SITE Santa Fe (1995); and the Sydney Biennial (1996). Comprehensive retrospective exhibitions of his work have been organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (1994); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (1995); Sprengel Museum Hannover, Hanover, Germany (1997); and Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango, Banco de la República, Bogotá (2000). Recent exhibitions include a retrospective at the Hamburger Bahnhof–Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin (2006–07) and a survey of his work, Specific Objects without Specific Form, which was organized by Wiels, Centre d’art contemporain, Brussels (2010), and then traveled to the Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel (2010), and the MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main (2011). In 2007, Gonzalez-Torres was selected to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale in the exhibition Felix Gonzalez-Torres: America. He died in Miami on January 9, 1996.

Vincent Ganivet (born 1976 in Suresnes, France) lives and works in L’Ile Saint-Denis. He received his MFA from École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 2003. Recent solo exhibitions include Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2012); Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain, Nice (2011); Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris (2011). His monumental work was offered solo exhibitions in Seoul (2009); Brussels (2011); 40 m2 in Rennes (2010).

David Gilbert (born 1982 in New York City) lives and works in Los Angeles. He received in BFA in Photography from the Tisch School of the Arts New York University in 2004, and his MFA from UC Riverside, California in 2011. His work has been exhibited at Klaus Von Nichtssagend Gallery in New York (2011 and 2013) and featured in group exhibitions at Abrons Art Center, New York (2013); Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York (2012); Night Gallery; Galerie Dohyang Lee, Paris (2012); Los Angeles (2011); Exile, Berlin (2009).

Image: Vincent Ganivet, Wheel, 2013, cinder blocks, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist and Yvon Lambert, Paris.

Justin Gilanyi, Director of Public Relations & Marketing justin@flaxfoundation.org
Suzy Halajian, Communications Manager suzy@flaxfoundation.org

Opening Reception: January 31, 2014 7-10pm

Fahrenheit
2245 E Washington Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90021
Opening Hours:
Tuesday – Saturday 12pm – 7pm
Admission Free

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