Painting
Courtesy of the artists and The Box LA. Photography © Fredrik Nilsen Studio
Press Release
PAINTING
DECEMBER 1, 2012 - FEBRUARY 2, 2013
OPENING RECEPTION SATURDAY, DECEMBER 1, 6-9 PM.
Within the art world, we place high value on painting. We love it for its beauty, for its traditions, for its ease. In our contemporary world it is often seen as a decoration for our walls and as a financial investment for our portfolio. The pieces in this show dating from 1953 - 2012 disrupt this attitude, pushing the viewer to think beyond the accepted idea of painting. Most of these artists work outside of the art world and use paintings to explore their social, personal and artistic dilemmas. These pieces are deeply personal to highly controversial. Ignoring the accepted avenues of what is considered “hip” and “trendy”. There is a pursuit on the track of the ugly as beautiful. Some of these artists are playing with materiality of painting. Some are dealing with the conceptual idea of painting. Some are using painting to process and work through their internal battles be it with political concerns or in matters of their intimate lives. You will walk into this exhibition and be confronted with what seems to be a random collection of paintings, but there is a thread in that each of these artists has lived in the singular pursuit of art for 30 to 60 years. These are tailings of these lives. These artists pursued their art without the concern of the art market. They pursued their art to an extreme. These paintings are without definition. Enjoy.
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Judith Bernstein
Wally Hedrick
Michael Henderson
Lee Lozano
Boris Lurie
Paul McCarthy
Otto Muehl
Al Payne
Alfons Schilling
Carolee Schneemann
Barbara T Smith
