{"id":2434,"date":"2013-05-22T06:07:21","date_gmt":"2013-05-22T06:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/raulmourao.com\/blog\/?p=2434"},"modified":"2013-05-22T06:07:49","modified_gmt":"2013-05-22T06:07:49","slug":"jclaca-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.archive.raulmourao.com\/blog\/?p=2434","title":{"rendered":"JC\/LA\/CA #6"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Captura<\/a><\/p>\n

L&M Arts is pleased to present Neo Povera, a group show that explores the contemporary legacy of Arte Povera and the politics of material. This exhibition offers a selection of recent works united by a common conceptual approach to re-examining the formal constraints of artistic practice brought on by the commercialization of art and ideas. Continuing a radial dialogue that challenged the traditional trajectory of acceptable art, this show explores new materials and methodologies that have evolved in the almost fifty years since the term was first coined.<\/p>\n

Emerging in the late 1960s, Arte Povera, literally poor art, described a generation of artists committed to exploring the aesthetics of ephemeral and accessible materials while working outside of a ferociously consuming market in an effort to dissolve boundaries between an elite art and a collective experience. In \u201cNotes For a Guerrilla War\u201d, the manifesto that outlined the intentions of the original movement, Germano Celant wrote:<\/p>\n

\u201cOver there is a complex art, over here a poor art, committed to contingency, to events, to the non-historical, to the present… to an anthropological viewpoint, to the \u2018real\u2019 man, and to the hope (in fact now the certainty) of being able to shake entirely free of every visual discourse that presents itself as univocal and consistent. Consistency is a dogma that has to be transgressed, and the univocal belongs to the individual and not to \u2018his\u2019 images and products.\u201d<\/p>\n

By nature, this movement is neither time specific nor rooted in the particular conditions of\u00a0its day. Rather, these are sentiments that can be applied to the desire to create objects of\u00a0simple and intrinsic value, free of pomp and circumstance. It reminds us that we should notallow history to confine art to its predetermined conclusions nor reductively categorize works\u00a0in an imposed lineage. Instead, we are called to look at the works as the assemblage of our\u00a0surroundings, rooted in the honest structure of an artist\u2019s chosen materials.\ufffc\ufffc\ufffc\ufffc\ufffc\ufffc<\/p>\n

In the time since its inception, the increased momentum of the market and the changes in\u00a0our everyday functions due to technological advancements (as well as shifts in household\u00a0behavior and manufacturing) have created new source material to examine this increasingly\u00a0relevant sentiment. Items such as plastic, which has taken on a intensified role in our daily\u00a0life since the tubular neon works of Mario Merz, are featured in Karla Black\u2019s ethereal\u00a0cellophane sculpture, Spared The Sight, 2012 and Tom Driscoll\u2019s Flip, 2013\u00a0and Bulkhead, 2005. The latter reimagines the structure of machinery by swamping cold\u00a0metal parts from appliances at the underwater research laboratory in Point Loma where he\u00a0worked as a night janitor and industrial packaging materials used to protect and display\u00a0consumer products for buoyant, animated versions made from colorful resin mixtures. The\u00a0discourse concerning found objects in art, forwarded by artists such as Jannis Kounellis, is\u00a0readdressed in works including Virginia Overton\u2019s Untitled (Sandbag), 2013, comprised of\u00a0wood, rope, and, accordingly, a sandbag.<\/p>\n

In addition, a diverse array of materials will be represented, including Anicka Yi\u2019s Untitled,\u00a02013, a wall work made from soap, a large sculpture from Tara Donovan\u2019s mylar\u00a0experiments, and a series of porcelain cast styrofoam forms by Patrick Meagher. This\u00a0exhibition will make use of the gallery\u2019s sizable garden area to include a site-specific\u00a0sculpture, Andy Ralph\u2019s Manifold Destiny, 2013, that can be seen from Venice Boulevard, as\u00a0well as Marianne Vitale\u2019s Standard Crossing (1), 2013, an erect, repurposed railroad frog. In\u00a0late June, Aki Sasamoto will perform one of her eponymous \u2018lecture\u2019 works based on the\u00a0concept of Neo Povera. Sasamoto\u2019s sculpture Clear Idea Bubbles, 2013, a series of plastic\u00a0recycling bags that have been on display since the opening of the exhibition, will be activated\u00a0with the notes, drawings, and written gestures from her lesson.<\/p>\n

Neo Povera is curated by Harmony Murphy and includes works by Ana Bidart, Karla Black,\u00a0Jed Caesar, Joshua Callaghan, Tara Donovan, Tom Driscoll, Brendan Fowler, Luca Frei,\u00a0Johannes Girardoni, Liz Glynn, Jiri Kovanda, Maya Lin, Erik Lindman, Patrick Meagher,\u00a0Virginia Overton, Ester Partegas, GT Pellizzi, Andy Ralph, Cordy Ryman, Aki Sasamoto,\u00a0Marianne Vitale, Heidi Voet, Anicka Yi and Anton Zolotov.<\/p>\n

\ufffcGALLERY INFORMATION:<\/p>\n

L&M Arts, Los Angeles, 660 South Venice Boulevard,\u00a0\ufffcVenice, CA, 90291. Tuesday – Saturday, 10:00 – 5:30 and by appointment. For additional\u00a0\ufffcinformation, please contact L&M Arts at: +1.310.821.6400 or visit our website:\u00a0\ufffcwww.lmgallery.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n