In
2008, ART2102 continues to collaborate with new generations
of alternative spaces and projects in Los Angeles by providing
a non-institutional structure and framework to support their
initiatives. ART2102 has been extending its status as a
non-profit and beneficiary of grants to several of these
smaller experimental spaces, while generating and increasing
their exposure through ART2102's communication networks
and support systems. It is an effort which aims to expand
ART2102's activities beyond the more traditional forms of
exhibition and other curatorial projects. More about the
2008 Program.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sept 19, 2008
Contact: Wendy Mason
wendy@slabprojects.com
COLLABORATION ON THE PROWL:
SLAB TO CURATE EXHIBITION AT OLD LA ZOO, WITH SUPPORT FROM
ART2102
LOS ANGELES, Sept 19, 2008 --
On October 18, Slab presents a one-day exhibition at the
old Los Angeles zoo involving artists Michael Decker, Liz
Glynn, Deva Graf, Hilary Graves, George Kontos, Louisa Van
Leer, Karen Lofgren, Marco Rios, Ry Rocklen, Rosha Yaghmai.
Slab considers the zoo to be a challenging
location for an exhibition by resisting and playing on traditional
expectations of how we typically view art. For the event,
Slab has designated areas that were originally used as animal
habitats - designed, constructed, and intended to replicate
natural living habitats – as art exhibition spaces.
The empty caves and surrounding areas lend themselves to
ideas of ancient civilization societies, theatrical ruins,
or more simply, a stage begging to be once again inhabited.
View
more images >
About the Artists
Michael Decker lives and works in Los Angeles.
He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the California
Institute of the Arts in 2005. His work has been exhibited
in two previous High Energy Constructs projects, Chain Letter
and A Warning Shouldn’t Be Pleasant, and has presented
with Christian Cummings their Ouija Board “Ghost Drawings”
at the Museum of Jurassic Technology, Culver City, CA, the
Santa Monica Museum of Art, and Creative Time, New York,
NY.
Liz Glynn lives and works in Los Angeles.
She explores the ambition of empire and the pleasure of
ruin. Her practice seeks to embody dynamic cycles of growth
and decay, and to propose direct action through sculptural
material. Recent works include the 24 Hour Roman Reconstruction
Project at Machine Project, and the In the Beginning is
the End, a Processional for Los Angeles in Chinatown. Her
work has also been presented at venues including Acuna-Hansen
Gallery (LA), John Connolly Presents (NYC), and Beta Level
(Los Angeles), and will be included in an upcoming project
at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. She has attended
residencies at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Vermont
Studio Center, and soon will travel to O’artoteca
in Milan. Her work has been reviewed in Art Lies and the
Los Angeles Times. She received her MFA from California
Institute of the Arts, and her BA from Harvard College.
Deva Graf works and lives in Mt. Baldy,
CA. Since completing her M.F.A at the University of Illinois
at Chicago in 2002 she has been exhibited widely, included
in numerous group exhibitions and was invited to participate
in the 2006 Whitney Biennial: Day for Night. Most recently
she had a solo exhibition at Project Gentili in Italy.
Hilary Graves works and lives in Los Angeles.
She received her BFA from Ringling School of Art and Design
in 2004 and her MFA from California Institute of Art in
2006. She was born in Dallas Texas in 1981. Her work will
be included in a group show in Italy in Fall 2008.
George Kontos lives in Los Angeles. He
works with video, animation and sculpture. The work explores
the tension between actual locations and their constructed
utopias. Often times in the films, architecture plays its
role as a disturbing presence. The sculptures are made in
a multi-step process of representations and act as either
clues or counterparts to the vertebrae structure of the
time based work. He received his MFA from Cal Arts in 2005
and his degree in Architecture from the Aristotle University
of Thesaloniki in Greece in 2002.
Louisa Van Leer works and lives in Los
Angeles. Her multi-discipline practice spans sculpture,
photography, installation, public art and architecture.
Her art addresses the city and mapping and, in particular,
the ways in which cities act as physical and spatial depictions
of our social situation. She received her MFA from Cal Arts
in 2006 and her BFA and BArch from Rhode Island School of
Design in 1991 and was awarded her California architecture
license in 2001. She is a 2006 recipient of a Skowhegan
Fellowship in Painting and Sculpture.
Karen Lofgren, born in Toronto in 1976, works and lives
in Los Angeles. She received her MFA from Cal Arts in 2000.
Exhibitions include group shows at Black Dragon Society,
Anna Helwing Gallery, High Desert Test Sites, The Craft
and Folk Art Museum, Daniel Hug Gallery, Glendale College
Art Gallery, and a solo project at Machine.
Marco Rios works and lives in Los Angeles.
He works in sculpture, photography, video, and performance.
He received his M.F.A. in Studio Art from the University
of California, Irvine and his undergraduate degree from
Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. His work
has recently been exhibited at Artists Space, NY; Phantom
Sightings, a traveling group exhibition at LACMA (Los Angeles
County Museum of Art), Estacion, Tijuana, Mexico; and a
two-person exhibit at Simon Preston Gallery, NY. Upcoming
exhibitions include the 2008 California Biennial at the
Orange County Museum of Art and LA25 at LACE (Los Angeles
Contemporary Exhibitions). In 2007, He was a recipient of
the California Community Foundation Fellowship and was only
recently selected as one of the James Irvine Foundation
Visions from the New California awardees.
Ry Rocklen works and lives in Los Angeles.
He received his MFA from the University of Southern California,
Los Angeles and his BFA from the University of California,
Los Angeles. He transforms ordinary objects into playful
sculptures using simple, found materials. Minimally altering
the original, Rocklen creates surprising transformations
by combining the objects in a subtly poetic fashion. Rhythmic,
memorable titles add a further layer of meaning to the work's
whimsical nature. Solo exhibitions include Me.di.um, St.
Barthelemy; Black Dragon Society; Los Angeles; Zach Feuer
Gallery, New York; and Dangerous Curve, Los Angeles. Group
exhibitions include the Whitney Museum of American Art,
New York (Whitney Biennial 2008); Red Eye: the Rubell Family
Collection, Miami; Angles Gallery, Los Angeles; Rental Gallery,
New York; Baronian Francey, Brussels; Apex Art, New York;
and Michael Janssen, Cologne.
Rosha Yaghmai studied at the School of
Visual Arts, New York, and received both her BFA (2001)
and her MFA (2007) degrees from Cal Arts, Los Angeles. During
this time she also ran the exhibition space 507Rose in Venice,
California. She has exhibited widely in Southern California,
including at the Riverside Art Museum, Eveningside Dr.,
Kontainer, and Steve Turner Contemporary. Abroad, Yaghmai
has been included in exhibitions at Transmission in the
United Kingdom and GBK in Sydney, Australia. Her work will
be shown with SLAB projects as well as at Estacion Tijuana
later this year.
About Slab
Slab is an exhibition method enacted by Los Angeles-based
artist Wendy Mason and Houston-based curator Nancy Zastudil.
We operate on a project-by-project basis and function as
a literal and metaphorical platform for artists' works,
including solo, group, and collaborative projects. Our exhibition
concept finds potential in experimental locations such as
backyards, commercial, industrial, and unexpected locations
between Los Angeles and Houston. Such varied locations propose
unusual interplay when spatial and relational challenges
arise for the artists, viewers, and us. Not only can Slab
function as an independent exhibition space, we also seek
to engage in a symbiotic relationship with our surroundings.
We consider the transitory roles of artists and curators,
and our aim is to collaboratively facilitate artist's projects
and events, exploring the fun and experimental nature of
creative activity.For more information on Slab projects,
visit www.slabprojects.com
This exhibition is made possible in
part by the generous support of the Andy Warhol Foundation
for the Visual Arts.
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