NEW YORK, NY.- LMAKgallery is presenting Giant, a solo exhibition by Alan Belcher with a suite of new paintings that touch on the American ethos and project an individual’s struggle within capitalism. The exhibition takes its title from the epic motion picture.
Belcher’s conceptual practice is decidedly multi-layered and object orientated. A transparency of vision and simplicity of fabrication with a concentrated regard for materials are hallmarks of his serial productions. In the exhibition, he continues his explorations of production in relation to the generic mode of oil painting. Once again the artist risks a pioneering venture into unproven, untapped territory. These objects are encountered as symbolized vehicles plainly behaving as art objects, rather than expressive or narrative paintings. Worksite canvas tarpaulins are sliced and pieced together in a manner similar to Arte Povera, some featuring repairs in a Boro style. These stretched canvases are hand-painted in black oil with a loaded imagery — determination, investment, patience, risk-taking, capitalism, gambling, prospection, ambition, discovery, desolation, desperation, good fortune, property, underground culture, milkshakes, and a best faith for the future; are all conveyed.
Known for his directness and sharp simplicity when approaching difficult subject matter Belcher’s work has a sense of humor and a reverence for Pop, as well as a hands-on approach.
Alan Belcher’s solo exhibitions have been presented at numerous international venues, including Le Consortium (Dijon), Marlborough Gallery (NYC), greengrassi Gallery (London), Jack Shainman Gallery (NYC), White Columns (NYC), Galerie Daniel Buchholz (Cologne), Margo Leavin Gallery (Los Angeles), as well as Chicago, Hamburg, Toronto, Montréal, Torino, Stockholm, Tokyo, and Milan. His works are held in several public collections including: National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), Morris & Helen Belkin Art Gallery at UBC (Vancouver), Musee des Beaux-Arts (Montréal), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), Chase Manhattan Bank; as well as many private international collections.
Belcher’s work is currently featured in the exhibition Brand New: Art and Commodity in the 1980s curated by Gianni Jetzer at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC. This summer his work will be included in Readymade, the opening exhibition in June of the Swiss Institute in New York, curated by Niels Olsen and Fredi Fischli. Belcher was co-founder and co-director of Gallery Nature Morte (1982–88) with artist Peter Nagy in New York’s East Village. He lives and works in his hometown of Toronto, Canada.
LMAKgallery is also presenting David B Smith’s first solo exhibition in the Courtyard, Under the Surface. The installation consists of soft sculptures hung above and around the viewer, made from digital photo banners recycled from Smith’s previous work at Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens, NY. This organic system of interweaving sculptures is a kind of three-dimensional collage – with floating bits of digital and photographic information to be continuously reinterpreted by the viewer.
Each hanging element has been attached by clips and periodically altered by the artist, giving the environment a sense of improvised flow much like an ever-changing oceanic or web-like virtual world. The viewer is invited to maneuver through this microcosm as a way to sense their inclusion in the natural world, the cityscape and digital space, breaking down the barrier between the body and its surrounding environment. An immersive experience, each piece is a fragment of meaning, composed of photographs cut and manipulated through Smith’s own open ended system of repurposing images, thereby rendering a multitude of possible meanings, narratives, and perceptions.
Curated events will take place within the installation, including a performance where Smith will make hypnotic and ambient music reminiscent of a sci-fi soundtrack by looping and layering guitar, percussion and his voice to create a dissonant yet warm and reflective space. In addition, events with chefs, poets, dancers and others will continue the exploration of fluidity and interconnectivity through taste, sound, language and movement, allowing space for participants to inhabit the installation as its architecture and energy is activated in various ways.
