LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Hammer Museum presents today Hammer Projects: Nic Hess, on view through November 5, 2009. Swiss artist Nic Hess is known for his inventive wall works composed almost entirely of masking tape. Like a master graffiti artist, he turns everyday imagery into bold graphics, often borrowing logos from corporations, and intertwining disparate images to form entirely new works. Combining his own drawings, commercial prints, bright colored tape and paint, and icons from a variety of sources, Hess makes us reevaluate our understanding of familiar signs in consumer culture, and incorporates multiple contradictory images and viewpoints. In his elaborate compositions he draws new connections between popular culture and historical images and weaves a loose narrative of worlds colliding and visions exploding. For the Hammer’s Lobby Wall, Hess will present a new tape-drawing installation designed specifically for the site, influenced in part by the board game Chutes and Ladders as well as recent events in the banking industry, along with other seemingly unrelated topics.

Nic Hess was born in Zürich, Switzerland in 1968. He was educated at Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and at HdK in Berlin, Germany. His one person exhibitions include Food 4 Less, Museo de Arte de Zapopan, Guadalajara, Mexico (2007); Rice- Fields and Bushes, Casa del Lago, Mexico City, Mexico (2006); Guten Morgen Deutschland, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany (2004); Logo, Swiss Institute, New York, NY (2003); and Nic Hess: [Together Now], The Drawing Center, New York, NY (2000).

Hammer Projects: Nic Hess is curated by Ali Subotnick. Hammer Projects is a series of exhibitions focusing primarily on the work of emerging artists. Hammer Projects is made possible with major gifts from Susan Bay-Nimoy and Leonard Nimoy and The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation. Additional generous support is provided by the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, Good Works Foundation and Laura Donnelley, L A Art House Foundation, the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs, the David Teiger Curatorial Travel Fund, and Fox Entertainment Group’s Arts Development Fee.