LOS ANGELES, CA.- JAUS presents "Tigeraugen (Tiger Eye)" featuring new works by Martin Durazo and Kottie Paloma. Working in multiple approaches and platforms, Durazo's and Paloma's work is charged with sexuality, ironic machinations, and unapologetic bravado. Working in painting, drawing, collage and sculpture, the artists present art that works individually and in harmony to explore a theme of a beast prowling in search of prey. The prey in this case is the beauty contained in lurid social subcultures. Durazo and Paloma share a physicality and evidence of the hand-made when making work, and rely heavily upon the concept of detritus as an aesthetic. The result is a discovery of the poetic in the forsaken, music in the noise of life, and eternity in a moment.
Durazo continues to invent new ways to invert the gaze of viewers and the relationship to objects and imagery in order to expose social contexts. Objects are used for their color-content, and lighting elements are often used in fleeting manner so that the work is consumed in trace memory. To this end, the work uses nightclub , holographic and reflective surfaces, and sound and smell. In doing so, the work derives its influence and energy from tropes associated with sexuality and social inhibition.
In Paloma’s new abstracts, all notions of solid imagery has vanished and are now replaced with a glowing dumbness that informs one of a spirit outside the self. This spirit floats in a consciousness of his earlier work but in a dragged through the street sort of way. The use of glitter is more prominent in his new paintings and is used as though it is itself the paint. For Paloma, there is no difference between the standard idea of paint and the use of glitter as a form of vocabulary to represent new ways to use and approach materials.
Martin Durazo’s multifaceted practice encompasses sculpture, painting, collage, photography, drawing, video, performance and installation. The work engages elements of high-design and the aesthetic of illicit social subcultures. He is known for creating large-scale installations combining painting, sculpture, ready-made objects, video, sound, light, and performance.
Durazo earned Bachelor of Arts degrees in English and Art from Pitzer College, Claremont, and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles. He has exhibited at Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, CB1 Gallery, Mark Moore Gallery, Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, Galería MDF in Mexico City, Harris Art Gallery at the University of LaVerne, as well as White Box, New York City, Volta 8 Basel ArtForum Berlin, and Art Basel Miami Beach. His work has been written about in Flash Art International, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, LA Weekly, Art Ltd, Artweek, and Art Review.
Durazo co-directed Miller-Durazo Contemporary Artists Projects (an artist-run initiative) and in 2007 created Empathy Design Company, a temporary curatorial/artist project. Durazo was awarded the 2011 Mid-Career Fellowship from the California Community Foundation and the 2012 COLA Master Artist Fellowship. In 2014 he was awarded an LA County Metro station public art grant and was also named Jubilee artist in-residence for his alma mater, Pitzer College's 50th anniversary.
Kottie Paloma's paintings, drawings, books and sculptures, explore the darker side of society in a humorous yet poignant and gritty manner. His abstracts serve as a bridge between his sculptures, photography and his earlier and still present comic based paintings. Paloma’s art is in private and public collections throughout the United States and Europe. Some of the public collections include MOMA in NYC, Harvard and Stanford University and the Bavarian State Library in Munich, to name a few. Paloma’s first survey catalog of his work published by Pogo Books in Berlin titled “XOXO” is now in the public collections library at the Tate Modern London. For the last four years Kottie Paloma has been making his art in Berlin, but has now relocated his studio to Los Angeles where he plans to stay for the long haul.
