TORRANCE, CA.- The Torrance Art Museum presents Grafforists, an exhibition of painting that seeks to address the issues of presence, meaning and mortality through mark making.

The show’s title “Grafforists" references archaeological graffito: deliberate marks scrawled, scratched or engraved on a public surfaces such as a walls and rocks. The graffito reveals itself within the public space and stands in for the artist, acting as a evidence of the artist's thoughts, presence and existence. It is a physical, literal remnant of the artist's "mark on the world."

Taking such archaeological reference as a starting point, Grafforists engages the act of painting itself as a performative, existential activity. Painting is not only a process of art production but an artifact of being in the world. The painted mark reflects all that is left of thoughts and dreams, hopes and concerns, memories, bodily movement and physical being. For the artists in Grafforists, paint is what remains.

It is the memento mori and the struggle against an existence that promises nothing, a reminder of a physical, concrete finitude and the only means through which to outlast it. The show thus engages the act of painting itself in these terms as a performative existential moment and the canvas as the artifact of this experience.

Also featured at Torrance Art Museum, June 18 - August 13, 2016:

Gallery Two: Carl Berg, With a Little Help from My Friends
A solo exhibition by Los Angeles-based artist and curator Carl Berg in his first museum show. Berg has asked over one hundred artists, curators, critics, collectors, family and friends, whom he calls his “collaborators”, to name their favorite music album. From this list Berg has created over one hundred works using various imaging software programs visually abstracting lyrics and/or music that are then printed as archival inkjet prints. He describes this process as “painting with symbols”.

The Dark Room: Declan Clark, Recent film works
The first Los Angeles exhibition of works by Irish filmmaker and artist, Declan Clarke. This exhibition presents two films, Wreckage in May and Group Portrait with Explosives.