Category: Exhibitions

HOW YOU LIKE ME NOW? – Berlin

LISA-001-016A.psd

For Immediate Release

Tuesday, September 20, 2016
HVW8 GALLERY BERLIN PRESENTS

HOW YOU LIKE ME NOW?

LISA LEONE’S ICONIC PHOTOGRAPHS IN FIRST SOLO EXHIBITION IN GERMANY

On view Thursday, October 6th through Saturday, November 12th

Opening Reception: Thursday Oct. 6th, 7pm–10pm

BERLIN — HVW8 Gallery Berlin presents How You Like Me Now?, a solo exhibition from photographer Lisa Leone. The show highlights the final period before hip-hop’s mainstream cultural influence and global expansion. These rarely exhibited photographs are both a documentation and personal exploration of the grit, audacity and raw creative spirit that has become the aesthetic of 80’s and 90’s hip-hop, its innovators, and the often harsh realism that fueled it.

Born in the Bronx and raised throughout New York City, Leone found herself in a unique position in the late 80’s to early 90’s to capture a behind-the-scenes perspective on the incomparable spirit of collaboration that sparked hip-hop’s early artistic triumphs.

“To see a young Nas in the studio with Q-Tip, Premier and Large Professor was not only inspiring, it is the decisive moment,” Leone recalls of the studio recording sessions of Nas’ landmark debut album Illmatic. Her photos from these recording sessions appear to be the only existing visual documentation of this iconic moment.

The exhibition is also a haunting portrait of the city itself, the setting for a diverse cast of characters trying to find acceptance, acknowledgment and community, captured at the tipping point between the devastation of the 70’s and the rebirth of the 90’s. Leone captures the spirit of an era when a city, fresh cultural voices, and a group of young artists all began to turn toward the future.

How You Like Me Now? captures nascent moments from the hip-hop generation’s biggest stars: Lauryn Hill, KRS-One, Mary J. Blige, Wyclef Jean, Nas, Biggie, Rosie Perez, The Roots, Queen Latifah, Snoop and many others.

The exhibition at HVW8 Gallery Berlin will feature unique presentations of these timeless images, giving viewers a rare glimpse to a time that will never be what it was.

Supported By:
adidas originals
adidas_logo

About Lisa Leone

Bronx born Lisa Leone began her career as a photographer shooting musicians and personalities for British Vogue and VIBE. She transitioned to cinematography, shooting music videos for artists such as TLC, D’Angelo and The Brand New Heavies.

A few years later, Lisa began work on Stanley Kubrick’s last film “Eyes Wide Shut”, where Kubrick became her mentor. “Exactly” was Leone’s debut film as writer, director and cinematographer, with Rosie Perez (Fearless) and Sarita Choudhury (Homeland). Other films she shot and co-directed include the acclaimed documentary “Just For Kicks” and “Woinshet” with Marisa Tomei.

In May 2012 her solo photography show, Then, opened at HVW8 Art +Design Gallery in Los Angeles. The show chronicles the beginnings of NYC hip-hop in the 80’s/90’s. The show traveled to Milan’s Galleria Patricia Armocida and The Andenken Gallery in Amsterdam.

In September 2014 her solo exhibit, Here I Am, opened at The Bronx Museum. It was accompanied with a book, of the same title, published by Minor Matters Books.

2016 brought Lisa to Dubai for a solo exhibit and to Los Angeles for a group show at the Leica Gallery.

Lisa serves as Vice President of Artistic Programs for the National YoungArts Foundation.

About HVW8 Gallery Berlin

HVW8 Gallery Berlin was established in 2014 by HVW8 Gallery co-founders Tyler Gibney and Addison Liu. HVW8 Gallery was founded in 2006 in Los Angeles with a focus on supporting fine art and avant-garde graphic design. HVW8 fosters artistic visions at the intersection of art, music and design, and collaborates with an international community of artists. Emerging and established artists such as Cody Hudson, Jerry Hsu, Jean André, Atiba Jefferson, Brian Roettinger and Haw-lin Services have exhibited their works in Berlin at HVW8. More info at hvw8.com.

Gallery Media Contact

Jenne Grabowski, Gallery Manager +49(0)179 – 488 1004 / jenne@hvw8.com

***

HVW8 Gallery Berlin
Linienstraße 161 10115 Berlin

LISA1-005-022.psd

‘Shows You’ Exhibition with Haw-Lin Services

HVW80316_flyer_ref01

Haw-lin Services
‘Shows You’
22 July 2016

The Berlin based duo with their first solo exhibition in Germany at HVW8 Gallery, Berlin in collaboration with Adidas.

For the exhibition, ‘Shows You’ Haw-lin Services will showcase a selection of spacial and graphic imagery that reflect their eclectic and detail based process.

BIO

Jacob Klein b. 1980, in Warendorf, Germany.

Nathan Cowen
b. 1983, Santa Cruz, California, USA.

Haw-lin Services and Haw-lin are run by Jacob Klein and Nathan Cowen.

The work of Haw-lin Services examines visual culture through the mediums of creative direction, photography and graphic design. Their process is grounded in research, concept development, and iterative collaboration. Haw-lin serves as an online mood board and presentation of their inspiration, interests, art, photography, nature, sex, shoes, and Michael Jordan.

www.haw-lin.com
www.haw-lin-services.com

Facebook Invite

unnamed

IMG 9389
150cm x 200 cm
UV direct print on PVC (with 2 rivets)
Edition of 3

‘Duet’ with Jean Jullien and Jean André – July 7th

image2(1)

Jean André and Jean Jullien ‘Duet’

Thursday, July 7th, 6pm-10pm

HVW8 Gallery
661 N Spaulding Ave
Los Angeles, CA

DUET- Jean Jullien & Jean André @ HVW8 Gallery

HVW8 Gallery, Almost Skateboards and Cliché Skateboards present DUET, a celebration of art and skateboarding featuring the work of internationally renowned French artists Jean Jullien and Jean André. The opening reception for the exhibition is on Thursday July 7th.
In addition to new original works from each artist, the show will feature a special showing of limited edition skate decks along with other limited items. Only 50 of each limited edition deck will be made.

Jean Jullien is a French graphic artist whose tongue-in-cheek works often have the ability to capture the imagination while making a poignant observation about the subject matter in question. His comical style often captures reflections on everyday life or current events and pokes fun at the mundane, but at the same time is provocative enough to elicit a profound reaction in the viewer.

Jean André is a French artist that often uses the female form and erotic imagery as the focus of his work. His “gentleman art” can often be cited as both pulp and satire that draws on influences from Matisse and Gainsbourg to Drake and 80’s eroticism.

HVW8 Gallery was founded in 2006 with the goal of supporting contemporary art and avant-garde graphic design, and has featured past solo exhibitions with both Jean André and Jean Jullien.

RSVP ONLY: RSVP@HVW8.com

for artwork inquiries email info@hvw8.com

Jean_Andre_small

IMG_3226

@hvw8gallery
@je_andre
@jean_jullien
@clicheskate
@almostskateboards
@pabstblueribbon

Karl Hab presents 24H LOS ANGELES

Karl_Hab_Exhibit

Karl Hab, 24H LOS ANGELES

Opening and Book Signing: April 20 2016, 7-10 pm
Exhibition Runs: April 21 – May 8th, 2016
Location: HVW8 Gallery, Los Angeles

24 hours Los Angeles is not a book and exhibition about the city of L.A. It’s a unique vision of one city shown through the eyes of young photographer Karl Hab. After many trips to L.A., Karl wanted to share his love and admiration for this town and what it means to him. During those various experienc- es in the City of Angels, he tried to capture a certain essence of this city from a different point of view, especially using aerial shots.

There is a special feeling when you come to L.A. and it starts when you exit the airport. It’s something so special that it’s hard to explain with words, especially when it comes to the beauty and the buzz of this city – which is why Karl used his lens to express himself.

The photos are organized by chronological order – starting with the beginning of the day and its cold tones to its end with the warm ones – showing the city through many angles and many shades.

The book and exhibition is about a single vision, a unique feeling of a city which changes every day. This is why Karl’s photos re ect the sensitivity of the light, the colorimetry of the landscapes and a topic he holds dear: colors, planes, cars, and many more.

After reading and viewing 24 hours Los Angeles, you may see something different in a city you thought you knew so well before.

The introduction of the book is written by the New York based artist Daniel Arsham.

There are no page numbers, but hours corresponding to these times: morning, noon, afternoon and evening. You’ll also find GPS coordinates that represent the captions.

Contact
HVW8 Gallery Los Angeles
661 N. Spaulding Ave, 90036
info@hvw8.com

Information and sales:
Tyler Gibney / Victor Saldaña
tyg@hvw8.com / victor@hvw8.com

Supported by:
adidas originals

Links :

https://amuse-i-d.vice.com/24h-los-angeles-the-new-art-book-by-karl-hab/ http://en.colette.fr/content/karl-hab/
http://24hlosangeles.com/
http://hypebeast.com/2016/4/24h-los-angeles-art-book-by-karl-hab

28122014-IMG_2883

IMG_9775

IMG_3762

Cody Hudson at HVW8 Berlin extended to March 26th


 Cody_ext

Cody Hudson ‘When I Finally Get Myself Together’ Now extended to March 26th at HVW8 Berlin.

Email info(at)hvw8.com for inquiries.

Chicago based artist Cody Hudson presents a new body of work in his first ever solo exhibition in Germany at HVW8 Gallery, Berlin.

After years of working on sculptures using a similar set of geometric shapes, this new body of paintings on linen takes those same simple bold shapes into painted forms.  For the first time, this language is brought concurrently into all parts of his practice. Starting with simple geometric shapes and slowly evolving into slightly more representational paintings to abstracted still lifes, the repetition of color and shapes starts to develop an internal dialogue. Titles of paintings such as “All One Or None,” “I Don’t Want To Die Alone” or “Post Post Still Life With Pots, Bong And Shell” loosely reference spirituality and/or false spirituality, 90’s rave music sub-genre ragga jungle, and overwhelming feelings of anxiety.

The show also includes a series of one color paintings from the “Shapes and Colors Dept.” painting series, which focuses on very simple one color combinations of shapes painted in an almost meditative state. At times these paintings take on a repetitive pattern feel while at others becoming almost floral.

A series of new steel sculptures will also be shown as well as four new screen prints produced by the art publisher Draw A Line based in Berlin.

Cody Hudson is a Chicago based artist, also known for his graphic design contributions under the name Struggle Inc. His graphic work and paintings have been exhibited throughout the US, Europe and Japan including the Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), V1 (Copenhagen), Hellerau Art Center (Dresden) and Andrew Rafacz (Chicago).

Location: HVW8 Gallery, Linienstr. 161, Berlin

Exhibition Runs: February 12 – March 12, 2016 *Now Extended to March 26th

www.hvw8.com

www.struggleinc.com

www.codyhudson.net

11051896_820880968045443_8472095626311541520_o

12716342_820881001378773_8121795345265490736_o

12748120_820881034712103_6840533873855296276_o

10321527_820881004712106_2393918691488688253_o

The Art of a Political Revolution – Austin Feb. 12th, 2016

Austin_Invite_1

Bernie Sanders 2016
Presents
“The Art of a Political Revolution”
featuring both artists and musicians
to inspire change throughout the nation.

Featuring a Compilation of Acclaimed Artistic Works
Inspired by the Political Landscape

Opening Reception in Austin, TX
Friday, February 12th from 7:00pm – 11:00pm

RSVP Here
Group Show Runs from
Saturday, February 13 – Sunday, February 14
Daily from 12:00pm – 6:00pm

Future exhibitions and locations include:
Boston, MA and New York, NY
#ArtistsForBernieSanders

Bernie Sanders 2016 with HVW8 Art + Design Gallery and Creative Cabal have united to launch a national group art exhibition which will open and kick off in Hyde Park focused around critical issues affecting our country. An opening reception at 4115 Guadalupe St., Austin, TX 78751 will launch “The Art of a Political Revolution” in conjunction with the official Bernie Sanders 2016 campaign on Friday, February 12 with an opening reception from 7:00pm – 11:00pm.

Participating artists include: Aaron Draplin, Amanda Marsalis, Atiba Jefferson, Brian Lotti, Bryan Blue, Byron O’Neill, Charlie Becker, CLAW MONEY, Cody Hudson, Dan Buller, Dave Kloc, Donny Miller, Dug Nap, Dylan Fant, Ellen Voorheis, Erin Garcia, Greg Auerbach, Hayley Starr, Heidi Hartwig, Jackson Tupper, Jamal Gunn Becker, Jeremyville, Jermaine Rogers, Josh Maupin, Kozyndan, Michael Vincent Laviolette, Mtendere Mandowa ‘Teebs’, Nathan Bell, Patrick Martinez, Richard J. Oliver, Ron English, Saelee Oh, Obey Giant, Steven Arroyo, Sven Barth, Tyler Benjamin Gibney, Zoetica Ebb.

Music by following artists: Ernest Gonzales, DJ Dangit, Black Spade, DJ Jester the Filipino Fist, DJ Manny, soundfounder, DJ No Kid$, DJ Chicken George, Matt Sonzala.

Kicking off in Los Angeles earlier this year, “The Art of a Political Revolution” is a touring exhibition featuring both artists and musicians seeking to inspire change throughout the nation. Future exhibitions and locations include: Boston on February 19 – 21 and New York City, NY, February 24 – 28 2016.

Senator Sanders has started what he calls a “political revolution,” driving one of the most successful grassroots political campaigns of our time. As Sanders continues to force the debate on critical issues affecting all Americans, artists are sure to play a crucial role in getting people to engage, learn and become inspired. Income inequality, climate change, racial justice, immigration, and affordable education, are just some of the hot button issues that serve as the inspiration for these works from both international and locally acclaimed artists included in the show. Limited prints of artwork will be sold at the exhibition, the proceeds of which will be donated to Bernie Sanders 2016. Artist Jermaine Rogers will be present to sign limited edition prints from 8-9 pm.

The Art of a Political Revolution – Artists for Bernie Sanders
Friday, February 12 from 7:00pm – 11:00pm
#ArtistsForBernieSanders

Open Daily – Free Admission
Saturday, February 13th – Sunday, February 14 2016
12:00pm – 6:00pm

4115 Guadalupe St.
Austin, TX 78751

For Media Inquiries Contact:
Jennifer Gross / Julia Axelrod
Evolutionary Media Group
323.658.8700 (o) / 323.646.8412 (c)
Jennifer@emgpr.com / Julia@emgpr.com

MAUVAISE RÉPUTATION

mauvaisereputation

 

JEAN ANDRÉ
MAUVAISE RÉPUTATION

August 2nd – August 31st, 2015

Jean André’s “gentleman art” balances saucy and minimalistic representations of women, creating images that read as both gentlemen’s pulp illustration and satirical tableaux. His influences range from Matisse to Gainsbourg to Drake as well as erotic magazines from the 80’s.

For Mauvaise Réputation, Jean partners with Paris based tattoo artist Tarik aka The Crayoner. яндекс. The exhibition is inspired by old tattoos made as tributes for beloved women and ‘mauvais garçons’ inked drawings.

Friday July 31st and Saturday August 1st will be dedicated exclusively to tattoo sessions with The Crayoner & Jean André at HVW8 Gallery Berlin.

Tattoos by appointment only – to book please contact: jean@hvw8.com

The exhibition opens Sunday August 2nd, 1 – 6pm with an outdoor barbecue at HVW8 Gallery Berlin with San Miguel Beer. A limited number of hand-drawn black carbon on recycled paper posters and printed cards will be available for sale. Exhibition runs through August 31st.

HVW8 Gallery Berlin
Linienstraße 10115 Berlin Mitte

Same Space/New Light opening this Friday – HVW8 Berlin

JB_invite

Same Space/New Light

JB. Magazine issue #03 launch and group show featuring guest curators from Draw A Line

Featuring:

Boogie
Ed Templeton
Esh
Julie Oppermann
Erosie
Andrew Schoultz

Friday, December 12at 7:00pm – 10:00pm in UTC+01

HVW8 Berlin
Linienstraße 161, 10115 Berlin, Germany

JustBreathe. Magazine, from Berlin releases issue No. 3 on December 12th 2014 at the new HVW8 Gallery, Berlin.The launch will accompany an exhibition curated by JB. and feature art prints from the Berlin-based art publishers Draw A Line.

JB. Magazine will present selected works from contributors and artists: Boogie, Ed Templeton, Esh, Julie Oppermann, Erosie, Andrew Schoultz and local skateboard videographers Jonathan Peters and Francisco Saco.

Draw A Line works with artists to publish limited edition art prints and will present works from Markus Mai, Smash137, Tomek, Horfee, Cleon Peterson, and Cody Hudson.

HVW8 Art + Design Gallery with galleries in Berlin and Los Angeles has existed for over ten years with a mandate for supporting fine-art and avant-garde graphic design. In the past, the gallery has exhibited emerging and established artists such as Parra, Geoff McFetridge, Kevin Lyons, Hassan Rahim, and Jean André.

In this issue: BOOGIE, JOHN MALOOF/VIVIAN MAIER (Chicago), JOEL MEYEROWITZ
(NY), SERGEJ VUTUC in conversation with EMIR ESH TALKS (Bosnia), EROSIE (Netherlands), IAN JOHNSON (SF), ANDREW SCHOULTZ (LA), JULIE OPPERMANN (Boston / Berlin), RASA TODOSIJEVIC (Belgrade), LESLIE SHOWS (LA), TIM HEAD (London), ED TEMPLETON (LA), GRAPHIC SURGERY (Ams- terdam), INDIA HOBSON (Sheffield) and more.

7

1

Erin D. Garcia opens Saturday, August 16th

FLYER_O_700

5 Shapes in 6 Colors
August 16th – September 14th, 2014

Opening this Saturday at 7pm, please RSVP at rsvp@hvw8.com

For inquires email info@hvw8.com

Erin’s geometric abstractions derive from a mother structure of Stacked blocks and volumes rendered in a series of colors. He deconstructs this architecture of color into a simpler lexicon of lines, arches, and curves in an ongoing search of other primary structures, or as he says, “elements”.  These have been the units of full scale pop environments featured in fashion spreads for Bullett and Foam magazines and adorned the walls of the Ace and Standard Hotels. Though effortless in appearance, the ornamental function should not diminish the severity of his methodology. His work is a calculated process of designating, defining, arranging, and permuting elements and colors with algorithmic thoroughness. It embodies 1960′s Minimalism’s obsession with reduction, seriality, repetition, and a priori with a Sottsassian embrace of the decorative. However, with Erin’s treatment these shapes have never been so imposing and naturally enjoyable as the all-consuming and infinitely configurable Amen Break drum loop.

Erin’s work is in the title. Often reduced to a series of numbers, or definitions of a permutative process, there is an impulse to decode what number corresponds to what element, which is the color, and what is the relationship. All of this implies an inherent rhythm in the way that these patterns are arranged.  His compositional logic is intimately tied to strategies of musical arrangement but exploit the mind’s tendency to complete data. Lines that edge triangles appear completed, but upon closer look, are actually disconnected and superimposed with unmet corners. Three dimensional solids we perceive as pyramids are actually incomplete and interrupted by yet another incomplete solid. It is a counterargument to the Gestalt, the theory of mind that the global whole is more than the sum of its parts. As if he means to argue that the global whole is actually a sum of parts. Or stated in Erin’s nomenclature, that “stacks” are just “elements” with no corners.

Minimalism’s gamble fell short with its habit of weighing down its simplicity with lofty theory. After all, less can’t be more when you have to read before understanding. Whether operating in the tradition of Gestalt or not, Erin’s work is instant. Ed Ruscha taught art to choose yellow, pink, and blue over black, white, and grey. The vibrancy of color, sterility, spontaneity, and casualness of appearance has come to be inextricably linked to the overall aesthetic of Los Angeles. Its strong history of pop, abstraction, and west coast lax is communicated in a language of waves, gloss, and playful irreverence. Erin isn’t claiming this territory, but rather, seems to be isolating LA’s formal identity into a codex of yellow half circles and blue waves that subconsciously reads as something distinctly Angelian.

It’s difficult in it’s procedural complexity, yet, refuses any need of calculation. It’s immediate, familiar. Something as fundamental as a shape is universal enough to draw cultural associations: sun, ocean, cross; yet, the moment you do, you’ve already overthought it.

To Sottsass colors are words;  to Erin, colors are numbers, and numbers are beats.

Born in the South, Erin is a musician, artist, and designer living and practicing in Los Angeles. He has published folios, collaborated with JUCO fashion and photographer John Michael Fulton, and completed three commissioned public murals. His work has been exhibited internationally in Tokyo, London, New York and Art Basel Miami.  5 shapes in 6 Colors is his second solo exhibition and second showing at HVW8 Gallery.

 

Erin_D_Garcia-1kweb

Repetitions of 6 Shapes in 6 Colors, Acrylic on Wood Panel, 18 x 24″ (45.7 x 61 cm)

Parra opens Saturday, June 28th

bellpepper

That Red Bell Pepper Life
by Parra
2014
Acrylic on canvas
39.4” x 39.4” (100 x 100cm)

Parra
Same Old Song
New Paintings and Drawings

Opening Saturday, June 28th, 7 – 10pm
Please RSVP at rsvp@hvw8.com

The works in Same Old Song are overturned wine glasses, leisure-suited perverts, and behind-the-bar-booty slaps arranged in compositions of red, white, blue, pink, Ben-Day dots, and stars. In all its orgiastic fervor, his work is foremost graphic in character: tightly controlled compositions, highly saturated colors, flood-filled silhouettes, flatness, and hard edges that are hallmarks of the comic tradition that Lichtenstein had notoriously usurped to conflate the proverbial high-and-low strata of the 1960s Pop movement.

While Lichtenstein’s early production was made for the gallery, Parra had his start in flyers, posters, and other media of advertorial nature. His works are visual literalizations of a dirty punchline. Sometimes they are art referential; other times they seem to be purely profane, both harmlessly witty and uncomfortably politically incorrect. When asked why he uses his trademark beaked humanoids, he claims that if he drew human faces, the figure becomes too familiar. Generalizations and types are more truthful than the personal.

Parra once described his work as “fast and freestyle” with an intent to un-complicate, purposefully limiting himself to a small color palette. This simplification makes his work all the more viral ­ it has the ability to travel through pervasive and accessible channels.  Whether it¹s democratizing or artlessly commercial is a question already beat to exhaustion by Pop and Post-modern. Parra doesn¹t care. His is an example of the strength of graphic design. It shamelessly hijacks commercial systems of circulation and is propagated with both compositional sophistication and crudeness like a silk-gloved bitchslap, a force that gains institutional recognition incidentally, without solicitation. A commercial illustrator doesn’t just earn international gallery exhibitions in major art centers and murals in cultural institutions such as SF MOMA and MOCA without at least some published critical endorsement from an academic.

Parra is a graphic artist, designer, and musician living and working in Amsterdam. He has recently exhibited in New York, Antwerp, Cologne, San Francisco, and Tokyo. Same Old Song is his fifth solo exhibition at HVW8 Gallery.

 

 

‘Distillations’ by Hassan Rahim

 

Hassan_Distaillations

TBT (Distillation 2)
25 x 33″
Metallic C-Print, Archival Inkjet, and Xerox Photocopy with 6-Ply Mat
Unique
2014

 

Hassan Rahim
Distillations
May 29th – June 22nd, 2014

Distillations is a refusal. Collage overlays images to connect disparate contexts and temporal zones. People and objects are layered, decontextualized, cut, and pasted into oblivion. At some point, a lack of restraint only leaves heaps of forced narratives, absurdity, and theoretical hash.

Instead of compositing, Rahim practices a sort of anti-collage allowing images originally chosen for montage to remain separated and unviolated.  Associated images not only share a frame, but also exist in the same chronology. This contemporaneity of pictures, given the dignity of negative space, serves to concentrate a narrative. BMW rims and Air Jordans were not only collateral in the height of ‘90s street theft but were also major pawns in collector culture. Like luxury cars, his works operate on a value of period-correctness – a system of fetish and preservation. Both abstract and figurative, his work negotiates issues of nostalgia and iconicity as constructions of the personal and universal subconscious.

He asserts the material and intrinsic worth of objects in relation to the specific time and place of their production. Cultural relics like an authentic 1984 LA Olympic archery pad and a true BMW E30 windshield existed in the same decade as 1987’s violent Operation Hammer, a city initiative where the slightest suspicion of drug possession justified a fever pitch of police brutality, mass incarceration, and prejudiced racial profiling. The archery board, an artifact from the very event that gave legislative rise to Operation Hammer, has an eerie physical relationship with the cracked windshield in which it repeats the same violence of targeting, bludgeoning, and revolt that characterized the streets during the LA Riots.

Not only are these objects part of a street market economy, holistically Rahim casts them as totems of competition: basketball, cars, gangs and music. Master of None, a weighty arrangement of tiered podiums resembling the pedestals of Formula One racing, is stripped of its function and reduced to its essential minimal form. When isolated from its competitive context, one is confronted with its brute materiality and presence. It is at once purely aesthetic and a cynical expression of hierarchy, a stage without champions. Much like the ambiguity in his other pieces, the viewer is left between sculpture and commentary.

Warp Zone #5 is part of an ongoing series of photographic drawings. Symbols and icons are transformed into spiral amorphs. They appear to be mundane objects and phrases but are flattened into a galaxy of its own skewed gravity. Each component is on the cusp of recognition and suggests a relationship with its neighboring element, but ultimately concedes to the motion of its own nightmarish realm.

With Rauschenberg’s visual semantics and Man Ray’s photographic unconscious, the pieces in Distillations are faint recollections of an era floating in purgatory. Solarized prints of Dr. Dre’s monumental album The Chronic, distorted reproductions of the Nike Air Foamposites, and Northrop Grumman’s B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber are appropriated and manipulated into a spectral grammar of kink, poetry, and violence. Despite a conceptual grounding in his personal memories, Rahim suggests form, then rejects it; retains context, then negates it; collages, then throws it all into the white noise.

Hassan Rahim, b. 1987, Los Angeles, is a mixed media artist and art director living in Philadelphia. This is his second solo exhibition at HVW8 Art + Design Gallery; he has previously exhibited in Milan and Amsterdam.

Hassan Rahim – Distillations

 

Hassan-Rahim-Distillations-Final

Hassan Rahim
Distillations
May 29th – June 22nd, 2014

Opening Thursday, May 29th, 7 – 10pm

Please RSVP at rsvp@hvw8.com

In his second solo exhibition Distillations, Hassan Rahim applies his visual dialogue to deeper negotiate iconicity and nostalgia as constructions of the personal and universal subconscious. Using episodes from his past as a conceptual framework, futuristic fighter planes and vignettes from Los Angeles’s seedy history are re-contextualized in a spectral grammar of poetry and violence.

With Rauschenberg’s collage semantics, Stella’s defiance of the canvas, and Ruscha’s typographical sensibilities, Rahim’s obsessions are lacquered under layers of worship, kink, machinery, and analog static.

Hassan Rahim, b. 1987, Los Angeles, is an artist and art director. His work, reminiscent of vague childhood memories and adolescent fantasies, utilizes photography, collage and mixed media to create strong contextual pieces which are both appealing and alarming to the audience. This is his second solo exhibition at HVW8 Art + Design Gallery; he has previously exhibited in Milan and Amsterdam.

Please email info@hvw8.com for inquiries.