Live Forever (2010 – 2020)

HVW8 Gallery is pleased to present “Live Forever, Ten Years of Cali Thornhill DeWitt, 2010-2020” featuring original artwork and ephemera from the artist’s prolific practice. 

In the last decade Dewitt’s consistent experimentation with images and text has evolved from early poster, sign and flag works to more recent flower paintings and can be seen in his numerous clothing collaborations, zine and book editions, music album art, etc.  Many of the works in the exhibition will be on view in Los Angeles for the first time. 

Thank you to Darren Romanelli, Tremaine Emory and Brendan Lynch for lending work to this show and Virgina Rand for text.

 

ret·ro·spec·tive

/ˌretrəˈspektiv/

adjective

looking back on or dealing with past events or situations.

noun

an exhibition or compilation showing the development of the work of a particular artist over a period of time.

There is an unmistakable flavor to another decade of Americana.  2010-2020 has been punctuated with pills, laced with hysteria, shot up with bullets and fentanyl, nipped and tucked, filled with silicone and Xanax, while the sex and violence have become so monotonously predictable that they fade into the background like white noise.  In that time, words and text have shaped our reality through a ceaseless barrage of pixels on screens.  Images and words that can be held, framed, hung on the wall, congregated before, or spat on (don’t do it), and otherwise hold physical space, still command a different impact than all we see digitally.  The rise of technology is visible in DeWitt’s retrospective, with nods to strange internet humor, the crudeness of cheap porn and low-resolution, and the uncanny contrast of subjects one sees between the streets and screens.  Still, the chaotic humanity of this past decade and an unhinged culture reign. 

Some have interpreted this past era of work with projected intentions, questions and challenges. Narratives spring up all around, as they do in all of our individual homes, grids, and images – these little plots of space where we have tried to play God.  But perhaps the texts and images are simply there, lumped into a time and place together, congealing into the loudness and color which comprise our pixelated planet.

Text by Virgina Rand

Bio:

Cali Thornhill DeWitt (b. 1973) is an artist, photographer, director and designer who lives in Los Angeles.

DeWitt has published artists books with multiple publishers including New Rose in Town (2013) from Hess Press, and Grave Yard came out in late 2014 from And Press.  DeWitt has exhibited artworks at Big Love, Tokyo; Muddguts in New York; V1 Gallery, Copenhagen; and For Your Art, Human Resources, and Family Gallery in Los Angeles.

DeWitt has also collaborated with Kanye West for the ‘The Life of Pablo Tour’ as well as Virgil Abloh and Tremaine Emory.