Greetings from Los Angeles
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Starkwhite is pleased to present
Greetings from Los Angeles, an exhibition
curated by Brian Butler.
Like a postcard which
arrives in the letterbox, Greetings from Los
Angeles is from a place, but it does not mean
the sender or thoughts are solely from that place. The contemporary
art world is spoken of as a transnational and trans-cultural space,
populated by nomadic figures whose influences and sphere of
influence becomes enmeshed. Grounded in a relationship built when
the Californian curator was director of Auckland's Artspace
gallery, the exhibition presents a slice of current practice from
Butler's home Los Angeles back to Auckland at the invitation of
Starkwhite.
Los Angeles'
transformation into a world-class contemporary art city is several
decades in the making. It grew
organically, and in varied directions, out of a process of
experimentation and the cross-pollination of different artistic
practices, traditions and cultural movements.
Distinguished by its patchwork of ethnic communities
and Pacific location yet trans-Atlantic focus, LA is both a broker
of, and catalyst for, impulses in contemporary art practice. Los
Angeles is a city where everything intersects.
A slice of that
dynamically cross-pollinated art scene,
Greetings from Los Angeles presents the
work of eight internationally practicing artists. While it is easy
to conclude that having an international profile is all about
exporting New Zealand work overseas, a reciprocal programme
bringing influential current practice to our shores is no less
vital. It is not only the ability to see a slice of the
international scene and the work of significant contemporary
artists which are key to feeding local practice, but also the
instigating of new alliances and global networks.
Increasingly positioned and finding
a new identity at the intersection of Asia-Pacific routes and
artists, Starkwhite in particular, and New Zealand in general, is
redefining its focus and nurturing trans-Pacific trajectories. Los
Angeles is at the periphery of this network, the Eastern
Pacific-Rim powerhouse of contemporary culture.
All of the artists in this exhibition have exhibited
previously in New Zealand and many of them are currently in
exhibitions around the world.
Diana Thater can be seen
in Riotous Baroque at the
Kunsthaus Zürich and was the subject of the recent one-person
exhibition
Chernobyl at the
IMA, Brisbane. Fiona
Banner's Art Angel
project A Room for London
continues until the end of 2012 while her Tate Britain
commission was voted the most important exhibition of
2011. Jessica
Stockholder's 2010
Reina Sofia exhibition in Madrid transformed the
Palacio de Cristal del Parque del Retiro. Stockholder has just
completed the largest public artwork in Chicago. Color
Jam has taken over a major intersection until the end of
September. Kerry
Tribe's work has been the
subject of solo exhibitions at The Power Plant, Toronto, Modern
Art, Oxford, the Camden Arts Centre, London and Arnolfini, Bristol.
Her work was first seen in Laura Preston's exhibition moment
making at ARTSPACE in 2006 and was recently at the
Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in TRUE STORIES: SCRIPTED
REALITIES. Rirkrit Tiravanija
currently has a major work SOUP/NO SOUP at
the Palais de Tokyo, Paris. Ann Veronica
Janssens is currently in the 18th Biennale of
Sydney. In 2011, Uta Barth
completed a new commission for The Chicago Art
Institute, which has lead to two new bodies of work and a recently
released book. Jorge Méndez Blake
currently has a seminal work at the Musée d'Art Moderne
de la Ville de Paris/ ARC in Resisting the
Present and was included in the 2011
exhibition 21st Century at
GOMA, Brisbane with Rirkrit Tiravanija.
Located in New Zealand on Auckland's Karangahape
Road, Starkwhite presents a programme of artists' projects, solo
shows by represented and invited artists, independently curated
exhibitions and occasional forays into new music and other
interdisciplinary practices.
Please contact the gallery for further information and
images.
Starkwhite
510 Karangahape Road, Auckland, New Zealand
Tel. +64 9 3070703
Monday to Friday: 11.00am to 6.00pm
Saturday: 11.00am to 5.00pm
starkwhite@starkwhite.co.nz
http://www.starkwhite.blogspot.com/
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