FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Regen Projects
629 North Almont Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90069
Tel. (310) 276-5424
Fax. (310) 276-7430
LARI PITTMAN: "ONCE A NOUN, NOW A VERB"
January 24 - February 28, 1998
Gallery hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 11-5 PM
Opening reception: Saturday, January 24, 6:00-8:00 PM
Regen Projects is pleased to announce the exhibition of a new series of paintings by Lari Pittman entitled, Once a Noun, Now a Verb. This exhibition will include Pittman's epic 8' x 20' painting Once a Noun, Now a Verb #1 which was included in last summer's Documenta X, as well as four new 4' x 3' paintings from the series.
Reviewing Documenta X, Stuart Morgan writes, "Lari Pittman's tour de force, titled Once a Noun, Now a Verb #1, 1997 resembles a board game with rules of its own. Skyscrapers appear in the distance, powder blue against a dark pink sky, and --high up-- a face with lipstick and plucked eyebrows, sporting a 30's hairstyle and smoking a hookah. Along it a tiny circus performer is making his way, hand over hand, as androgynous movie stars gaze out from billboards... Hybrid, bitchy, bisexual, Pittman's work makes daily life so theatrical that it resembles a private language. But what is the point?... Perhaps the very act of maneuvering through situations which are delicate at best gives a sense of achievement, like the tightrope-walker or the spider on its web." (Frieze. Sept./Oct. 1997)
In the most recent paintings from this series, Pittman depicts graceful acrobats gliding across the foreground, some shedding delicate drops of blood as they swing past brushy vignettes of pastoral landscapes. A figurative menagerie of steel battleships, submarines, porcelain toilets, and floral matter is woven in and around an intricate tapestry of decoration. Operatic and densely layered, Pittman combines the appropriations and deconstructions of postmodernism with the multi-incident structure and grandeur of early Renaissance panels. (Duncan. Art in America. Dec. 1996) Weaving a figurative cast of characters into a structure of ornamental abstraction, Pittman creates multiple narrative and visual paths that resemble an intellectual chutes and ladders. Both optimistic and visionary, Once a Noun, Now a Verb is perhaps a sincere assertion that out of an object can come an act.
Following this exhibition, these paintings will be included in Lari Pittman's first touring solo museum exhibition in Europe. The exhibition is being organized by Cornerhouse in Manchester and Spacex in Exeter and will travel to the ICA in London, and the Centre d'Art Contemporain in Geneva among other venues. A fully illustrated catalogue will be produced in conjunction with this exhibition.
An opening reception for Lari Pittman will be held on Saturday, January 24, 6:00-8:00 PM at the gallery. For further information please contact Stuart Regen or Shaun Caley at the gallery.
UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS:
Matthew Barney: March
Liz Larner: April
Regen Projects
629 North Almont Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90069
Tel. (310) 276-5424
Fax. (310) 276-7430
LARI PITTMAN: "ONCE A NOUN, NOW A VERB"
January 24 - February 28, 1998
Gallery hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 11-5 PM
Opening reception: Saturday, January 24, 6:00-8:00 PM
Regen Projects is pleased to announce the exhibition of a new series of paintings by Lari Pittman entitled, Once a Noun, Now a Verb. This exhibition will include Pittman's epic 8' x 20' painting Once a Noun, Now a Verb #1 which was included in last summer's Documenta X, as well as four new 4' x 3' paintings from the series.
Reviewing Documenta X, Stuart Morgan writes, "Lari Pittman's tour de force, titled Once a Noun, Now a Verb #1, 1997 resembles a board game with rules of its own. Skyscrapers appear in the distance, powder blue against a dark pink sky, and --high up-- a face with lipstick and plucked eyebrows, sporting a 30's hairstyle and smoking a hookah. Along it a tiny circus performer is making his way, hand over hand, as androgynous movie stars gaze out from billboards... Hybrid, bitchy, bisexual, Pittman's work makes daily life so theatrical that it resembles a private language. But what is the point?... Perhaps the very act of maneuvering through situations which are delicate at best gives a sense of achievement, like the tightrope-walker or the spider on its web." (Frieze. Sept./Oct. 1997)
In the most recent paintings from this series, Pittman depicts graceful acrobats gliding across the foreground, some shedding delicate drops of blood as they swing past brushy vignettes of pastoral landscapes. A figurative menagerie of steel battleships, submarines, porcelain toilets, and floral matter is woven in and around an intricate tapestry of decoration. Operatic and densely layered, Pittman combines the appropriations and deconstructions of postmodernism with the multi-incident structure and grandeur of early Renaissance panels. (Duncan. Art in America. Dec. 1996) Weaving a figurative cast of characters into a structure of ornamental abstraction, Pittman creates multiple narrative and visual paths that resemble an intellectual chutes and ladders. Both optimistic and visionary, Once a Noun, Now a Verb is perhaps a sincere assertion that out of an object can come an act.
Following this exhibition, these paintings will be included in Lari Pittman's first touring solo museum exhibition in Europe. The exhibition is being organized by Cornerhouse in Manchester and Spacex in Exeter and will travel to the ICA in London, and the Centre d'Art Contemporain in Geneva among other venues. A fully illustrated catalogue will be produced in conjunction with this exhibition.
An opening reception for Lari Pittman will be held on Saturday, January 24, 6:00-8:00 PM at the gallery. For further information please contact Stuart Regen or Shaun Caley at the gallery.
UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS:
Matthew Barney: March
Liz Larner: April