Mungo Thomson: Einstein #1    Mar 29 - Apr 26, 2008

Margo Leavin Gallery is pleased to announce Einstein #1, a publication and exhibition of new work by Mungo Thomson. The exhibition consists of over fifty drawings and a full-color comic book conceived, written, drawn, and published by the artist. The drawings and finished publication will be on view from 29 March to 26 April 2008.

Much of Thomson's work takes the gaps or pauses that occur within cultural production and extends them indefinitely. Several of his best known works showcase the negative space around an established body of work: The Collected Live Recordings of Bob Dylan 1963-1995, 1999, an audio work of only the applause from all of Dylan's live albums, and The American Desert (for Chuck Jones), 2002, a video of desert landscapes from Roadrunner cartoons.

Likewise, the central characters of Einstein #1 have been removed from a wide-ranging trove of found comic book material. Every panel has been redrawn by the artist from a different source, with its central characters and speech balloons removed. What remains are only the common spaces of comic books. Einstein #1 consists of three typologies of such spaces: the laboratory or lair, the destroyed city, and outer space. These spaces have been restructured into a new, un-peopled narrative. The protagonist who normally occupies the center of the action is replaced by the viewer, who embarks on an evolving travelogue through these spaces, and through the popular and mythological spaces of the comics medium.

Einstein #1 is a comic book that deconstructs its own medium while telling a story with sequential art. The "story" is a set of broad themes expounding upon the wonders and limits of human imagination and intelligence. The collapse of innocent fantasy and destructive hubris that it describes is, not coincidentally, the latent subject matter, and thrill, of comic books in general.

This will be Mungo Thomson's fourth solo exhibition at Margo Leavin Gallery. His work will be included in the 2008 Whitney Biennial Exhibition in New York City. Other upcoming exhibitions include The Cinema Effect at The Hirshhorn Museum in Washington D.C., The 2008 Le Havre Biennial in Le Havre, France, and the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia. Recent solo exhibitions have included Between Projects at the Kadist Art Foundation in Paris, and Negative Space Variations at GAMeC in Bergamo, Italy.

Margo Leavin Gallery is located at 812 North Robertson Boulevard in Los Angeles.

Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.