David Klamen Meta-Paintings and Remixes
Mark Moore Gallery is proud to present "Meta-Paintings and Remixes,” an exhibition of
paintings by gallery artist, David Klamen. Marking the artist's first solo exhibition with the
gallery, this recent body of work showcases Klamen’s newest paintings of paintings. In these
works, the artist further investigates the nature, source, and limits of knowledge by
undermining the foundation of our empirical experience: our sense of sight. In each new
painting, Klamen radically re-invents famous paintings from the pre-modern and modern
era, overlapping seemingly incompatible artistic visions as a metaphor for our
phenomenological search for meaning.
According to Plato’s concept of forms, the world that we know through our senses often
deceives us by way of subjective images. Klamen’s multi-canvas installation, “Meta-Paintings”
(2013), elaborates on this concept by presenting well-known works of art in a recontextualized
space, highlighting the deception of each image through masterful illusion
and imagination. In these twenty-five smaller paintings, Klamen presents an installation that
playfully mimics a salon style hanging. The diagonal slopes created by the various slanting
paintings suggest a cubist bas-relief that compresses art historical time periods and physical
space. As is the case with nearly all of his paintings, each iconic artwork (as well as its frame,
and oftentimes wall label) is meticulously rendered as a representation of a representation,
moving further and further from its archetypal form—pointing to a distortion of reality
already present in the original image. To further complicate the simulacrum, Klamen plays
with the viewer’s perception by drastically altering the perspective of the painting, tilting the
work at an oblique angle within his own canvas. In his “remixes,” Klamen manipulates
images from the art historical canon by warping then into optical oscillations full of
contingencies and surprises. The psychedelic result suggests a disoriented ocular state that
hints at the malleable nature of our reality—a reality that relies heavily on the conviction of
our individual experiences.
David Klamen (American, b.1961) earned his Bachelor's of Fine Arts at the University of
Illinois, Champaign/Urbana in 1983 and his Master's of Fine Arts in Painting at the School of
the Art Institute in 1985. He is currently Chancellor’s Professor of Fine Arts at Indiana
University Northwest. Klamen is represented in the following public collections: the
Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY), Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (CA), the
Museum of Contemporary Art (IL), the Whitney Museum of American Art (NY), the San
Francisco Museum of Modern Art (CA), and the Chazen Museum of Art in Madison (WI),
De Young Museum (CA), Illinois State Museum (IL), and others.
Joseph Hart KISS IDIOMS
In Gallery Two, Mark Moore Gallery proudly presents new work by Brooklyn-based artist
Joseph Hart. An inaugural solo show for the artist in Los Angeles, "KISS IDIOMS" will
showcase several works on paper and paintings on canvas that demonstrate Hart's
trademark marriage between whimsical mark-making and Brutalism.
Navigating the tension between serenity and chaos, Hart presents abstracted renditions of
physicality; both space and objects become reconstituted gestures or collage. Like blurry
snapshots or excerpts from Hart's active process, elements of his compositions coalesce
into a survey of tactility. Abrupt line work, colorful snippets of studio debris, pieces
appropriated from his daughter’s sticker cache, and smudged, quilt-like patterns in oil paint,
all form loose aesthetic references to Twombly, Joan Mitchell, and Mondrian, but retain a
distinctive sense of process and impulse. Through Hart's methodical destruction and rebuilding
of materials, the cut collages presented in "KISS IDIOMS" appear as edited,
autobiographical assemblages, while Hart's large-scale paintings relay a more primal, latent
psychology. Through both techniques, Hart poetically explores the cyclical, nuanced
complexity of being, as well as the relationship between chance and kismet.
Originally from New Hampshire, Joseph Hart is a New York-based artist. His work has
been exhibited at Galerie Vidal Saint Phalle in Paris, Galleri Tom Christofferson in
Copenhagen, Cooper Cole Gallery in Toronto, Alexander & Bonin, CRG Gallery, Klaus
Von Nichtssangend Gallery, David Krut and Halsey Mckay Gallery in New York, among
others. Hart’s work has also been included in notable shows at the Bronx Museum of the
Arts (NY), Santa Monica Museum of Art (CA), and The Elizabeth Foundation for The Arts
(NY). His work has been featured in periodicals such as FlashArt, Modern Painters, and The
New York Times. He is currently a resident artist at the Dieu Donné Workspace Program,
in New York. Hart holds a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design.