Join us for the closing reception of Group Dynamics and Improper Light  on Thursday, 13 September 2012, 7-9PM. Visitors will have the opportunity to see the final photographs and videos which have resulted from Osterloh's residency.

The exhibition has been extended through 30 September 2012.

LACE is proud to present Group Dynamics and Improper Light a new large-scale installation by artist Gina Osterloh, curated by Carol A. Stakenas and Robert Crouch. Osterloh constructs life-size room environments and activates them through still serial performances, paper-maché models, and cardboard cutouts. Group Dynamics and Improper Light will explore the relationships between abstraction and identity, the space between individuals, and what determines “a group” within a social context.

This commission marks a new arc in Osterloh’s career. Group Dynamics and Improper Light is the first time the artist’s process has been made public – her meticulous set construction, how each set is dependent upon her 4x5 large format camera, lighting decisions, and experimentation with materials.

For her residency at LACE, Osterloh moved her entire studio practice into the main gallery in June 2012 and has constructed a life-size room environment from start to finish. The gallery has been open to the public, allowing Osterloh to engage with visitors as part of her process. When a visitor enters the gallery, they will walk into a unique working stage set installed in the gallery. The set explores abstraction and identity through the lens of “improper light”, as each material and light both illuminates and obscures the subjects being photographed.

A monograph accompanying the exhibition will be forthcoming.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Gina Osterloh is an artist and educator based in Los Angeles, California. Currently she is working on a short film essay that addresses issues of perception and identity through the lens of blindness.  Osterloh ...

Join us for the opening reception of  Shells, Bells, Steps And Silences and Group Dynamics and Improper Light on Thursday, 28 June 2012, 8-10PM.

LACE is proud to present Shells, Bells, Steps And Silences, a new video installation and film survey by Los Angeles artist Steve Roden, curated by LACE Associate Director/Curator Robert Crouch. While Roden has been making films for over 20 years, this is the first body of work he has made with video exclusively, although the visual language and the approach to performance is certainly an extension of his 2011 film, Striations. Shells, Bells, Steps And Silences incorporates 3 research projects conducted by the artist over the past year: a collection of sea shells acquired by Roden from the estate of modern dancer Martha Graham, notes from a recent residency at the Walter Benjamin archive in Berlin, and John Cage’s seminal 4’33”, a work that Roden performed daily over the course of an entire year.

In October 2011, Steve Roden was invited by the DAAD to spend a month researching Walter Benjamin’s archives at the Akademie der Kunste, after having seen some of Benjamin’s notebooks previously in an exhibition in Berlin in 2006. Because he is unable to speak or read German, Roden responded primarily to the visual aspects of Benjamin’s notebooks - and was particularly excited by a series of color-coded symbols that resembled the kind of graphic notations avant-garde composers were exploring during the 1960’s. Benjamin used a variety of visual systems to organize his writings within his manuscripts, and so Roden spent much of his time translating Benjamin’s various graphic decisions and idiosyncrasies into scores.

When Roden arrived in Berlin, he was already ten months into a yearlong project of performing John Cage’s 4’33” every ...

Join us in celebrating the opening of our summer season! LACE will present the solo exhibitions of two Los Angeles artists, Gina Osterloh and Steve Roden.

Group Dynamics and Improper Light
For the past several years, Gina Osterloh has constructed life-size room environments through still serial performances with anonymous women, paper-maché models, and cardboard cutouts. Taking place in our main gallery, she will create three stage sets that explore the relationships between abstraction and identity, the space between individuals, and what determines “a group” within a social context. Each stage set will be unique in both material and lighting. Building upon previous working methods, the artist will conduct a series of photo and video shoots in each set with volunteers from the public, as well as cardboard cut outs of human figures.  
Find out more at welcometolace.org/exhibitions/view/gina-osterloh-group-dynamics-and-improper-light/

Shells, Bells, Steps and Silence

LACE is proud to present Shells, Bells, Steps And Silence, a new video installation and film survey by Los Angeles artist Steve Roden. This poetic new work incorporates 3 research projects conducted by the artist over the past year: a collection of sea shells acquired by Roden from the estate of modern dancer Martha Graham, notes from a recent residency at the Walter Benjamin archive in Berlin, and John Cage’s seminal 4’33”, a work that Roden performed daily over the course of an entire year.

Shells, Bells, Steps And Silence will also be accompanied by a series of events, open to the public, including sound performances, a workshop, and more. Stay tuned for more information at welcometolace.org/exhibitions/view/steve-roden-shells-bells-steps-and-silence/