On the Line

March 3, 2011 – April 24, 2011

curated by Cody Trepte

LACE is thrilled to announce On the Line, a group show curated by emerging artist and curator Cody Trepte. On the Line features work from Meg Cranston, Larry Johnson, Sarah Seager, and Mitchell Syrop.

Since its inception in the late ‘60s, Conceptualism has shaken the art world, giving rise to a new type of art that prioritized ideas over form. As it developed, Conceptual Art began to spill over into other facets of art making, but its heavy reliance on language fueled criticism that it was inaccessible and insider.

A new generation of artists gaining prominence in Los Angeles during the ‘80s sought to tackle this problem head on. On The Line looks to four artists — Meg Cranston, Larry Johnson, Sarah Seager, and Mitchell Syrop — whose use of language can be seen as an evolution of Conceptualism. They parsed the discipline, and introduced a content that was more emotive while still maintaining the rigorous investment in ideas that artists like Sol Lewitt and Joseph Kosuth set forth.

With a casual commitment to systems, a heavy injection of reclaimed subjectivity, and the reintroduction of formal concerns, the artists in this exhibition continue to morph the use of text-in-art from its early rigid applications to a more humorous and pathos filled practice. The result is a simultaneous questioning and affirmation of Conceptualism which allows the discourse to continually reinvent itself.