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Tag: Mark Moore Gallery

In a fantastical style, Julie Heffernan injects the landscapes of her imagination with modern and classical allegory. For her third solo exhibition at Mark Moore Gallery, opening May 7th, she will debut a new series of self-portraits that combine personal with political themes. "Pre-Occupations" continues her previous exhibition (covered here) in both mood and visual lushness, evoking thoughts of the Renaissance but set in the future. Heffernan's use of the word self-portrait is metaphorical here. Rather, traces of her can be found in her maidens' surreal surroundings.
While Kris Kuksi's baroque assemblages (first covered in HF Vol. 19) have an ornate aesthetic suited for marble or gilded bronze, his work is composed of carefully-chosen collections of commonplace, throwaway objects. Kuksi assembles dolls, jewelry, model parts and various consumerist debris into monumental dioramas. Within them, his characters are embroiled in a chaotic drama of violence and sex, which Kuksi carefully contains into symmetrical, harmonious compositions that appear deceptively decorative at a first glance. The Kansas-based artist will be showing his new body of work for his solo show, "Antiquity in the Faux," opening at Mark Moore Gallery in Los Angeles on November 15.
Kiel Johnson (HF Vol. 14) currently has a solo exhibition of new drawings on view at Mark Moore Gallery, titled "Walldayallday". This show demonstrates his signature, elaborate execution of layered narratives. His drawings borderline the obsessive, exhibiting a wild curiosity with mechanical aesthetics. Setting these pieces apart however are their organic quality. In fact, Johnson looked to nature for the inspiration, the system of bee populations. A practiced bee keeper himself, Johnson intimately understands the structured yet chaotic world of bee society. His imagery represents this swarming micro universe, and draws a parrallel to our own modern relationship with industry.
On Saturday at Mark Moore gallery, Rob and Christian Clayton aka Clayton Brothers brought together an expansive body of eclectic work, "Open to the Public" (previewed here). The exhibition includes everything from miniature drawing, painting, sculptures, interactive video and an installation that is like a twisted child's playroom. The brothers credit their thrift shop "mecca", the Sun Thrift Store in Sunland, CA as the visual inspiration.
While Rob and Christian Clayton (collectively known as the Clayton Brothers) are known for their color-saturated paintings of surreal characters, the artists shed their polished veneer in favor of quick drawings with a sense of immediacy for their upcoming show, "Open to the Public" at Mark Moore Gallery in LA. For the exhibition, the artists studied the peculiar microcosm of Sun Thrift Shop, a local second-hand store where trash becomes treasure. The Claytons present a series of assemblages and works on paper based on their documentation. They utilize not only found objects found at Sun Thrift, but sketches of customers who become warped through the brothers' lens. Similarly to the ways thrift store shoppers find ways to repurpose used items, the Clayton Brothers offer a fresh perspective on what could easily be written off as shabby and mundane.
Japanese artist Kenichi Yokono was on hand Saturday night for his opening of “The New Suburbs” at Mark Moore Gallery. Yokono’s show is a jarring vision of Japanese suburbia. Matched with Cheryl Pope’s reaction to violence in America, “Chain Reaction”, one could mistake Yokono's pictures for a murder scene. True, it might look like spilled blood- but if you look closer, you’ll see its just last night's dinner. Read more after the jump.
Now on view at Mark Moore Gallery’s project room is “Hunting Trophies” by Jeremy Fish, marking his first solo exhibition there. (We previously covered Fish’s work at Mark Moore gallery here.) Fish injects a high dose of color to the space where he appears next to Christopher Russell’s monochromatic prints, “GRFALWKV”. Walking into the exhibit is like stepping inside Fish’s own trophy room, stacked with cartoon animal ‘kills’ in his highly saturated, illustrative style. Hi-Fructose caught up with Fish to talk about his new work.

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