Joshua Liner Gallery is pleased to present Go East, a selection of work by four emerging artists represented by Mark Moore Gallery of Culver City, California. Go East—featuring Chad Person, Feodor Voronov, Kenichi Yokono, and Yoram Wolberger—is the first installment in a bicoastal exchange between the two galleries, and will be on exhibit during the New York editions of the 2012 Frieze and PULSE art fairs (May 3-7). In July 2012, the “gallery swap” will be completed with Go West at Mark Moore Gallery, a presentation of work by Joshua Liner Gallery artists David Ellis and Kris Kuksi in Los Angeles.
Go East artist Chad Person explores today’s confluence of economic, political, and societal power structures by using a variety of media and forms, including installation, sculpture, drawing, and performance. His lively critiques have featured large-scale inflatable balloons of corporate mascots and a performance in a survivalist-themed “apocalypse bunker.” At Joshua Liner Gallery, Person will present cut-paper on canvas works from his Taxcut series. These images of tanks, armored vehicles, and other military equipment are created from actual U.S. currency, pointing to the pervasive influence of financial interests in the execution of government power. Born in 1978, Chad Person received an MFA from Univeristy of New Mexico and lives and works in Albuquerque. He has received solo exhibitions at Mark Moore Gallery (2010) and Freight + Volume (2011) in New York, and participated in Lucky #7, the 2008 SITE Santa Fe biennial.
The Los Angeles-based abstract painter Feodor Voronov finds beauty and formal intrigue in drawing lines and repetitive mark-making, which fan out in prismatic bursts across his colorful canvases. Working in acrylic, pen, and spray paint, and often using the shapes of words as points of departure, Voronov riffs and expands on their graphic possibilities, creating complex interplays of line, pattern, and color. These spirited works evoke an “image of thought,” drawing inspiration from philosophers Gilles Deleuze and John Rajchman and their investigations of the role of repetition in cognition and culture. They also call to mind the early twentieth-century art of the Orphism movement, such as fellow Russian painter Sonia Delauney. Born in 1980 in St. Petersburg, Feodor Voronov received an MFA from Claremont Graduate University (CGU) and lives and works in Los Angeles. In January 2012, Mark Moore Gallery presented Word Paintings, Voronov’s debut solo exhibiton; the artist has also participated in group exhibitions, including Forever Now curated by David Pagel at CGU (2010).
Japanese artist Kenichi Yokono finds a captivating hybrid in old and new culture. Working in the time-honored craft of woodblock carving, he creates pop-cultural images that draw on contemporary comic books, digital design, and advertising graphics. Dots, flowers, line patterns, and a cryptic selection of animals and objects make up his visual vocabulary, all made coherent through a high-contrast, two-tone palette (often red and white). This effect is the result of Yokono’s carved wood and applied enamel method, in which he exhibits woodblock templates in lieu of printed works, thus prioritizing the work of the artist’s hand. Born in 1972, Kenichi Yokono lives and works in Kanazawa, Japan. He has received solo exhibitions at Mark Moore Gallery (2010) and Hilger Contemporary (2009) in Vienna, and has participated in numerous art fairs, including Geisai in Tokyo and PULSE Miami.
Lastly, the San Francisco-based artist Yoram Wolberger plays with scale to emphasize attitudes about identity, place, and our sense of belonging. Working with molds and casting processes, he creates works in plaster and bronze that have a familiar appearance yet exist in an exaggerated register. Toy figures and model parts become imposing presences, confronting the viewer with cultural material that is too easily disregarded in its more common miniature form. At Joshua Liner Gallery, Wolberger will present Petting Zoo, a selection of white, plaster-cast animal forms that take on conventions and clichés of childhood. Born in 1963 in Tel Aviv, Yoram Wolberger received an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Solo exhibitions of his work have been mounted at Mark Moore Gallery (2004) and Center for Contemporary Art (2006) in Sacramento, and he was included in the group exhibition American Identities at Brooklyn Museum of Art (2009).