Art Basel Miami Beach 2022: Troy Lamarr Chew II, Simon Denny, Liam Everett, Chris Johanson, Shinpei Kusanagi, Lynn Hershman Leeson, K.R.M. Mooney, Alex Olson, Trevor Paglen, Kikuo Saito, Sara VanDerBeek, Didier William

Nov 28 - Dec 3, 2022
  • Altman Siegel is pleased to participate in Art Basel Miami Beach 2022, presenting a selection of works by Troy Lamarr Chew II, Simon Denny, Liam Everett, Chris Johanson, Shinpei Kusanagi, Lynn Hershman Leeson, K.R.M. Mooney, Alex Olson, Trevor Paglen, Kikuo Saito, Sara VanDerBeek, and Didier William.
  • Trevor Paglen lives and works between New York and Berlin. Paglen mines the history of photography, both for its physical...

    Trevor Paglen, Near Rock Point Deep Semantic Image Segments, 2022, Dye sublimation print, 33 5/8 x 43 3/4 in, 85.4 x 111.1 cm

    Trevor Paglen lives and works between New York and Berlin. Paglen mines the history of photography, both for its physical production and its subject matter, to construct questions around seeing. Concerns around surveillance, privacy, freedom, and servitude resonate throughout his practice. Ultimately, he poses the question: what is the relationship between photography and power? For Paglen, the ramifications of emergent technology are more than strictly sociopolitical. His work has considered the extent to which artificial intelligence is invested in the very nature of opticality through this shift towards hard-edged, quantified forms of seeing.

     

    The coloration of Near Rock Point Deep Semantic Image Segments is a result of Deep Saliency, a way of using computer vision to analyze photographs using Artificial Intelligence. Machine learning or Artificial Intelligence applications “train” a neural network using thousands or millions of images, so that the network can develop its own tools to analyze those images. Deep Saliency differentiates between sections, areas, or different types of objects in an image as interpreted by criteria it has created for itself. The resulting image, swirling clouds in soft pinks, purples, and oranges, is aesthetically beautiful as a result of its technical complexity.

    • Alex Olson Inhabit (Plan), 2022 Oil, modeling paste, and pencil on canvas 41 x 29 in 104.1 x 73.7 cm
      Alex Olson
      Inhabit (Plan), 2022
      Oil, modeling paste, and pencil on canvas
      41 x 29 in
      104.1 x 73.7 cm
    • Alex Olson Slant, 2022 Oil and modeling paste on canvas 51 1/4 x 36 in 130.2 x 91.4 cm
      Alex Olson
      Slant, 2022
      Oil and modeling paste on canvas
      51 1/4 x 36 in
      130.2 x 91.4 cm
  • Alex Olson lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. Through the use of color, layering, and texture – both in...

    Alex Olson, Slant, 2022, Oil and modeling paste on canvas, 51 1/4 x 36 in, 130.2 x 91.4 cm

    Alex Olson lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. Through the use of color, layering, and texture – both in terms of three-dimensional impasto and implications within visual patterning – she controls surface tensions in at once a meticulous and playful manner. Layers appear to peel away to reveal other layers, suggesting several paintings embedded in one, some of which remain forever concealed. Pulling from both historical abstraction and contemporary design, Olson’s paintings consider the juggling act between the eye and the brain to parse out evidence and desires, sources, and analysis, past and present.

     

    In Slant, “a tan/cream top portion of horizontal and vertical brushstrokes form the appearance of a shadow that cuts across the canvas. This is most visible from looking at the work at an angle. The bottom portion of 3 bars of color continues the allusion to light and shadow but with rendered colors. These bars suggest alternative surfaces/possibilities, peeling away to reveal others. This is a painting in transition from one form to another.”

    • Troy Lamarr Chew II Dying to Live, 2022 Oil and dye on canvas 54 x 64 in 137.2 x 162.6 cm
      Troy Lamarr Chew II
      Dying to Live, 2022
      Oil and dye on canvas
      54 x 64 in
      137.2 x 162.6 cm
  • Troy Lamarr Chew II lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. The artist’s rich visual language draws heavy inspiration from...

    Troy Lamarr Chew II, Dying to Live, 2022, Oil and dye on canvas, 54 x 64 in, 137.2 x 162.6 cm

    Troy Lamarr Chew II lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. The artist’s rich visual language draws heavy inspiration from hip hop culture. His work looks methodically at systems of coded communication and how this is translated and mistranslated within the African diaspora and throughout the mainstream. A highly skilled realist inspired by European painting techniques, Chew utilizes these art historical traditions to underscore their exclusion of Blackness.

     

    Part of his Out the Mud series, the artist’s most recent painting, Dying to Live, references kpokpoi, or country cloth, from Bo, Sierra Leone. This is a thick material traditionally made from locally grown cotton that is spun into thread, dyed, and woven into strips on a tripod loom. Historically regarded as a sign of wealth or prestige, Chew combines this material with painted figures from contemporary rap culture as a means to explore the hip-hop ideal of starting from nothing.

    • Didier William Alien: This Was Never Yours, 2022 Acrylic, ink, wood carving on panel 48 x 36 in 121.9 x 91.4 cm
      Didier William
      Alien: This Was Never Yours, 2022
      Acrylic, ink, wood carving on panel
      48 x 36 in
      121.9 x 91.4 cm
  • Didier William lives and works in Philadelphia, PA. Within his practice, William has developed a distinct and ever-morphing visual language...

    Didier William, Alien: This Was Never Yours (detail), 2022, Acrylic, ink, wood carving on panel, 48 x 36 in, 121.9 x 91.4 cm

    Didier William lives and works in Philadelphia, PA. Within his practice, William has developed a distinct and ever-morphing visual language through bold pattern making and use of vivid color. William’s recent work largely draws on his memories of growing up in Miami after immigrating from Port-au-Prince, Haiti as a young boy. Pulling from Haitian history, language, mythology, and his personal experiences, he explores the legacies of colonialism, resistance, and then struggle for agency and identity. His work examines the relationship between formalism – his compositions combine both painting and printmaking techniques and push the limits of figuration and abstraction – and the narrative capacities of painting.

     

    “As of late I’ve realized in my work that the narratives I construct straddle the line between immigrant narrative and creation myth. I might even go so far as to suggest that every immigrant narrative is necessarily pregnant with a creation myth. The former without the latter is death... The character draws lightning into its body and is using it to cleanse and remove an unseen pest in the environment. The title suggests that my protagonist is perhaps here for some kind of redemption. They are surrounded by flames that fill the totality of the composition behind them in a bright red orange light.”

    • Liam Everett Untitled (sound as a bell), 2022 Ink, oil, sand on linen 58 x 36 1/2 in 147.3 x 92.7 cm
      Liam Everett
      Untitled (sound as a bell), 2022
      Ink, oil, sand on linen
      58 x 36 1/2 in
      147.3 x 92.7 cm
  • Liam Everett lives and works in Sebastopol, CA. Everett has established the studio as a site of both investigation and...

    Liam Everett, Untitled (sound as a bell), 2022, Ink, oil, sand on linen, 58 x 36 1/2 in, 147.3 x 92.7 cm

    Liam Everett lives and works in Sebastopol, CA. Everett has established the studio as a site of both investigation and rehearsal. His practice is mediated by a set of open-ended, continually shifting questions. Rather than offering definitive answers, however, Everett’s paintings contemplate the influence of gesture, material, and obstruction. They also serve as records of their material encounters.

     

    Interested in conceptualizing the horizon, Everett’s newest paintings consider the notion of borders as both an endpoint and a source of curiosity. Each painting contains a pair of two white bars on opposing sides, directing the viewer’s attention to the work’s horizon while creating the sense that something is missing or that we are limited in our scope. The resulting absurdity speaks to the sense of playfulness found in the midst of challenging or difficult periods.

    • Liam Everett Untitled (the smoke the feather the bones), 2022 Ink, oil, sand on linen 53 x 79 in 134.6 x 200.7 cm
      Liam Everett
      Untitled (the smoke the feather the bones), 2022
      Ink, oil, sand on linen
      53 x 79 in
      134.6 x 200.7 cm
  • Chris Johanson lives and works in Los Angeles, CA and Portland, OR. A central figure of San Francisco’s Mission School,...

    Chris Johanson, Arther and Darin and Harmony (detail), 2016, Acrylic and household paint on found wood, 48 x 96 x 2 in, 121.9 x 243.8 x 5.1 cm

    Chris Johanson lives and works in Los Angeles, CA and Portland, OR. A central figure of San Francisco’s Mission School, the post-punk movement that integrated aspects of both graffiti and folk art, Johanson’s multidimensional practice encompasses painting, drawing, sculpture, design, and music. Incorporating disparate influences that underscore the complexity of life, his work is centered upon themes that include spirituality, sociology, and environmental observation.

     

    Johanson’s painting Arther and Darin and Harmony exemplifies the artist’s use of bright colors and figuration as a means of social documentary. Amidst a swirling background, in which recognizable shapes intermingle with color fields, two figures sit across from one another, hands clasped. This work belies both the meditative qualities of Johanson’s practice, and his ability to communicate sincerely through painting.

  • Over the last five decades, Lynn Hershman Leeson has been internationally acclaimed for her art and films. One of the...

    Lynn Hershman Leeson, Roberta’s Construction Chart 1, 1975, Archival digital print and dye transfer, 41 3/4 x 29 1/2 in, 106 x 74.9 cm, Edition 10 of 12

    Over the last five decades, Lynn Hershman Leeson has been internationally acclaimed for her art and films. One of the most influential media artists, Hershman Leeson's innovative work investigates issues that are now recognized as key to the workings of society: the relationship between humans and technology, identity, surveillance, and the use of media as a tool of empowerment against censorship and political repression. She has made pioneering contributions to the fields of photography, video, film, performance, installation and interactive as well as net-based media art throughout her career.

     

    With a focus on identity, Roberta’s Construction Chart 1 represents the artist’s careful consideration of the multitude of personae which make up the self. This seminal work is an instruction manual detailing how the artist transformed herself into this alter-ego: the mask of makeup became the interface between the artist’s identity and fictional character’s.

    • K.R.M. Mooney ix-xii, 2021 Gold, silver, brass, solder, neodymium Set of four: 1 1/2 x 1 x 1 in each 3.81 x 2.54 x 2.54 cm
      K.R.M. Mooney
      ix-xii, 2021
      Gold, silver, brass, solder, neodymium
      Set of four: 1 1/2 x 1 x 1 in each
      3.81 x 2.54 x 2.54 cm
  • K.R.M. Mooney lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. The artist’s work often occupies intermediary positions between abstract, autonomous, and site-specific...
    K.R.M. Mooney, ix-xii (detail), 2021, Silver, brass, solder, neodymium, steel, Set of four: 1 1/2 x 1 x 1 in, 3.81 x 2.54 x 2.54 cm

    K.R.M. Mooney lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. The artist’s work often occupies intermediary positions between abstract, autonomous, and site-specific sculpture. Distilling observable and imperceptible properties by installing works directly on the floor, overhead, or in passageways, his work inherits architectural details such as the conditions of light or a site’s neighboring morphologies. Each project is a means to consider the affective, embodied, and relational aspects of site and space.

     

    Partials consist of four small scale silver and gold-plated brass sculptures. Installed in a repetitive sequence on the wall, the sculptures integrate metal mouthpieces taken from various brass woodwind instruments. Their titles, partials, refer to the specific region of the lips, teeth, and mouth. This body of work takes an interest in the mouth as a physical threshold, one of heightened corporeality, intimacy, nurturance and the site of signification and description.

    • Shinpei Kusanagi The Ally 2021, 2021 Acrylic on canvas 71 5/8 x 89 5/8 in 182 x 227.5 cm
      Shinpei Kusanagi
      The Ally 2021, 2021
      Acrylic on canvas
      71 5/8 x 89 5/8 in
      182 x 227.5 cm
    • Shinpei Kusanagi Neon, 2022 Acrylic on canvas 51 3/8 x 63 3/4 in 130.5 x 161.9 cm
      Shinpei Kusanagi
      Neon, 2022
      Acrylic on canvas
      51 3/8 x 63 3/4 in
      130.5 x 161.9 cm
  • Shinpei Kusanagi lives and works in Tokyo, Japan. Utilizing a technique reminiscent of traditional Japanese nijimi, Kusanagi stains untreated canvas...
    Shinpei Kusanagi, Neon, 2022, Acrylic on canvas, 51 3/8 x 63 3/4 in, 130.5 x 161.9 cm

    Shinpei Kusanagi lives and works in Tokyo, Japan. Utilizing a technique reminiscent of traditional Japanese nijimi, Kusanagi stains untreated canvas with layers of translucent color. Incorporating improvisational brushstrokes in vivid hues, the compositions hover on the surface and then recede into deep space. These atmospheric washes of color leave the paintings devoid of specific detail, conjuring memories of time and place rather than a precise representation.

     

    Rather than envisioning what the finished work would look like in this newest body of work, Kusanagi remained present by allowing the painting to develop organically. As a result, his canvases change in surprising ways as they accumulate new layers of information.

     

  • Sara VanDerBeek lives and works in New York. Through experimentation with photography and sculpture, she considers how these particular media,...

    Sara VanDerBeek, Future Variations, 2021, Two sided dye sublimation print, 48 x 24 in, 121.9 x 61 cm

    Sara VanDerBeek lives and works in New York. Through experimentation with photography and sculpture, she considers how these particular media, often associated with the solidification of subjects in time, can be destabilized. She ultimately asks: how do we represent and see something that is in flux? VanDerBeek materializes this predicament by enlivening archives of objects and images. This process allows her to incorporate a range of overlapping temporal, optical, and ontological schema in her work.In doing so, she actively reconsiders the physical, historically grounded space of sculpture and photography, repositioning her subject matter, often women, within novel, unstable, and transformative visual fields.

     

    VanDerBeek’s recent work, Future Variations, explores her ambivalence towards classical ideals of female beauty. Mining her archive of photographs from encyclopedic and historic museums, VanDerBeek hand colored her own image. The work’s bright colors and refractive paints evoke the jewel-toned palate of the makeup aisle. Obscuring the figure’s form rather than revealing, her gestures create traces of movement which bely the artist’s continued mediation of the female form.

  • Long overlooked within traditional art historical discourses, Kikuo Saito’s practice, and life, articulate a state of in-betweenness. Informed by his...

    Kikuo Saito, Red Door (detail), 2014, Acrylic on canvas, 80 1/2 x 51 3/4 x 2 in, 204.5 x 131.4 x 5.1 cm

    Long overlooked within traditional art historical discourses, Kikuo Saito’s practice, and life, articulate a state of in-betweenness. Informed by his background in the theater, the artist created space for himself within established Color Field circles by devising a distinctive lexicon that integrated his multitude of experiences and artistic interests. Hence, Saito’s paintings are both historically significant and timely, reflecting a need to contemplate the hybridity and complexity of personal identity.

     

    Red Door can be viewed as an extension of Saito’s early Color Field series, in which broad applications of color are pushed open by more intricate gestural marks. This work is indicative of the artist’s cyclical, prolific approach to painting.

  • Altman Siegel is pleased to announce the inclusion of Simon Denny’s Virtual Property in this year’s Art Basel Miami Beach Meridians sector. The installation will be presented in conjunction with Petzel, New York.

     

    Denny’s new installation stages a dialogue between the various realizations of virtual property that technology platforms have attempted to advance, questioning how claims to ownership are made in the digital and physical worlds.

  • Simon Denny
    Virtual Property, 2022
    Sculpture: Powder coated aluminum, steel, fibreglass, resin, paint, iOS Augmented Reality interface
    Paintings: UV print and oil on canvas, wood, MDF, plexiglas, ETH paper wallet, dynamic ERC-721 NFT
    Dimensions variable

  • The wall works included in the installation are part of Denny’s new series, Metaverse Landscapes, of gridded landscape paintings representing digital real-estate in the platform Decentraland. These paintings are accompanied by corresponding Title Deed NFTs, exploring the changing conditions of ownership and property at the hand of emerging technology. Each Title Deed points to the owner of the physical painting, the owner of the metaverse property token represented in the painting, and the holder of the NFT. The paintings are faithful depictions of Decentraland parcels, but also harken back to earlier traditions of landscape painting and abstraction, placing them in dialogue with a longer art-historical lineage of visual conventions used to make and naturalize different kinds of ownership claims. 

  • Denny further explores this line of inquiry in the sculptural component of the installation, Amazon delivery drone patent drawing as virtual Rio Tinto mineral globe (US 10,246,186 Bl: UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE WITH INFLATABLE MEMBRANE, 2019), 2021. This Augmented Reality (AR) sculpture materializes Amazon’s patented delivery drone, investigating yet another dimension – intellectual property – in the context of enclosure and extraction in the digital and physical worlds.  
  • Simon Denny lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Intrigued by the intersection of technology, society, and aesthetics, Denny sources the...

    Simon Denny, Amazon delivery drone patent drawing as virtual Rio Tinto mineral globe (US 10,246,186 Bl: UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE WITH INFLATABLE MEMBRANE, 2019), 2021, Powder coated aluminum, steel, fiberglass, resin, paint, iOS Augmented Reality interface, 66 7/8 x 70 7/8 x 59 in, 169.9 x 180.1 x 149.9 cm

    Simon Denny lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Intrigued by the intersection of technology, society, and aesthetics, Denny sources the material for his work from the objects, documents, and images produced by technology corporations and states. Exhibiting his works as case studies based upon factual events, Denny maps out key economic and cultural behaviors within the technology industry and examines how these impact aspects of capitalism, the internet, surveillance, and data mining. For Denny, physical space and the virtual realities constructed by corporations are not distinct entities. Rather, the entanglement of these spaces has become a key point of discourse throughout his oeuvre.

  • For more information contact info@altmansiegel.com or 415.576.9300.