PLEX
Curated by Noel Korten

Artists » Linda Day / Merion Estes / Iva Gueorguieva / Gegam Kacherian / William Mahan / Michael Norton / Stephanie Pryor / Greg Rose / Marie Thibeault / Church Tran

Opening: Saturday, Feb. 25, 2006  7-10 p.m.
Dates: Feb. 25 thru Mar. 25, 2006
Hours: Fri./Sat./Sun. 12 - 5 p.m.
Where: The Brewery Project 676 South Ave. 21 #33

The Brewery Project presents “PLEX”  a group show of paintings by ten Los Angeles based artists, curated by Noel Korten.

The 10 artists participating in PLEX are all painters who accept and embrace the inherent limitations of painting as pigment on a flat surface. In doing so, the group demonstrates a range of strategies and as a result the selection of paintings in the exhibition may appear eclectic to viewers. However, at the same time, their paintings in PLEX represent the infinite possibilities inherent in the medium and in doing so also mirror the theme of the exhibition.

The title PLEX, is borrowed from the word “complexity” and references a quality that is in some way inherent in the work of each of these 10 painters. Acknowledging complexity as a factor in contemporary living is an unavoidable fact of reality for those who admit these thoughts. For those who can't help but see multiple viewpoints on issues, who are aware of the fact that ideas become less clear when framed in a particular context, and that the diversity of human cultures becomes more apparent as time and space shrink around us. Contemporary living inundates us with massive amounts of information and stimulation via media at home and as we navigate our way through public space each day. This kaleidoscope of experiences is overlaid with our personal experiences of friends, family, and the private thoughts within our minds and the result is that “relativism” and a degree of indeterminacy are inescapable elements of a contemporary perspective.

The expression of complexity and an indeterminate point of view in art is clearly a postmodern phenomenon. The modern notions of purity, overarching universal truths, or reliable constants today seem irrelevant or not applicable in these chaotic times. It follows that as artists consider their experience and acknowledge complexity, they develop ways to represent that quality in their art. While many of the works in PLEX are referential to the landscape, in one way or another each artist’s work manifests a sense of complexity: some by formal means, some through abstraction, others by combining disparate elements–imagery and or metaphors, some by incorporating representational imagery into an otherwise abstract context, or by producing such enigmatic imagery that it might be seen as either representational or a non-objective abstraction. In each case the viewer is confronted with a painting that confounds the desire for a singular transcendent experience and instead sees a representation of complexity that suggests that connections are made only in the mind.