Artist Steven Hull opens his 10th exhibition at Rosamund Felsen Gallery in Santa Monica this Saturday. The exhibit will be on display Tuesdays through Saturdays until Oct. 12, 2013.
Hull has long been a multi-faceted practitioner and curatorial figure in art, active in both Northern and Southern California.
His diverse interests and methods have led him to undertake a varied range of projects, which at times have included long-term collaborative efforts with other artists, musicians, and writers resulting in ambitious traveling shows and exhibition catalogues.
These efforts are further exemplified by the Los Angeles project space founded by Hull, Las Cienegas Projects, which has a curatorial program emphasizing experimentation and communal involvement.
This dynamic approach and stylistic diversity come through in Hull’s latest body of work.
He continues to explore in the various ways that painting and sculpture overlap, where a flat image may appear to be dimensional, and a sculptural piece can feel image-based.
By extension, we are led to consider the ways in which our notions of these delineations are contingent, where received logic can be broken down by simple contextual shifts.
For his 10th exhibition at Rosamund Felsen Gallery, Hull continues his interests in the moving sculpture, once again setting pieces in motion by mounting objects on a train engine which interacts with the surrounding paintings.
This engine, which is pulling a cart filled with hanging bells, adds an acoustic sound element to the show.
Although this exhibition is largely focused around painting and the stacking of abstract painted and shaped canvases, sound is also very crucial to the viewers’ experience.
Two of the large scale sculptures, one a drag racer and the other a mannequin body, have analog synthesizers built into them playing unnatural futuristic sounds.
An exciting new addition to Hull’s practice is the use of marionettes, collaborating with the renowned Bob Baker Marionette Theater in downtown Los Angeles.
Some of Hull’s work will feature puppets from their extensive archive interacting with Hull’s paintings and sculptures.
This pairing of marionettes and painting conflates ideas of painting, art, backdrop, props, theater and the gallery.
A special marionette show by puppeteer Alex Evans featuring Bob Baker’s marionettes will be presented at this colorful and playful exhibition’s opening this Saturday, Sept. 7 from 5-7 pm.
Rosamund Felsen Gallery is located at 2525 Michigan Ave. B4 (Bergamot Station), Santa Monica.
For more information, call 310 828 8488 or visit www.rosamundfelsen.com.
