The Flog.

Already 2008, so let’s get to it.
The Flog was put aside during the last month while I was operating the gallery for a few heavy turns. Now that I have regained close-to-full control over this wild beast I can finally pull this site out of the pantry and readjust it to the current events.
I am pretty excited about that.
I know it’s been a long time, things might still feel dusty here and there but welcome back, happy new year and thank you for clicking away.

For this restart, I chose Toronto based artist Kim Dorland to grace the masthead of The Flog.
This shot was taken at the artist’s most recent solo show Somewhere in the Neighborhood at Bonelli Contemporary in Chinatown, the space Rental Gallery previously occupied.

I discovered Dorland’s work here in Los Angeles, at the launch of Harvey Levine Gallery with a group show entitled Blame Canada which I greatly welcomed for bringing a colorful, and rather innovative new taste to the neighborhood.

Dorland’s storytellings resonate within Los Angeles’ own narratives, the mundane irony, the psychedelic colors, the wilderness within the urban marks. I have always been moved by his juxtaposition of monotonous objects of comfort, cars, linear fences, monochrome houses, with elements of surrealist revelations. The explosions of bright, thick and reckless marks of paint bring the whole scenery to a new realm of impossible yet clear existence.

Kim Dorland graduated with a BFA from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, Vancouver, and an MFA from York University, Toronto. He has exhibited extensively throughout North America, internationally and at multiple Art Fairs. His upcoming solo shows will be taking place at Bonelli Arte Contemporanea, Mantova, Italy and at Fredericks & Freiser, New York.
His work can also be seen at Freight + Volume in NY part of the group show Rear/View alongside a few LA based artists such as Brian Bress, Matthew Chambers and David Quadrini. The show runs until January 5th.

(Left image is Walking The Dog, 2007, oil and acrylic on canvas, 40 x 50 cm, from Bonelli Arte Contemporanea. Right image is Olsen Street, 2007, oil and acrylic on canvas, 48 x 60 cm, from Freight + Volume.)

The Flog’s November masthead is a detail shot of the Serpentine Gallery Pavillion Olafur Eliasson and architect Kjetil Thorsen were commissioned this summer. Based on the principle of a winding ramp, the Pavilion explores the idea of vertical circulation within a single space.
Since the ephemeral piece will be taken down November 5th, I felt that it could at least grace this site for a little longer.
You may want to see more installation shots here.

In keeping with the tradition rolling, Eliasson will be collaborating with Louis Vuitton for the store Christmas windows. The piece, “You See Me” will be unveiled November 9th and will be on permanent display at Louis Vuitton One East in New York.

Eliasson is also having his first U.S. survey of his oeuvre at the SFMOMA with works from 1993 to the present and will feature sculpture, photography and large-scale installations. The exhibition will run through February 24, 2008.

(Left image from LVMH, Olafur Eliasson Studio, Eye See You, 2007. Right image from the artist’s website, Olafur Eliasson, Lava floor, 2002, installation at the Musée d´Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France, 2002)

For this month’s masthead, I chose a shot of Peter Rogier’s piece Sandman, 2006-2007, epoxy, polyester, iron, polyurethane-varnish and paint, 128×158x135.9 cm (50.4×62.2×53.5 inches) which is part of Slagroom, the artist’s first solo show at Roberts & Tilton, on view until October 6th.

I first came across Rogiers’s work when he had two of his sculptures part of the group show Sea Change at Roberts & Tilton back in September 2006. I was captivated by his textured strokes or how he uses the medium, excavating, creating wrinkles and waves throughout the materials.
The pieces currently on view here in LA all convey intense emotions. Each of his figures seem petrified from some uncanny curse, their distorted rictus and their absurd exclamations mocking the visitor. Yet, Rogiers’s use of bold and sort of ingenuous colors relieve the whole experience. I think that the combination is fabulous.

I haven’t found a lot of information regarding his new projects, yet it looks like he will be at the Cultuurcentrum of Mechelen, Belgium this upcoming May.

(All images courtesy Galerie Thomas Schulte. Left image is Yellow Figure on Green Base, 2006, polyester, metal, polyeruthanefoam, epoxy, acrylic, 194×188x77 cm. Right image is White Swamp Sculpture, 2006, PU-form, epoxy, paint and steel, 36×32x23 cm)

For this month’s header, I will be featuring the work of LA based artist Elonda Billera with a detail shot of Every one always is repeating the whole of them 2007.

This piece was part of the exhibition Time Machine at High Energy Constructs, a brilliant group show curated by Brad Eberhard which was examining “notions and experiences with age, duration, and history.”

From the artist’s website, accompanying the piece:
__”A mold can create repetition without sameness by holding the negative, its shadow form.
By seeing the seeds in the mature fruit, you cut the present in half to decide its symmetry. We understand nostalgia as the accumulation of moments eroding, holding and repeating.
I believe in the actions and repetitions of this present for which we are responsible.”

Billera just graduated from Claremont and will be participating in SoundWalk September 22nd in Long Beach. Look out for more of her work.

(All images from the artist’s website. Left is an installation shot of Expanding our intimacy, 2006. Right is a detail shot of How can time pass if we endure its duration? , 2007)

For this month’s header, I picked a photograph I took on the opening of Other Scenes, the show curated by Aarom Rose at Roberts & Tilton which ran through the months of April and May 2007.
In this shot, you can see Aaron Rose and Parnell Corder about to hang a piece by Daniel Higgs.

Higss is mostly known as the lead singer of the band Lungfish. Although the band is not currently active, Higgs has been busy with several solo projects. Last June, he released Atomic Yggdrasil Tarot on the label Thrill Jockey Records.
The album, entirely recorded at home on a cassette recorder, intertwine meditative hums and rumbles using acoustic and electric guitar, upright pianos, banjo and jew’s harp. The artist also pairs the music with a series of paintings strongly influenced by Miro and evoking a sort of bohemian religious iconography.

From the press release:

__”(The) CD version is limited to 4,000 copies and is a full color 48 page 6×8″ hard cover book featuring the paintings and poetry of Daniel A.I.U. Higgs. The CD enclosed with the book is a full length album recorded in his home and is intended to be experienced with the book.

The LP version is limited to 900 copies and comes in a silk screened LP jacket (black ink on white jacket). The music is the same as on the CD. It comes with a black and white booklet featuring the poetry/anagrams from the book. The book does not come with the LP.”

I also found this video on YouTube, entitled Alchemist, and released in 2004. This strange and vibrant film combines elements recurent in Higgs’s imagery, such as esoterical meditation, illicit smokes, the artist’s infamous jew’s harp, automatic writing, and the obligatory Jack Daniel’s-based elixir offered under the alien skies.

Although this isn’t definite, Higgs might soon be showing at 96 Gillespie, in London, a space where he exhibited his work, back in 2005.

(Left image is the cover of the album Atomic Yggdrasil Tarot. Middle image is one of Higgs’s work previously shown at 96 Gillespie. Right image is a still from Alchemist)