Gerald Giamportone
July 20, 2016
Exhibition: Gerald Giamportone
Dates: August 20 – September 24, 2016
Hours: Wednesday – Saturday, 12 pm – 6 pm
Thursdays until 9 pm
Reception: Saturday, September 10, 7 – 9 pm
PØST
1206 Maple Avenue, #515
Los Angeles, CA 90015, USA
new@postlosangeles.org
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PØST is pleased to present an exhibition of works by Gerald Giamportone.
"The rose is without reason it blooms because it blooms, it considers nothing of itself, asks not, whether one sees it."
Angelus Silesius,
The Cherubic Wanderer, 1675.
In Gerald Giamportone's work for the past ten years, he has explored the idea of altered perception and changed identity. His interest has led him to focus on the rose as well as other natural materials. Despite the well-known visual and metaphorical meanings attributed to the rose, Giamportone has created new identities for the rose by disintegrating its elements from the rose itself -- the stems, leaves, petals and thorns—then reintegrating them into filled tables, vitrines and metal floor sculptures.
In his most recent work, entitled "Releases," Giamportone uses the entire rose to create a changed identity by leaving just an imprint of the rose on sheets of mylar or paper. He dips the rose in paint and drops it from 12 feet in the air, resulting in a chance image that may reflect all or only parts of the rose. Some of the images retain the outline of the rose, but others become more reductive. The works created by repeated rose-drops on the same surface appear even more abstract, leaving the viewer wondering about the identity of the image.
In the past, Giamportone used talc, the softest mineral, in a similar way by powdering a plane of neoprene from above to create fractals that emulate sculpture but in a flat form.
Giamportone was featured in a seven-year survey of his work at the John Hansard Gallery in Southampton, England. He has shown locally at Ace, BlumHelman and Angles among other galleries.
Giamportone is a past recipient of a Pollock Krasner Foundation grant and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (Painting).
For more information about the exhibition, please contact HK Zamani at new@postlosangeles.org
