Kim Abeles
Photo Credit: Calista Lyon
Press Release
February 26, 2016
Exhibition: Portraits and Autobiographies, a one-person show by Kim Abeles
Dates: March 20 – May 21, 2016
Hours: Thursday – Sunday, 12 pm – 6 pm and by appointment
Reception: Sunday, March 20, 2 – 5:00pm
PØST
1206 Maple Avenue, #515
Los Angeles, CA 90015, USA
new@postlosangeles.org
www.post-la.com
www.postlosangeles.org
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Kim Abeles – Portraits and Autobiographies
PØST is pleased to present an exhibition of works by Kim Abeles. It is the first exhibit for PØST as a non-profit organization, and the beginning of programming at our new location.
Kim Abeles is perhaps best known for her environmental artworks including Presidential Commemorative Smog Plates created by using the particulate from the Los Angeles air, and the soaring Paper Person made of visitor's trash gathered on Earth Day at the California Science Center. Beginning in 1980, her studio life at the Victor Clothing Building on DTLA's Broadway, gave rise to her first work using smog. At that same time, Kim started a series of biographical sculptures and photographic self-portraits. Abeles' large-scale public commissions, including the repurposed traffic islands on Rodeo Road entitled, Walk a mile in my shoes, often combine the biographical and personal with social justice.
Kim Abeles' solo exhibit at PØST's new location in the historic Bendix Building, presents a more intimate view of this artist’s oeuvre and focuses on work with more immediate connection to the body. With public art, one is motivated to address specific requirements. Abeles' self-portraits and sculptural works seem more personally connected to her as an artist. It’s important to note that she has been an important member of the LA feminist movement. Kim explores an intellectual body, and based on all the research that is involved in her work, it goes beyond an examination of the feminine body.
This exhibit includes small-scale sculpture and photo-based works that are peculiar, witty, and sometimes macabre in their collision of the portrait and self-portraiture. Biographical sculptures of Pope Joan, Carmen Miranda, and St. Bernadette provide a space for staking claim to a spirited core while constructing a body to house it. The acts of ironing trash or using baby’s teeth come from the same droll struggle in an existential world.
Also available for the viewer to peruse are selections of Abeles' artists books and publications from exhibitions including her work. All of these are hands-on, no gloves required.
For more information about the exhibition, please contact HK Zamani at new@postlosangeles.org
