July 28—Chelsea Dean

Shoot Out the Sun

Chelsea Dean & Molly Segal

In conjunction with PØST’s annual July Kamikaze event, Chelsea Dean and Molly Segal are pleased to present their two-person show, Shoot Out the Sun. The reception for this one-day exhibition is Saturday, July 28th from 7:00 - 9:00 PM. 

In Shoot Out The Sun, Los Angeles-based artists Chelsea Dean and Molly Segal complicate ideas about “California living” by exploring layers of drought, decay, and abandonment. Dean and Segal dig through these layers and find beauty in forgotten or hidden places: the rotting foundation of an abandoned homestead or an oil field tucked off a main road. Surveying a harsh desert landscape, these artists ask Who can possibly live here? What survives? 

Dean’s multimedia pieces embody systems that erode. Her collages salvage history, suspending Southern California architecture in time with a process of carefully controlled chaos. By combining her photographs with experimental printmaking, drawing, and collage techniques, she elevates the conflict between order and entropy. Dean’s most recent body of work focuses around her fascination with abandoned Jackrabbit Homesteads in Wonder Valley where she continues to meditate upon the allure of beauty and decay. 

Segal’s large scale watercolors of oil fields, dying thistles, cacti, and cockroaches serve as reminders of cyclical interdependence the price of survival. The oil pumps speak to the act of penetration, the compromises we make for comfort, and how the things that give us strength often leave us vulnerable. Segal’s loose, wet-on-wet technique suggests an ambiguity of physical and emotional boundaries. The plastic paper doesn't absorb the paint, leaving the pigment to sit at the surface, impermanent and vulnerable. 

Chelsea Dean was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona and has a BA in Studio Art from the University of Puget Sound, and an MFA in Drawing from Claremont Graduate University. Dean has exhibited throughout Southern California at High Desert Test Sites, Carl Berg Gallery, Raid Projects, Summercamp ProjectProject, Monte Vista Projects, and Cirrus Gallery, as well as internationally at Gallery Lara Tokyo in Tokyo. She currently teaches art full-time in Los Angeles and has a studio in Lincoln Heights.

Molly Segal lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. She received a BFA from the California College of the Arts and an MFA from The School of Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, MA. Her work has appeared in group exhibitions at Charlie James Gallery, Zevitas Marcus, BLAM, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and Betti Ono Gallery. Segal’s work and writing have been featured in publications including Venison Quarterly, Reflections of The Burden of Men, Full Blede, and Lapham’s Quarterly. She was a resident artist at Virginia Center for Creative Arts in 2017 and the Vermont Studio Center in 2018.

PØST is located in the Bendix Building, 1206 Maple Ave #515, Los Angeles, CA 90015.