April 19, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Michael Gonzalez: "Exographilia"
May 6th- June 10th, 2006
Opening Reception: May 6th, 5-7 pm
Solo Projects
177 South Sycamore Ave
Los Angeles California 90036
For Further Information: thomas.solomon@mac.com or call 310,428.2964
Solo Projects presents Michael Gonzalez “Exographilia”, an installation of morphologically based works sculpted from tubular electrical grounding braid.
Long a scavenger of industrial detritus and electronic surplus, Gonzalez first discovered grounding braid in the 1980s. A material used in industrial and aircraft applications; the braided wire is surprisingly malleable, working with a kind of swift abstraction that belongs as much to drawing as to sculpture. Gonzalez uses the braid to render a series of small carapace-like forms. Distortions and bulges in the braid produce cross-hatching on the surfaces of the objects, giving the forms a soft metallic chiaroscuro. When grouped together, the works resemble an exercise in alternative taxonomy or tiny chimerical army massing at the border. At once biomorphic, erotically charged and comedic, exographilia shows the formal possibilities of an atypical material and the metaphorical propensities of organic form.
A graduate of Cal Arts, Gonzalez has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in Los Angeles and New York as well as London, Copenhagen, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, and other cities. His work is in the many public and private collections including MOCA, LACMA, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, and many others.
Michael Gonzalez
Born in 1953 in San Bernardino, California
Lives and works in Santa Monica, California
Education
1983 Bachelor of Fine Arts, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California
Solo Exhibitions
2006 “Exographilia,” Solo Projects, Los Angeles, CA
2000 Team Gallery, New York, NY
1999 Christopher Grimes Galley, Santa Monica, CA
1998 Christopher Grimes Galley, Santa Monica, CA
1996 Thomas Solomon’s Garage, Los Angeles, CA
& nbsp; “Look Busy,” Huntington Beach Art Center, Huntington Beach, CA
1994 Thomas Solomon’s Garage, Los Angeles, CA
White Columns, New York, NY
1992 Michael Kohn Gallery (with Patrick Nickell), Santa Monica, CA
1991 Thomas Solomon’s Garage, Los Angeles, CA
Michael Kohn Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
1990 Holly Solomon Gallery, New York, NY
1988 “New Work,” Thomas Solomon’s Garage, Los Angeles, CA
1986 “New Sculpture,” Piezo Electric Gallery, New York, NY
“New Sculpture,” Piezo Electric Gallery, Venice, CA
1985 “Three Lefts Make a Right,” Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Group Exhibitions
2004 L.A. Years, Part 1, 25th Anniversary Exhibition, Christopher Grimes Galley, Santa Monica, CA
2001 The Altoids Collection, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY
2000 Made in California: Art, Image, and Identity 1900-2000, Los Angeles County
Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
The Second Annual Altoids Curiously Strong Collection, Luckman Fine Arts
Gallery, California State University, Los Angeles, CA, traveling to New
York, Chicago, Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas
Selections from the Norton Collection, Los Angeles County Museum of Art,
Los Angeles, CA
C.O.L.A. Exhibition, UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Domestic Bliss, Rocket Gallery, London, U.K.
Collecting Collections: Recent Acquisitions from Collectors of Contemporary Art,
Moir Collections Gallery, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
Urban Hymns, Luckman Fine Arts Gallery, California State University, Los
Angeles, CA
The Big G Stands for Goodness: Corita Kent’s 1960’s Pop, Harriet and Charles
Luckman Fine Arts Gallery, California State University, Los
Angeles, CA; Nora Eccles Harrison Museum, Utah State University, UT;
Blue Star Art Space, San Antonio, TX
1999 Michael Gonzalez, Peter Hopkins, and Jacci Den Hartog, Ruth Benzacar Galeria
De Arte, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Profliferations, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Galleri Tommy Lund, Copenhagen, Denmark
Quotidian, San Francisco, CA
1998 Life Lessons: How Art Can Change Your Life, Judy and Stuart Spence
Collection, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna, CA
Love at the End… Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle, WA