Thomas Solomon Gallery

Thomas Solomon Gallery is pleased to present “Support Group,” an exhibition of work by Kathryn Andrews, Gaylen Gerber, and Mateo Tannatt / Pauline, organized by Michael Ned Holte. The exhibition opens at Cottage Home on Saturday, May 29, 2010, with a reception from 5 to 9 PM.

“The impetus for the exhibition ‘Support Group’ has multiple points of origin. In 2009, for an exhibition—actually, a self-styled Biennial—at his Hollywood apartment gallery Pauline, Mateo Tannatt installed the work of some thirty participating artists (including his own) on a series of platforms or backdrops, divided into sections named after different Hollywood thoroughfares or intersections, including two walls upon which he painted a grid of yellow dots. One of these walls (‘Hollywood Blvd.’) featured the work of Kathryn Andrews—a rented neon sign suggestively reading ‘LUBRICACION.’ The word lubricación in that particular context was a starting point: the word that greased the wheels.

“Andrews was already familiar with the idea of one artist providing context for another: She has curated several shows in which her work is implicitly, if not explicitly, present; and she is the proprietor of Apt. 2, an intermittent gallery in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles. Her own practice has increasingly employed the dynamics of contingency and response, and her work frequently incorporates rented objects only for the length of their exhibition—a tactic that questions the longevity or viability of a ‘complete’ work.

“Tannatt’s use of a backdrop, when I saw it, recalled the work of Gaylen Gerber, whose own gray painted ‘Backdrops’ and ‘Supports’—his chosen terminology—necessarily implicate the work(s) of other artists, usually at his invitation. Gerber’s practice has consistently questioned the autonomy of the art object, as well as its authorship. In recent exhibitions Gerber has modified the exhibition site, and has stated his interest in the confusion of art object and context, ‘heighten[ing] awareness of visual perception in a way that questions how we differentiate what we are looking at from what surrounds it.’

“This play between foreground and background, and object(s) and context(s), is central to the premise of ‘Support Group,’ an exhibition that brings together Andrews, Gerber, and Tannatt. Perhaps the most important point of origin for this show is the invitation from Thomas Solomon to curate an exhibition in the first place. The site for the exhibition is Cottage Home, a former movie theater in Chinatown, Los Angeles—a spacious, potentially daunting gallery space. The three artists were immediately accounting for the scale of the space as a common point of conversation and negotiation.

“The artists participating in ‘Support Group’ (Kathryn Andrews, Gaylen Gerber, and Mateo Tannatt / Pauline), along with the site of the exhibition (Thomas Solomon Gallery at Cottage Home, Chinatown, Los Angeles, 2010), provide the primary context—if not the only context—for the show. Each artist in the show will provide ‘support’ for the other artists, whether implicitly or explicitly, and in this sense, the word ‘support’ is removed from its usual implications of ethical valuation: ‘Support,’ in this context could be either generous or antagonistic, or potentially both at the same time.

“The title of the show is, of course, a pun. And, in this sense, my role as the organizer of the exhibition is necessarily part of the given context of the exhibition, to the extent that I might either ‘enable’ the participating artists in the production of work for the exhibition, or to provide an ‘intervention,’ as deemed necessary. As the exhibition’s organizer, I am aware that the artists may, at their discretion, usurp my role as curator, and invite additional artists to participate or otherwise reshape the context of the show.”

Michael Ned Holte
May 2010

KATHRYN ANDREWS is based in Los Angeles. Her most recent solo exhibition, “Frankie Goes to Bollywood,” was at Galerie Christian Nagel, Berlin, in 2009. Her work has been included in numerous group exhibitions including “Bitch is the New Black” (Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles), “Kathryn Andrews, Heather Cook, Lesley Vance, Lisa Williamson” (David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles), “There is No There There” (Rivington Arms, New York), and “Cock” (Courtyard Gallery Project, Beijing. Andrews has hosted solo exhibitions by artists such as Alex Olson, Dawson Weber, Ben Lord, and Eve Fowler at Apt. 2—a space that doubles as her Eagle Rock apartment. Additionally, she was the curator of the group exhibitions “Mongrel” (Sixteen One, Los Angeles) and “Modern Lovers” (Glendale Community College).

GAYLEN GERBER is based in Chicago. He has had solo exhibitions and cooperative projects at venues including Musee d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg; FRAC-Bourgogne, Dijon, France; Neues Meuseum Weserburg Bremen, Germany; Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria; Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland; Art Institute of Chicago; Charlottenborg Exhibition Hall, Copenhagen; Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati; Renaissance Society, University of Chicago; Lisson Gallery, London; Galerie Susanna Kulli, Zurich; White Flag Projects, St. Louis; Daniel Hug Gallery, Los Angeles; Green Gallery, Milwaukee; and Rowley Kennerk Gallery, Chicago.

MATEO TANNATT recently had a solo exhibition at Marc Foxx Gallery, Los Angeles, and previously exhibited at Guild & Greyshkul, New York. His work has been included in numerous group shows including “Second Nature: The Valentine-Adelson Collection at the Hammer” (Hammer Museum, Los Angeles), “Present Future” (Artissima 15, Turin, Italy), “Warhol &…” (Kantor Feuer, Los Angeles), and “GRUPE” (Gavin Brown’s Enterprise at Passerby, New York). He is based in Los Angeles.

PAULINE, among other elusive enterprises, has hosted a solo exhibition by Darren Bader; “Alteration Demonstration, Tasteful Guidance,” a collaborative project by Mateo Tannatt and Justine Beal; and several group exhibitions including “Boofthle Booth-Booth: Deux Doox – The Hollywood Biennial,” curated by Mateo Tannatt; and “Where Was I? All About the Edges, Bag of Pockets, The Art of Semi-Autonomy,” curated by Joshua Nathanson.

MICHAEL NED HOLTE is based in Los Angeles. He has previously organized the exhibitions “Celine and Julie Go Boating” (Anna Helwing Gallery, Los Angeles); “Laying Bricks” (Wallspace Gallery, New York); and “Before and After Science” (Richard Telles Fine Art, Los Angeles). He was a member of the curatorial team for the exhibition “Present Future” at Artissima 15 in Torino, Italy. Holte is a regular contributor to Artforum, and his writing has appeared in Afterall, Frieze, Interview, and Pin-Up, as well as numerous books and catalogues including Hammer Projects: 1999-2009 (Hammer Museum, Los Angeles), Roy McMakin: When is a Chair Not a Chair (Skira/Rizzoli), and Ricky Swallow: The Bricoleur (National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia).