Thomas Solomon Gallery

Thomas Solomon Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new works by Los Angeles artist AARON SANDNES.  This is Sandnes’ first solo exhibition with the gallery.  The exhibition opens on Saturday, November 21, 2009 with a reception for the artist from 6 to 8 PM.

For his first solo exhibition with the gallery, STAR CROSSED EVASION, Sandnes has appropriated illustrations from the 1950s and ‘60s that envision a utopic future, a space age life of leisure. Sandnes’ interest in these images isn’t for the technological predictions but how the leisure portrayed act as metaphors for a future that has already come true - our present without agency or voice.  Distorted, discolored, wrinkled, and erased, the artist has put each of the found images through a series of destructive acts.  The final result: Lambda Prints mounted on acrylic panels; the original images barely recognizable, transformed into brightly colored gestures reminiscent of renditions of far-off galaxies.  By wreaking havoc on the veneer of leisure of a perfect future, Sandnes employs gestures of destruction as a generative process, proposing questions of recalibrating that which influences Hope and Future; decisions that ultimately shape our NOW.

"I have created my works entirely by elimination, and every truth I have gained was born from the loss of an impression which, having flashed a moment, consumed itself and allowed me, thanks to the shadows which it released, to proceed deeply into the feeling of Absolute Darkness. Destruction was my Beatrice".  -- Stéphane Mallarmé.  A letter to Eugène Lefébure.  Monday, the 27th of May 1867.

Aaron Sandnes was born and raised in Los Angeles.  He was educated at California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, Ca. (MFA 2007) and University of California, Irvine , Ca. (BA 2003).  Recent solo exhibitions include Strange Attractor, Groeflin Maag Galerie, Zurich, Switzerland (2007); and Virulence, Groeflin Maag Galerie, Basel, Switzerland (2004).  Sandnes was included in the 2008 California Biennial, Estación Tijuana, Tijuana, Mexico; and Uberstars, organized by Glenn Kaino, The Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (2008).  Sandnes lives and works in Los Angeles, California.