“True Grit” Exhibition

Baahng Gallery

[Image: Michael McClard "Shooter, Got shot" (c1982) detail]

This event has ended.

Baahng Gallery presents True Grit, a group exhibition of six American artists: R.C. Baker, Ron Gorchov, Michael McClard, Yooah Park, Shelter Serra, and Lawrence Weiner. The artists, R.C. Baker and Shelter Serra.

As evidenced by the current and ever-shifting geo-political landscape, what is considered the establishment today can be adjusted tomorrow, and the status quo, quickly reversed. The only thing certain about a norm is its changeability, a universal law from which the trends in the art world is not exempt. True Grit, a feast for the eyes, showcases 15 paintings and 6 sculptures by artists, born in different decades, and using distinct art practices. Their point of commonality is a demonstrated refusal to compromise their artistic visions, in spite of the mainstream and its ever-changing face. The exhibition is an exploration into the introspective processes of uncut individuals, who create, and have always created, on their own terms, and a celebration of their resultant, dynamic and wondrous works.

On view include Gorchov’s Sam, an emblem of the artist’s creation of a new pictorial field. On canvas pulled over saddle-like stretchers, the painting is lyrical yet in-your-face. McClard’s Shooter, Got Shot¸ lusciously painted fresco depicting modern issues, pulsating with raw, tactile energy; a bizarre delight. Weiner’s Put Aside or Put Away, a Hong Kong standard life preserver with language as a sculptural medium. Park’s Holarchy Cloud, a performative sculpture: ink on rice paper calligraphy metamorphosed into laser cut steel, disembodied and dancing mid-air; graceful in presence, ready to injure. Baker’s After Krivov, Rockefellers and Warhol, gouache on mug shots, referential to Stalin-doctored photographs of apparatchiks fallen out of favor, Rockefeller’s blackout on Warhol; when the establishment and art come to a head. Serra’s Morton Salt Girl, household and idyllic on the surface; a seeming nod to the comfort in the familiar that deceptively inquires into the common wisdom of the American Dream.