Laura Kimpton “If WORDS could SPEAK”

Laura Kimpton “If WORDS could SPEAK”

HG Contemporary

This event has ended.

HG Contemporary presents a solo exhibition by multimedia artist Laura Kimpton. “If WORDS could SPEAK,” the title of the exhibition, considers the multivalent interpretations of words in text, speech, and sculpture, as they gain increasing importance through technology. The exhibition will include Kimpton’s Monumental Words sculptures, a bedroom installation and performance, an installation of monkey busts wearing the artist’s jewelry, and mixed media two-dimensional works. Kimpton will activate the exhibition with performances and on-site art making. There will be an opening reception on Thursday, May 4 from 6-8 pm.

“Laura’s pieces stand alone and have an incomparable impact on all who experience them. Her art spreads positivity and encourages expression of self that Laura herself lives by in all aspects of her personality and work,” says Philippe Hoerle-Guggenheim, founder and director of HG Contemporary.

For this exhibition, Kimpton will debut a new series of Word Search pieces, which are composed of colorful salvaged metal letters from Indonesia. The three-dimensional tableaus, adorned by Kimpton’s birds, will engage viewers in word play. Also on view will be Kimpton’s mixed media works including The Way Women Do It, Her Words, and the artist’s self-portraits as birds. The pieces combine elements in an assemblage style reminiscent of Rauschenberg.

Kimpton explains, “We give words so much importance in our lives and relationships, but when I create art using words I make them even more powerful. Then they do speak…they come alive.” The artist, who is dyslexic, fully understands the power that words hold and regains control of them through her sculptural works.

During the opening, a six-foot gold Monumental Word, EGO, composed of plaster trophies and religious relics will be sledge hammered by gallery-goers in a cathartic performance. The debris of the sculpture will remain and a smaller, three foot golden EGO will be placed in its wake. Rainbow LOVE, also from the same series but made in multi-hued steel cut out in Kimpton’s signature bird pattern, will be on view as well as a photograph of MAGIC by long-time collaborator Peter Ruprecht.

The California-based artist will be present during the exhibition to create new works in the gallery that will be added to the installation. In one of the gallery’s front rooms there will be a bed and some of Kimpton’s self-portraits. Kimpton will use that intimate space to make art the way she does at home—in bed—giving visitors an insight into her practice. A full body cast of the artist will occupy the bed after Kimpton completes her in-gallery residency.

The exhibition will also include an installation of over fifty monkey busts wearing Kimpton’s jewelry in a room lined with shelves. The monkeys will be in pairs, one wearing “BE” with its partner wearing “ART,” “KIND,” or “LOVE” among other phrases in an alternating pattern. A 16-foot monkey sculpture wearing “BE ART” necklaces will be outside the gallery during the opening.

Laura Kimpton is a California-based, American contemporary artist whose work consists of painting, mixed-media installations, and sculpture. She is best known for her Monumental Word sculptures conceived for and shown originally at Burning Man. Her creativity stems from a desire to question traditional views on social interaction, therefore invoking through her art a reaction from her viewers that ultimately completes her projects. She is continually exploring new mediums in her search for revelatory communication. Her raw and original work uses photography, found objects, televisions, paint, and resin–fusing objects of history to convey a very personal message. http://laurakimpton.com/

Media

• Painting
• Installation

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