LAWRENCE GIPE : 'Zirkus und Varieté' at Hunsaker/Schlesinger Fine Art

Thursday, 19 October 2006 18:36

Santa Monica, CA - Hunsaker/Schlesinger Fine Art is pleased to present Zirkus und Varieté an exhibition of recent paintings and monotypes by the artist Lawrence Gipe, opening November 4th and on view through December 23.  Gipe’s fourth solo exhibition at Hunsaker/Schlesinger Fine Art contains images of acrobatic performers, aglow in spotlight and perilously balanced against a black vastness.  As in previous series, Lawrence Gipe uses vintage imagery as a tool for reconsidering the collective past.  Growing up watching reruns of films from the 30's and 40's, he was influenced by the power and romanticism of these iconic images.

In Zirkus und Varieté the visuals are from 1930's German cabaret photographs.  On the surface these images appear to be metaphors of human potential, but on further reflection there is the suggestion of catastrophe and spectacle.  Cabaret performers entertained the masses during the height of fascism.  But, there is a timelessness to the images that transcends historical context.  These daring performers hurl themselves through a vast nothingness, the solid blackness of the background, the unknown. Lawrence Gipe brings these figures, and their implications into the modern world.

In 1986, Lawrence Gipe began his career in Los Angeles with a series of exhibitions addressing the themes of industrialization, progress and ideological photography.  He has had 38 solo exhibitions in US galleries and museums in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston and, internationally in Munich, Berlin, and the Künstverein Düsseldorf.

Recent solo shows include a mid-career survey, “3 Five-Year Plans: Lawrence Gipe 1990-2005”, organized by Marilyn Zeitlin at the University Art Museum, Tempe, Arizona.  In 2007, Gipe will exhibit in New York with Alexander Gray Associates.  He has been the recipient of various grants including two NEA Fellowships.  Currently, he is an Assistant Professor of Studio Art at the University of Arizona Tucson.  Gipe’s work is collected by individuals and institutions all over the world including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Norton Museum of Art, Palm Beach, Florida and the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York.

The show opens with an artist’s reception on Saturday November 4th.  The gallery is located in the Bergamot Station Arts Center, 2525 Michigan Avenue, T3, Santa Monica, CA.  For additional information visit : www.artnet.com/hs.html