Rat Hole Gallery is pleased to present Sex Booze Weed Speed, a two-person show of works by Oscar Tuazon and Gardar Eide Einarsson on view from December 17, 2010 until February 20, 2011. For this exhibition, the artists will create a site-specific installation conceived specially for the gallery space.
Tuazon (American, b.1975, lives and works in Paris) creates large-scale sculptures and installations that investigate the physical space and contain references to and elements of Minimalist sensibilities, do-it-yourself aesthetics, and formal architectural practices. His work is often characterized by a sense of tension and aggressiveness that challenges the traditional notions of architecture but also possesses a sense of adaptability that leverages his fascination with alternative architectural movements and improvised usage of building materials such as cement, wood, glass and metal. Much of the materials he uses in his work are scrap or salvage he scavenges himself, which the artist then transforms into a work having an elegant simplicity and raw beauty that reverberates with the physical space around it. Underlying a distrust of architectural orthodoxy is a deep insight to the discipline and a distinct perspective of the visual language of structure, line, and form. For this exhibition at Rat Hole Gallery, Tuazon will work on-site to create sculptural works that push the physical boundaries of the exhibition space.
Einarsson (Norwegian, b.1976, lives and works in Oslo, New York, and Tokyo) is known for his minimalist black and white works, often large format paintings, photographs or sculptures, that address themes of authority, order, disorder, crime, and other references to a “control society.” Many of his works are based on pre-existing images, which the artist discovers in a variety of ways, such as through obscure Internet sites, administrative questionnaires, bumper stickers, comics, underground publications, and the book covers of alternative literature whose design takes after post-war abstract painting. With these images, Einarsson uses techniques such as enlarging them, separating them, and combining them to create works that are sophisticated and wry representations of authority and their ambiguities. The iconography of political repression is contrasted with the vocabulary of minimalism, and influences from American pop culture and art historical references to 70s conceptual art can also be seen his work. For this exhibition, Einarsson will create large, black and white silkscreens on canvas based on images from a notorious, underground self-defense fighting manual from the 1980s.
Tuazon and Einarsson first met when both were participants of the Whitney Museum of Art’s Independent Study Program (ISP) from 2001 until 2002. They made their first collaborative works during the program and also when they were both working for conceptualist artist Vito Acconci at the time. Since then, their respective solo careers have expanded significantly and both artists have participated in numerous solo and group shows around the world. While they have worked on several projects together over the years, such as their work “Guerilla War in the U.S.A.” for the 2006 Whitney Biennial, this exhibition at Rat Hole Gallery marks the first time that the artists have teamed up for a two-person exhibition together. The unity of the two artists work climaxes in a dramatic juxtaposition- between emotive installation and the white walls of the gallery space, between natural and industrial materials, and between refined elegance and aggressive rawness.
In conjunction with the exhibition, Rat Hole Gallery will publish “Sex Booze Weed Speed,” a book created together by Tuazon and Einarsson featuring photographs taken by the two artists.
