Various Small Fires is pleased to present the debut exhibition of Los Angeles based artist Math Bass in South Korea, the artist’s first solo exhibition with VSF. A continued investigation into semiotics and visual processing, Fill It Up Silver mines the methodology of valuation through a series of paintings from the artist’s larger Newz! series as well as a completely new sculptural work from which this exhibition draws its title.
The Newz! paintings, a series that Bass began in 2014, feature a constantly transitioning compositional template in which tensions are drawn between the flat, colorful forms of opaque gouache and the broad negative space of raw canvas. Despite the stark differentiation between foreground and background, a delicate slit breaks the flatness of the canvas, indicating another plane beyond the surface presented to the viewer. Mimicking a linguistic punctuation mark, the red slivers mark an inversion of coloration in the forms, baiting the viewer’s instinct to define a compositional hierarchy. The somewhat familiar iconography itself acts as a vessel that can both contain and contextualize value. Exploring the dissonance between visual signifiers and their perceived signified qualities, Bass’ imagery deciphers the tonality of space rather than providing static definition.
A key that unlocks the other, each work evokes linearity through a sequential build-up of forms, reading like a line of music rather than linguistic syntax. For their newest sculpture, Fill It Up Silver, Bass casts three broken pieces of bread in lustrous solid silver. The bread, originally released from a raven’s mouth, had dropped onto the ground like three musical notes on a staff, before Bass collected them. Weighing in at four pounds, the silver chunks materialize the distance in meaning-making, an embodiment of filling what is meaningless with value.
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Math Bass (b. 1981, New York, NY, lives and works in Los Angeles, CA) is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice spans across painting, performance, sculpture, and video. The artist received a BA from Hampshire College and an MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles. Recent solo exhibitions include: Tanya Leighton, Berlin (2019); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2018); Mary Boone Gallery, New York (2018); The Jewish Museum, New York (2017); Yuz Museum, Shanghai (2017); and MoMA PS1, New York (2015). Bass has also participated in selected group exhibitions at Martos Gallery, New York (2019); Fredericks & Freiser, New York (2019); and Gordon Robichaux, New York (2018). Their work is included in the permanent collections of Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; and Yuz Museum, Shanghai, CN.
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매스 배스
은으로 채우다
2019년 11월 2일 – 2020년 1월 18일
오프닝 리셉션: 2019년 11월 2일, 5-7시
서울특별시 용산구 독서당로 79
베리어스 스몰 파이어스(Various Small Fires) 갤러리는 미국 로스앤젤레스 작가 매스 배스의 국내 최초 개인전을 개최한다. 기호학과 시각적 처리에 대한 지속석 조사하는 본 전시는 조각과 유화 신작들로 구성되며 가치의 /방법론/을 채굴한다. <매스 배스: 은으로 채우다>는 서울 용산구 독서당로 79에서 2019년 11월 2일부터 2020년 1월 18일까지 전시된다. 작가와 함께하는 오프닝 리셉션은 토요일 11월 2일 5-7시에 진행된다.
매스 배스 (1981년 뉴욕 태생)은 페인팅, 퍼포먼스, 조소, 영상 등 다매체로 작업하는 작가이다.
배스는 미국 로스앤잴레스에서 작업하며 거주한다. 본 전시는 VSF와 함께하는 첫번째 전시이다.
