Actual Size Los Angeles is pleased to present Welcome to Our Mess, Welcome to the Poor Farm, an exhibition by Aaron Wrinkle. From December 17, 2011 - January 21, 2012, Wrinkle will relocate his studio to the Actual Size gallery space. On December 17th from 7-8pm, viewers may witness a scripted performance that will take place inside the closed gallery. From 8-10pm, through the remainder of the exhibition, visitors will be invited to enter the performative space. An inventory list of each work in the exhibition will be available for reference.

 

Through the title of the exhibition, the artist echoes greetings his parents use to welcome visitors to their Missouri home. “Welcome to Our Mess, Welcome to the Poor Farm,” attaches sentiment to Wrinkle’s home and studio, which he has recently re-engaged with as a site of personal artistic exploration. This exhibition shares a unique stage in Wrinkle’s studio practice by using a conceptual structure to examine his most recent object based work. Although predominantly painting, the works presented in the gallery include performance, sculpture, photographs and storage crates, as well as a clip from the opening sequence of the artist's first movie, Of Steam. When placed in the formal context of the gallery, the “studio” objects shift their identity to mimic Wrinkle’s reflexive relationship with art history and his own aesthetic journey.

 

Two large broken down shipping crates stage the exhibition. Altered and dismantled, the crates take on a different function than their initial purpose as vessels that transported Wrinkle’s studio to the gallery. Physical placeholders for the exhibition narrative, the works set up a tableau to be activated by performers and visitors. Seemingly a "mess" of information, the content at hand is an examination of interests pertaining to the artist's practice and past, while the presentation questions the artist persona and performative nature of art production and exhibition.

 

Aaron Wrinkle was born in Aurora, Missouri in 1978. He received his BFA in Painting from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2004 and an MFA in Studio Art from CalArts in 2008. His works and projects have been featured and reviewed in Artforum, Artnet, Art Scene, Modern Painters, The New York Times and Notes on Looking. His work was published in The New Museum's Younger than Jesus Artist Directory by Phaidon Press in 2009.

 

Selected projects and exhibitions include: Co-Curator for Once Emerging Now Emerging a PST exhibition, Cirrus Gallery Archive 1971-Current, September-May 2012; The Optimist's Parking Lot, curated by Suzanne Adelman and Keith Walsh, Beacon Art's Building, Los Angeles, August 2011; Back Room Show, Untitled Gallery, New York, June 2011; Greater LA, curated by Joel Mesler, Ben Godsill and Eleanor Cayre, New York, May 2011; 12:12 Song, Actual Size, Los Angeles, May 2011; 3348 Hours of Sunshine, Clifton-Benevento, New York, March 2011; Performance Meditation and Guitar, Cottage Home, February 2011; Dan Graham, Art Los Angeles Contemporary, January 2011; In Conversation w/ Dan Graham, Art Los Angeles Contemporary, Ruskin Theatre, January, 2011; In Conversation w/ Raymond Pettibon, Art Los Angeles Contemporary, Ruskin Theatre, January, 2011; Pavilions Documented, Curated Show on Documentation of Artist’s Pavilions, Eliptical Pavilion (Berlin) Research by Adam Feldmeth and Suggestions by Dan Graham; Dan Graham (Gallery) Chinatown, L.A, 2010; Las Cienegas Projects and Guests, Las Cienegas Projects, July 2010; The Father, Son and Holy Ghost/ Past Present Future Done Here, Artist Installation with Curated Works from the Collection of Diana Zlotnick, Studio City, Ca, February,2009; Dan Graham (Gallery), Los Angles, 2008-2011; Full Restoration of Conceptual Artist Douglas Huebler’s 1977 Volvo, CalArts, 2007-2008