LUIS GISPERT

All Oyster, No Pearl
 

Opening Reception
Saturday, April 7, 7-9pm

OHWOW
937 N. La Cienega Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90069
 

Los Angeles, CA - Combining elements of photography and sculpture with a focus on the corollary of arrangement, Luis Gispert's solo exhibition is somewhat of a departure from his previous methods and concerns. All Oyster, No Pearl unravels the artist's creative process, as familiar themes now communicate through novel and more instinctual ways.

A series of silver gelatin prints mounted onto customized boxes are in fact closer to sculptures, due to presentation and subject matter. Staged composites pair modern furniture with cheap items; inWishbone (2012), a fake gold chain intersects a Hans Wegner chair, for example. These photographs invite a conversation of quality and attribution of worth, as opposing elements level and ultimately dissolve through the image's final, monochromatic depiction. With a group of freestanding sculptural work, Gispert combines cast sections of Hydro-Stone with factory produced, manufactured elements. The union of handmade and ready-made, here again, alludes to discussions of hierarchy and value.

Ultimately, All Oyster, No Pearl confronts the concept of syllogism. The connections and conclusions drawn through the act of looking, processing information, and the seduction of aesthetics defy standard interpretation - logical comprehension or calculation falters. Gispert warps the ideology of discerning value, and a cliché becomes fresh: one's trash is another's treasure. Gispert's work does not dictate an agenda; it offers a freedom to connect through associative perception, and to dissolve our object caste system. What emerges is pure appreciation - a trigger to consider how and why such equations evolve, reaching to obtain cultural currency.

Luis Gispert (b. 1972, Jersey City, NJ) has an MFA in Sculpture from Yale University. His work has shown nationally at P.S.1/MoMA Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, New York; The Mary Boone Gallery, New York, NY; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; and The Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, FL. His work has exhibited internationally at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, England; The Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China; and in the Mediations Biennale, Poznan, Poland.