August 12 - September 23, 2023
Gallery reception is Saturday, August 12 from 2:00 to 5:00 pm
In the “dialectic of order and chaos” that structures all poetic discourse, veteran Los Angeles artist Jesse Benson (b. 1978, Orange, CA) places himself squarely in the camp of order as his exhibition title, Organizer, so clearly suggests. But this presentation of new and recent paintings, sculptures and artifacts argues the position in favor of order so relentlessly that, as it approaches the point of absurdity, a viewer might suspect that the artist is, if secretly, on the side of a wild and liberating chaos, after all. The two positions being irreconcilable, it is left then to the viewers to examine the evidence and judge the artist’s real and true intentions for themselves.
Organizer is presented in conjunction with Benson’s “Packaging” (2003), an artwork modeled (if somewhat cheekily) on Marcel Duchamp’s “La Boite-en-valise” and offered again here on what is the 20th anniversary of its first presentation.
Installation views
Photos by Jeff McLane