 Electric Blue Camouflage 2004 Spray enamel on puzzle on wood panel, 19.5 x 26.5 in (50 x 67 cm) Louis Cameron Pop Secret I-20 is pleased to present "Pop Secret", the first New York solo exhibition of Louis Cameron. The works in "Pop Secret" test color-coded consumer product identities by abstracting images that are familiar to us. The exhibition will consist of two suites of paintings, collages, and a video. In the first suite, the "Puzzle Paintings", the colors are extracted from products and painted on jigsaw puzzle pieces. The colors are selected by chance and the quantity by the proportion of color used in the original product. When assembled the die cut pattern of the jigsaw puzzle is in the foreground and the color composition is the result of the selection process. Even after this abstraction process the product identity, so engrained on our minds, is still recognizable. Titles in this suite include "Mountain Dew", "Newport", and "Reynolds Wrap". Unlike the Puzzle Paintings, the second suite of works called "Color Bar Paintings" are copies of ready-made color extractions. These are the squares and circles of color one finds on the inside flaps of cereal boxes and other products. In addition to testing product color identity the paintings pose rhetorical questions to minimal paintings of the past such as "Is the destiny of minimal painting and its aesthetic to calibrate color for consumer products?" and "After radical reduction in form and content is minimal art just another consumer product?" Titles include "Doublemint" and "Crest". The collages shown at I-20 are made from product boxes and packaging cut into grids and reassembled by chance to the original size of the box. The resulting images look like sliding block puzzles that have been scrambled. Finally, Cameron will debut his first video entitled "Universal". "Universal" is an animated barcode composed of hundreds of barcodes, mostly collected from the artist's loft, morphing into one another. The lines in "Universal" move in a hypnotic rhythm like window blinds blowing in the wind while alluding to our massive consumption. In 2005, Louis Cameron's work will be featured in the 1st Moscow Biennale and in "Extreme Abstraction" at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo. His work has been featured in "Freestyle" at The Studio Museum in Harlem; "Open House" at the Brooklyn Museum,; and "Buy American" at Chez Valentin in Paris. Cameron has completed a residency at The Studio Museum of Harlem in 2003, and lives and works in Brooklyn. Exhibition: January 22 - March 12, 2005 Gallery hours: Tue Sat 11am - 6 pm I-20 Gallery 529 West 20th Street, 11th Floor USA-New York, NY 10011 Telephone +1 212 645-1100 Fax + 212 645-0198 www.i-20.com |
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