Kohn Gallery is pleased to present Cartography of Control, the first solo exhibition by Troika in North America. This new exhibition brings together both existing and new works including drawings, installation and sculpture. An opening reception will be held January 10, from 6-8 PM. The works will be on view through February 7, 2015.
This exhibition takes its premise from a society that has become increasingly governed by rational thinking and scientific methodology. Cartography of Control questions a purely mathematical description of our world and suggests that just as different maps can give different accounts of the same territory, so can different forms of knowledge reflect a more truthful image about the material world.
As Troika experiments with new ideas and processes, the artists continue to work across media including light, water and electricity. While the mark making involved in the works is at once deliberate and spontaneous, calculated and random, ‘Cartography of Control’ explores ideas around man made structures, control, repetitive actions and systems and how these coincide, conflict, or unite with the unpredictable, the unknowable, and irrational.
In ‘Testing Time’ (2014) a stream of water is brought to a halt, and time is visibly broken into distinct instances. ‘Sum of all Possibilities’ (2014) is a suspended sculpture that is characterized by an apparent infinite process of metamorphosis which, in reality, is a 12 minute loop defined by mathematical relationships and a precise mechanism that allows an unlimited number of combinations. ‘Cartography of Control’ (2014) is a series of drawings that present the marks left on paper by the attempted manipulation of a powerful electric charge, dominated by the tension between control over what is inherently uncontrollable. ‘Calculating the Universe’ (2014) is a series of works that consider the relationship between rules and the concepts of randomness and chaos. These works are constructed from thousands of dice by following simple repetitive rules from which random patterns emerge.
About Troika
Eva Rucki (b. 1976, Germany), Conny Freyer (b. 1976, Germany) and Sebastien Noel (b. 1977, France) have worked together as an artist trio since 2003.
With a particular interest in perception and the spatial experience, their collective multi-media works challenge the experience of seeing and knowing. They manipulate our perception of the world and ask the question why we know what we know, and whether this knowledge is certain.
Troika’s work has been shown in numerous exhibitions at institutions such as: the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe, Germany (2013), the Victoria & Albert Museum London (2009), The Art Institute of Chicago (2009), the MoMA New York (2008), Tate Britain (2007), and their work is represented in the permanent collections of the Israel Museum Jerusalem, British Council, The Art Institute of Chicago, Victoria and Albert Museum and the Museum of Modern Art New York. In 2014 Troika was selected to present their work ‘Dark Matter’ at Unlimited, Art Basel. Upcoming, current and past solo exhibitions include ‘Limits of a known territory’, a solo exhibition at NC Arte, Bogota, Colombia (April – June 2015), ‘Persistent Illusions’, a solo show at the Daelim Museum, Seoul, Korea (10 April 2014 – 12 Oct 2014), ‘The far Side of Reason’, OMR, Mexico City, Mexico (April – June 2013).
Eva Rucki, Conny Freyer and Sebastien Noel live and work in London.
About Kohn Gallery
Since its establishment in 1985 by former Flash Art editor, Michael Kohn, Kohn Gallery has presented art historically significant exhibitions in Los Angeles along with contemporary exhibitions that create meaningful contexts, establishing links to the greater art historical continuum. Significant exhibitions include: Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Boxes in December 1986, just weeks before the artist’s untimely death; She: Works by Richard Prince and Wallace Berman, brought together, for the first time, two generations of leading artists from different coasts; Bruce Conner: Work from the 1970s, which inspired the artist’s first solo retrospective in Europe at the Kunsthalle Wien and Kunsthalle Zurich (2010); other shows of important New York-based artists have included new works by Christopher Wool, Richard Tuttle, Mark Tansey, Kenny Scharf, and Keith Haring. Kohn Gallery represents important West Coast artists with long careers and rich history, including Bruce Connor, the Estate of Wallace Berman, Larry Bell, and Joe Goode; along with an exciting roster of emerging and mid-career artists including Simmons & Burke, Hannah Greely, Ryan McGinness, Rosa Loy, Dennis Hollingsworth, Mark Ryden, James Nares, Eddie Martinez, and Troika.
In May 2014, Kohn Gallery opened a new 12,000 square foot gallery. Designed by Malibu-based architect Lester Tobias, the new gallery building features an immense space with 22-foot ceilings, allowing for stunning exhibitions on a monumental scale. This design also incorporates a massive glass window along Highland Avenue and extensive skylights to bathe the gallery with natural light. With an eye always towards the future, the Kohn Gallery will utilize this expansive new exhibition space to continue to mount bold exhibitions of established and emerging artists.
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