January 18 – March 15, 1997
In the Main Gallery, Artists Space presents Hot Coffee, an exhibition of recent art from Los Angeles focusing on a developing scene of small, occasional, and often short-lived venues such as Bliss, Foodhouse, and Three Day Weekend. The six artists in the exhibition include: Julie Becker, Andrea Bowers, Dave Muller, Laura Owens, Marina Rosenfeld and Kent Young.
Curated by Thomas Lawson
Opening Reception: Saturday, January 18, 6 to 8
During the past two or three years a new generation of artists has come into focus in Los Angeles. Educated in, and familiar with, the competitive atmosphere generated by the area's high-powered art schools (Art Center, CalArts, Otis, UC Irvine, UCLA), this is a group of young artists who have decided to work in a casual, transient, post-graduate school environment of their own making. This trend is now firming into something more established, with a number of more business-like spaces taking on the responsibility of exhibiting and promoting this new work. The six artists in this exhibition create work that could be seen as a reflection of the transient nature of Los Angeles, its flux, and the unease that is created when different cultures shift, merge and then split apart again. There is no particular allegiance to medium or category, yet there is an attempt to find a beauty, or at least pathos, in the clutter of rescued banality.
