Wharton + Espinosa announce an exhibition of 3 Los Angeles-based artists: Alice Könitz, Nicolau Vergueiro, and Tyler Vlahovich, on view March 19th – April 26th.
Alice Konitz © Courtesy of the Artist and Wharton+Espinosa
All three have been active participants in the visual dialog of our city for more than a decade and have extensively exhibited both locally and internationally. This will be their first show at Wharton + Espinosa.
The idea of potential is a primary binding element in Alice Könitz’s artistic production. Her object’s behavior often lingers in close proximity to that of a placebo; but their self-sufficient posture never entirely allows them to be pinned down quite that easily. Könitz is known for her use of impermanent materials in constructions that appear structurally sound but are in reality just the opposite. These dichotomous objects employ the innate characteristics of non-structural craft materials, in conjunction with human scale and actual proportion, to induce an incongruous perception based on the viewer’s experiential familiarity with objects and materials.
Könitz says: “Sometimes the materials stand in for other materials, but since the objects I’m making are completely invented, it’s hard to say what these materials would be.” If Könitz objects are something akin to a full-scale 1:1 proportional model of a hypothetical or imagined object, how then do we negotiate a miniature scale model of that? A model of a model — a potential potential? Könitz’s presentation at Wharton + Espinosa will include twenty-two maquettes, most of which have manifested as her larger sculptures or installations, while some only exist in this intimate size. These works will be seen for the first time outside of her studio and represent 15 years of her creative process.
Alice Könitz (born in Essen-Werden, Germany) has presented her work in numerous exhibitions including The 2008 Whitney Biennial (Whitney Museum of American Art, NY); The 2008 California Biennial (Joshua Tree/Orange County Museum of Art); and International Paper (UCLA Hammer Museum, LA). She has held solo exhibitions at Susanne Vielmetter Projects, Los Angeles and Berlin, The University Art Museum, CSU Long Beach; LA>
