Inaugural Group Exhibition at Regen Projects

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The New Regen Projects exhibition space opened in late September in an area of Los Angeles that can best be approximated as south Hollywood. At over 10,000 square feet and designed by architect Michael Maltzan, the space meets and exceeds the expectations of ambitious and pretentious (I use this word as a positive) upper echelon Fine Art Gallery.  Not that architecturally speaking it’s all that. This is not a ground up design after all, but rather a facile and efficient appropriation of what once must have been a manufacturing or warehouse facility. Clean white walls, ceilings that reach for the sky, polished concrete floors and skylights that bath the interior with the killer Southern Californian sunshine are all archetypes, by now, of the ambitious multinational corporations that influential galleries have become.

Inaugural Installation at Regan Projects, September/October 2012, Courtesy of Regen Projects, Los Angeles

I must admit to loving these contemporary churches of secular aesthetic wonder. Part theatrical stage, part house of avant garde worship, these spaces are often wonderful loci for artistic refuge.

Three pieces in the cacophonous group exhibition of gallery artists paid off both in initial viewing and resonant experiential echos.

Anish Kapoor, Untitled, 2012, Stainless steel and resin, 72.83 x 72.83 x 11.02 inches (185 x 185 x 28 cm) Photo: Mario M. Muller, Courtesy of Regen Projects, Los Angeles

Anish Kapoor’s parabolic lens-like mirror became that rare instance of art and entertainment fusing. A large concave mirror made from stainless steel triangles of varying shapes and angles dialogued with every motion in the gallery. As you came closer to the piece, your reflection went from upside down to rightside up. The magnification and abstraction of every reflection remained elusive and wholly ephemeral. Kapoor remains one of the world’s great magicians, harnessing technological wizardry to the behest of aesthetic and emotionally resonant ends.

Doug Aitken, MOVIE, 2012, High density foam, wood, mirror and painted glass, 27 1/4 x 79 1/2 x 8 inches (69.2 x 201.9 x 20.3 cm), Edition of 4, 2 AP, Photo: Mario M. Muller

Doug Aitken’s sculptural word wall piece Movie held similar charm. The surfaces of the word Movie with beveled edges were all broken glass mirrors. And not even safety glass, with its structured splinters but shattered glass. The movie industry here in Los Angeles is after all a medium of light and fractured imagination. The marriage of content and media seemed to produce both an affectionate and critical effect simultaneously. No mean feat that.

Wolfgang Tillmans, Headlight (f), 2012, Framed C-print, 83.86 x 57.09 x 2.36 inches (213 x 145 x 6 cm), Edition 1/1, +1 AP Courtesy of Regen Projects, Los Angeles © Wolfgang Tillmans

Lastly Wolfgang Tillmans large scale photograph of a car hood held fetishistic fascination. The allure of surface was equal in the car itself and the quality and precision of the photographic print. Sexy, aspirational and perhaps vacuous. As a dear dealer friend of mine is known for saying “Wanty Wanty!”

Lastly, the allure of such exhibition spaces like the new Regen Projects is undeniable. But the trap is that the space defines the art. Or rather the venue defines the program of the gallery. More intimate work like that of Elizabeth Peyton or Toba Khedoori, both part of the Regen stable, might see their work fare less well in such environs. Time will tell.

Regen Projects
6750 Santa Monica Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90038
Tel: 1-310-276-5424

Inaugural Installation of Gallery Artists continues through October 27th, 2012

-Mario M. Muller, Los Angeles, October 2012

The Author with camera visually divided and reassembled by Mr. Kapoor.

 

also by Mario M. Muller

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