Natural History: Anthony Lepore and Mark Hagen

A A A Comments (0) By Andrew Berardini Thursday, Jun 16 2011

In the third gallery, Hagen presents a series of "Directionless Field" photographs capturing mirrors, lenses, diffraction films, prisms and other optical glass pieces. They're shot as still lifes; the light bends and bounces and becomes both the pure subject of the photograph and its true shaper, more than the photographer.

In each series, Hagen's process allows for nature — in the form of gravity, light and material — to define what the finished product looks like. Such processes mimic the kind of conceptualism that Sol Lewitt outlined in Sentences on Conceptual Art: "Irrational thoughts should be followed absolutely and logically." But Hagen's material manifestation is wholly his own. Each of the works in the exhibition blurs the boundary between nature-made and man-made. The process returns again and again to what the artist calls "authorial disorientations" — moments where the art makes itself.

Courtesy of Francois Ghebaly Gallery and M+B

Anthony Lepore's Salt Carpet

Courtesy of China Art Objects Galleries

Mark Hagen's To Be Titled (Subtractive and Additive Sculpture #6)

Courtesy of China Art Objects Galleries

Shot of Mark Hagen's show "TBA" at China Art Objects Galleries

Location Info

Map

Francois Ghebaly Gallery

2600 S. La Cienega Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90034

Category: Art Galleries

Region: West L.A.

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Humankind exerts such a strong effect on nature that scientists give us our own geologic era, the anthropocene, which is to say the whole idea of "Man Versus Nature" isn't quite true anymore. But these two artists show that nature is as much part of us as we are of it. Despite all the ways we've successfully tamed and framed it, there's still something strange and powerful in letting nature run its course.

MARK HAGEN: TBA | China Art Objects Galleries | 6086 Comey Ave., L.A. | Through June 25