Justin Michell: Through the Grapevine
May 14 - June 4, 2016
Opening Saturday, May 14, 2016

[Images]

(Los Angeles)—Tiger Strikes Asteroid LA presents their first exhibition of Los Angeles based painter Justin Michell entitled Through the Grapevine opening on Saturday, May 14, 2016 from 6 to 8pm. The exhibition continues through June 4th and is open to the public on Saturdays from noon to 5pm.

The phrase “I see what you’re saying” implies relations between vision, language and meaning. At times we can feel that we don’t fully understand our visual impressions unless we can verbalize them. Other times this relation is inverted and the language by itself feels inadequate, in need of a supplement. These paintings form a picture, ‘worth a thousand words’, in order to be able to relate to verbal descriptions. This new series by Michell uses a simplified set of elements that use colored blocks grouped into compact, static arrangements. Speech bubbles sprout from the canvas, turning them into semi figurative stand-ins for possible interlocutors. Active clusters of rectangles float in the enclosed bubbles as implied acts of verbal exchange.

Justin Michell was born in Philadelphia in 1976. He lives and works in Los Angeles. He received his BFA from Tyler School of Art at Temple University in 1998 and his MFA from the University of California, San Diego in 2006. Michell has been included in several group shows including Fleisher/Ollman , Philadelphia; SideCar Gallery, Indiana; Shoshana Wayne Gallery, Los Angeles; amongst others.