LA - "Visions of Europe" + "Convince Me I'm on Fire" (05.10.08 - 06.07.08)

CERASOLI gallery Presents;

Gallery One
Andy J. Simmons 'Visions of Europe'

Gallery Two
Joshua Krause 'Convince Me I'm on Fire'

May 10 - June 7 , 2008
Opening Reception: Saturday May 10, 6-9 pm

CERASOLI gallery
8530-B Washington Blvd. Culver City, CA 90232
T. 310 558 0911 E. info@cerasoligallery.com

Cerasoli Gallery is pleased to present a pair of exhibitions by two artists working in separate mediums: Andy J. Simmons 'Visions of Europe' in Gallery One and Joshua Krause 'Convince Me I'm on Fire' in Gallery Two at the Cerasoli Gallery (8530-B Washington Blvd in Culver City). Opens May 10, 2008, and remains on view through June 7, 2008. Opening reception is Saturday, May 10, from 6pm - 8pm.

Autobiographical examinations of subcultural rituals populate Andy J. Simmons's 'Visions of Europe' photography exhibit in Gallery One. Born in South East London, Simmons grew up both skateboarding and studying photography. His artwork is an alliance of both pursuits, and Simmons cites Transworld Videos and Slap Magazine as continued influences in his current body of work. Utilizing Polaroid film and plastic cameras, mediums of pop nostalgia evocative of his early experientation with Super 8, Simmons creates beautiful, honest, documentary imagery with minimal ornament. Observations on his home city of London, where he still lives, Simmons's photographs are vivid portraits of the social dynamism in his community and skate culture at large.

Joshua Krause's Gallery Two exhibition, 'Convince Me I'm on Fire' includes acrylic, enamel, and resin collages on natural or painted wood backgrounds. The foregrounds are dominated by lacy, organic patterns composed of obsessively uniform white dots. Intuitively wrought black tendrils, eyes, or the half-glimpsed features of disembodied faces emerge from the baroque designs within their own inky blue and leathery brown quilt patches. The foreground imagery seems magnified, like the millions of fern seed pods which cling to the undersides of fronds, illuminated by phosphorescent moss. Primarily self-taught, Krause's intricate works are examples of painting as a microscope, rather than a window, to the world. Born in New York City in 1977, and raised in Florida, Joshua lives and works in San Diego, California.

about the gallery: For the last four years, the space at 8530-b Washington Boulevard in Culver City, California regularly exhibited the most outstanding of emerging urban artists. In 2008, this and former gallery The Lab 101 became the new home to Cerasoli Gallery, still under the direction of owner Freddi Cerasoli. Under its new identity, Cerasoli Gallery represents a select group of talented, up-and-coming and established, local and international artists whose common thread is creating thoughtful, imaginative, contemporary art.