LA - Chris Lux "Find Out Why They Call Them Pigs" (11.05.11 - 11.26.11)

Chris Lux: Find Out Why They Call Them Pigs

November 5 - November 26, 2011
Opening Saturday, November 5th, 6-9pm

The Jancar Jones Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibit of new work by San Francisco-based artist Chris Lux, titled Find Out Why They Call Them Pigs. The show will consist of a selection of sculptures and drawings started during the artist’s recent stay in Italy and completed upon his return to San Francisco.

Inspired by the Animal Room (a collection of statues amassed by Pope Pius VI throughout the 18th century) in the Pio-Clementino Vatican Museum, Lux will address Roman and Etruscan symbology to create his own bestial menagerie. By likening rough abstract figures to prescribed animal counterparts, his grouping of forms invariably blends the ancient with the modern.

In his new body of work, Lux alludes to the pseudo-scientific and mythical associations inherent in the collection of curiosities and statuary, while continuing to pay homage to more modern-day Bay Area Figurative and Funk aesthetics. Apparent in the sculptures is his predisposition to a loose, frenetic application of paint – applied like icing to three-dimensional structures – combined with a fluid, graphic, almost japonesque treatment of line. He defines the animalistic features of rustic clay pieces with thick swaths of color while meticulously painting monochromatic, silhouetted scenes (typical of Etruscan vase decoration or Art Nouveau posters) on the perfectly smooth surface of paper mache orbs. At once harmoniously united and aggressively distinct, the works cohesively reflect a microcosmic mélange of art historical styles and subjects.

Chris Lux was born in San Francisco and received his BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. This will be Lux’s third solo show with the gallery and his first in Los Angeles.


Jancar Jones Gallery
506 BERNARD STREET
LOS ANGELES, CA 90012
www.jancarjones.com