CURTIS WEAVER

DEVIANT DWELLERS


MARCH 13 – APRIL 9, 2015

OPENING RECEPTION:
FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 2015, 6 – 8 PM

KÖLNER LISTE ART FAIR - COLOGNE, GERMANY:
APRIL 15 - 19, 2015

GARBOUSHIAN GALLERY is pleased to present the second solo gallery exhibition of artist CURTIS WEAVER in DEVIANT DWELLERS.

Seductive and elusive artwork, Weaver treats the environment in which we live as a biological jigsaw puzzle that can be broken down and reassembled in different ways. Fascinated with the organic intelligence inherent in all life forms, Weaver explores new territory in Deviant Dwellers with his fascinating creature creations and imagined environments. Realized entirely in sculpture and installation, characters within Weaver’s work have been altered and expanded upon in ways that bring these once alien, nondescript environment dwellers into settings with elements familiar to that of the domestic western world.

Often whimsical, sensual or repulsive, his creations commonly combine single parts of the human body with elements of plant life and manmade technology, echoing the common patterns in organic life, from the largest of life forms, to the smallest. These suggested narratives are laced with alterations of life processes like ingestion, respiration and sexual reproduction. Weaver’s created world is a complex and provocative place, filled with creatures and forms that straddle scientific plausibility with creative imagination and organic technology.

The forms in Weaver’s work are products of a process of exploiting similarities between completely different organisms from the natural world and combining or swapping pieces of them in ways that are fictional yet plausible. Focusing on recurring patterns throughout nature he produces visual depictions that simultaneously provoke notions of alien and familiarity.

CURTIS WEAVER

CURTIS WEAVER
PARTIAL PREVIEW IMAGES



Weaver’s work exemplifies the idea that the slightest alteration of superficial visual information of an object or organism can drastically affect our opinion of it and how we identify with it, its purpose or demeanor. Likewise, making a simple alteration to the color of certain substances can affect our expectations of their physical properties such as solidity and viscosity.

The scenarios in Weaver’s work depicting conglomerations, constructions and individual creatures working in numbers are intended to bridge the gap between the perception of subjects on a human scale and that of a microscopic scale. Playing with parallels between the many different species and behaviors, Weaver references plumbing as it mimics a digestive system; Weaver also embraces memory and entropy through his intense and strangely seductive creations.

Through amalgamative works and uncanny comparisons, this transformed physical and mental space challenges the viewer’s boundaries and views of the ecological system we are a part of, questions and discombobulates our notions of hierarchy from one species to the next.

DEVIANT DWELLERS opens Friday, March 13 with a reception from 6:00 to 8:00pm. The exhibition will remain on view until April 9, 2015. GARBOUSHIAN GALLERY will also exhibit Curtis Weaver's work at Kölner Liste Art Fair in Cologne, Germany April 15 to 19, 2015.