CURTIS WEAVER

TREES IN WOLVES' CLOTHING

SEPTEMBER 16 – OCTOBER 13, 2017

OPENING RECEPTION:

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2017, 6 – 8 PM

Garboushian Gallery is proud to present the third solo exhibition of Los Angeles-based artist Curtis Weaver with his latest body of work in Trees in Wolves’ Clothing. Although they may seem dangerous, grotesque, or horrific at first glance, Weaver’s artworks toy with visual interpretation and bring larger concepts to the forefront. Like the original saying calls to mind, something is not as it appears.

Through a lens of biological whimsy paired with perceptual dissonance, Trees in Wolves’ Clothing presents a twisted up view of our natural world depicted through exaggerated interpretations of evolution, reincarnation, and nature’s recycling of matter and energy. Inspired by fallacies, contradictions, biases and nonsensical nuances found within our everyday western world, these amalgamations apply a playful and mythical spin to a visceral foundation of life and death.

Interested in the comparison between biological adaptation and cognitive adaptation, Weaver plays within these inspiring transformations to find and express the parallel comparisons between natural adaptations and man-made objects, questioning their roles in the evolutionary process of our natural world.

Weaver’s new body of work is an interesting departure from his previous practice and process in art-making. Although he has been preoccupied with the concepts of evolutionary biology for nearly a decade, following the work of scientists and writers such as E.O. Wilson, Neil Shubin and Stephen Gould, his previous creative narrative structure and arduous fabrication processes had to be strictly structured.

CURTIS WEAVER - TREES IN WOLVES CLOTHING

        

        

        

His new body of work has moved away from the rigid fabricated science of his previous practice. With less obsession in replicating items with complex processes to resemble other objects, creating a world-within-world environment, Weaver has been letting the materials speak out to him and remain intact, although still playing incognito.

By re-assembling found tree parts and altering their color and sheen, Weaver transforms these works to exhibit the visual likeness of fleshy, animal-like embodiments, accentuating the structural and systemic similarities between plant and animal biology. Pairing objects and materials that commonly crossover throughout industries such as meat processing, food service, lumber harvesting and mortuary, our societal associations with objects peek out from the works in the exhibition, begging for viewers to form thoughts, feelings and storylines on their own. These accompaniments aim to exploit and question our customary comforts within the suggested scenarios. While some of these conglomerations are created with a playful sense of irony and humor, they also highlight the dangers of an all-encompassing capitalistic society, in which no aspect of life or nature is safe from commodification.

Using forgettable accessory items like shoes in his work he is able to provide an instant link of empathy from the viewer onto the anatomic anomalies. Utilizing the emotional connections we have to other humans, through objects and materials, Weaver is able to cause concern or empathy to stir in the viewer, bringing larger issues of environmental destruction and conservation to the front of the viewers’ minds.

Curtis Weaver lives and works in Los Angeles and is represented by Garboushian Gallery.

The exhibition opens on Saturday, September 16, 2017, with a reception from 6 - 8pm, and will remain on view until October 13, 2017.