Downtown, Los Angeles
Group Exhibition
Somnambulism
As It StandsVan Hanos Ben Horns Alan Michael Rose Marcus As It Stands is pleased to present Somnambulism, a group exhibition. “You’re getting sleepy, very sleepy... Somnambulism (sleepwalking) isn’t an ideology, an ism, in the same sense as Impressionism or Realism, but why not? We could call the work in this show Capitalist Somnambulist. Indeed, the artists might prefer a nod to Capitalist Realism over Pop—a nod to the Mark Fischer text is probably also welcome. The paintings are rendered convincingly, to a degree of familiarity. Still, it’s unclear whether or not the artists have ever seen the things rendered. The work in the exhibition employs photography to invoke the uncanny, but beyond sharing techniques, calling them surreal would be a misnomer, despite being dream-like. Some people say dreams are about something. Freud says that dreams help to process unconscious and repressed desires. He called this Wunscherfüllung, or fulfilling wishes. We have Amazon for that now, and Amazon has fulfillment centers. Throughout the works, there is a constant feeling of motion, but we all know what it’s like to punch in a dream. You recognize the failure of your limbic system to move the way you want, atonia, and there’s a thrilling mixture of desperation and curiosity. What world do you wake up to from these works? There is no outside.” —Max Guy Van Hanos (b. 1979, Edison New Jersey) lives and works in Marfa, Texas. He received a BA from Maryland Institute College of Art, and an MFA from the School of the Arts at Columbia University, New York, NY, USA. Recent solo exhibitions include Twin at Lisson Gallery, (London) Conditional Bloom at Lisson Gallery (New York), Interiors at Château Shatto, (Los Angeles); Mommy’s Boy at Cleopatra’s, (New York), Late American Paintings at Château Shatto (Los Angeles, CA) Awake At The Funeral at Tanya Leighton (Berlin). Ben Horns (b. 1989, Palos Heights, IL) lives in New York. He received a BA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and studied at the Städelschule, Frankfurt, Germany, as well as the Whitney Independent Study Program. Recent Solo Exhibitions include Autofiction, And Now (Dallas), and New Social Portraits, Springsteen Gallery (Baltimore). Recent group exhibitions include Arcadia and Elsewhere, James Cohan (New York), Horns, Kerr, Martinez, And Now (Dallas), and Everything Is Common, Artist Space (New York). Rose Marcus (b. 1982, Atlanta, GA) lives in New York. She received a BFA from Pratt Institute in New York and a Master’s in Art History at Hunter College, also in New York. Marcus’s solo exhibitions include Night Gallery (Los Angeles); Mary Mary (Glasgow); Know More Games (New York); Eli Ping (New York); David Peterson Gallery (Minneapolis); and And Now (Dallas). Her work has shown in two-person exhibitions at Atlanta Contemporary (Atlanta); Parisian Laundry (Montreal); La Kaje (Brooklyn); as well as group exhibitions at Modern Institute (Glasgow); Derosia (New York), Tanya Leighton (Berlin); Sies and Höke (Dusseldorf); Simon Lee Gallery (New York); and CANADA (New York). MaSS MoCa (North Adams) featured her work in 2016. Alan Michael (b. 1967, Glascow, Scotland) lives and works in London. Recent solo exhibitions include Friendly Street, Jan Kaps (Cologne), Matchmakers, Jenny’s (New York), Playlife, Halle für Kunst, Lüneburg, Wonder Workers, High Art (Paris), and Stars of the Source, Le Bourgeois (London).