My House: Mike Kelley and Ryan Trecartin, runs until March 3 at Presentation House Gallery, 333 Chesterfield Ave., North Vancouver. Tobin Gibson, exhibition curator, and Mary Clare Stevens, executive director of the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, will speak tonight at 7 p.m. Opening reception to follow at 8 p.m.
Mike Kelley lived and worked in Los Angeles from 1976 until his death in 2012 and Ryan Trecartin moved to the Southern California metropolis in 2010, a few years after graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design.
The two contemporary artists are from different generations, but both of their bodies of work are heavily informed by the ethos of L.A. and explore topical themes in American culture. For Kelley, the post-Vietnam War period, and for Trecartin, the years after 9/11, created an atmosphere ripe for commentary on a country in the midst of social, economic and political change. The two artists are further bound by their shared interest in music and creative collaboration.
Presentation House Gallery is currently exhibiting a selection of works, mainly video art, by Kelley and Trecartin which highlight their points of view. Guest curated by Tobin Gibson, the title of the show, My House, alludes to an archetype in dream symbolism and psychoanalytic practice.
"There was a kind of fascination that I wanted to bring forward when contextualizing their works together," Gibson explains.
Viewers enter the exhibit through the centre gallery where Kelley is on display. The artist worked in an array of genres and styles, including performance, installation, drawing, painting, video, photography, sound, text, and sculpture. Gibson selected four of his works - three video-based and one silkscreen on aluminum print.
Meanwhile, Trecartin, who is best known for his sculptural work and video art, occupies the east and west galleries. Two of his movies are paired in each space.
The entire exhibit spans the decades, from the early 1980s to the last few years.
"So it paints an interesting overview in how these artists have been working with ideas around social institutions as well as working with new technologies and animations at the time to further complexify their works and to add other esthetic layers to the unusual content that they play with," Gibson says.
In one room, visitors can watch Trecartin's Junior War (2013), paired with one of his most well-regarded early works A Family Finds Entertainment (2004).
"They both centre around activities of a party and a debaucherous social atmosphere," Gibson says.
The Kelley selections offer a broad representation of his long career. Visitors can watch his first solo video project, The Banana Man (1983), as well as Kappa (1986), a collaboration with artists Bruce and Norman Yonemoto. The '80s films are being shown on monitors with headphones, while Kelley's more recent Day is Done (2005-06) is projected on the back wall with the audio played out on speakers.
At the same time, Trecartin's movies are being shown on screens with headphones while a "dim, ambient" soundtrack meant to further tie together the content plays in the space.
Familiar themes recur in the narratives of both artists' work.
"There are very close ties in looking at institutions, such as high school or family or corporations, and how those things penetrate our thinking and how we exist in the world," Gibson says. For those used to visiting galleries to look at paintings on the wall, My House might be overwhelming, Gibson admits, but feeling challenged by the art is part of the experience.
"I think it really supports the ideas in the artists' work which are dealing with very difficult topics of social and cultural value and things that should be looked at despite how strange they may seem at first."
