Jim Gentry and Leia Jervert at HAPPY July 3, 2009

Opening reception: Friday, July 3 from 6-9pm

Gallery Hours: Mon-Sat 11-7, Sun 12-6

4675 Hollywood Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90027

323.661.2200

HAPPY is pleased to present “Never Odd or Even”, an exhibition of new work by Jim Gentry. Gentry uses image and language to lure the viewer into his “drawings” of birds. Creating idiosyncratic gestures with sewn thread and contrasting this erratic style with subversive and stealth messages, Gentry’s seemingly innocent works are at once contemplative and visually arresting; static victims of the artist’s hand yet ultimately uplifting. Gentry’s subjects are manipulating in their simplistic beauty: soaring, dripping, electric and almost sculptural.

Showing in Happy’s closet is “Cut Back”, a site-specific installation by Leia Jervert. Jervert creates a life size hedge, composed of leftover material - refuse, odds and ends, scraps, things that were cut away in the past - to form an ornamental sculpture. What was once discarded will now be incorporated in the construction of something new. Where the hedge becomes unruly, viewers are encouraged to gently prune Jervert’s bittersweet reminder of what is lost and how to come to terms with it.