SHANGRI L.A. (architecture as a state of flux) February 7, 2009

On February 7th, 18th Street launches its 2009 exhibition season with SHANGRI L.A.: architecture as a state of flux. (Show continues to March 27th) Curated by Ichiro Irie for our main gallery, artists include Anibal Catalan, Debbie Hu Ricks and Cedar Miller, Infranatural, Marcos Lutyens, Daniela Frogheri, Fernando Meneses, Oyler Wu Collaborative, James Rojas, and Chris Tallon.
In our Project Room gallery, Marcos Novak will present TURBULENT SHANGRI-L.A. Mr. Novak is one of our four 2009 California Artist Fellows in residence.
Mr. Irie has invited visual artists with some form of architectural training, or artists who spend an unusual amount of time thinking about issues related to architecture and urban development.
The works in Shangri L.A. approach architecture as something fluid and ephemeral, at times virtual, interactive, recycled and purely cosmetic, building on and dissecting what is already there, exploiting in between spaces, and shifting as needs, values, emotions and desires shift. Instead of trying to rebuild a city from the ground up the exhibition considers transforming the urban landscape as acts of transgression by individuals and small groups, within one’s own means, and by any means necessary, not unlike an artist deals with a site specific installation.
The exhibition celebrates architects, and non-architects, who make work that serves as visual/structural enhancers and pressure valves which might one day help Los Angeles, or a city like it, be more fun and less monotonous, more livable and less alienating.
Marcos Novak’sTURBULENT SHANGRI-L.A. project is a challenge to develop a critical and visionary response rather than a quotidian extrapolation of statistics. Mr. Novak, through an “eversion” technique, will fabricate forms based on viewers’ interactions with virtual and invisible components.

18th Street Arts Center programs are generously funded by the City of Santa Monica, the Santa Monica Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, the James Irvine Foundation, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and the Getty Foundation.

Official Website: http://www.18thstreet.org