Apr 14th 2017

Gary LaPointe Jr: BACK BURNER

@ Randy Alexander Gallery

1926 S. Wabash Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60616

Opening Friday, April 14th, from 6 PM - 8PM

On view through Saturday, May 13th

As a hypothetical location in time and space, where initial priorities or actions are suspended temporarily; materials remain as materials, and idle through functionality; compromised in visibility; as a doubling effect; or as an act of disappearance; perform under possible considerations; of preparation, of application, and of use value.

LaPointe’s first solo exhibition BACK BURNER compiles altered material objects and drawings that oscillate between various acts of proposition and negation. Founded in his attempt to reveal a spectrum of concealed ideologies within the built environment, this project offers a possible way of navigating the social and political infrastructures that are assembled materially within our urban construct, and questions how they are defined or transformed by an individual; as participant, or as noncompliant. In part of this navigational inquiry, BACK BURNER investigates frameworks of value, systems of circulation, and spatial modes of negotiation. Through means of displacement and intervention, LaPointe collects material objects such as fire hydrants, USD currency, and custom 5% visibility window tints for Randy Alexander’s 2008 Toyota Prius as to locate and perpetuate failure within these constructs and to raise questions of authority and authenticity.

Gary LaPointe Jr. ( 1991, Connecticut ) graduated with an MFA from the Sculpture department at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and was also recently awarded with the Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award by the International Sculpture Center in 2016. He had received his BFA from Lesley University College of Art and Design and was also a participant at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2013. LaPointe has exhibited in both the U.S and abroad with selected exhibitions at Laconia Gallery in Boston, MA. and at Media One, in Dubai, UAE; as a member of the ‘Golden 15’ and finalist for the 3rd International Emerging Artist Award in 2014. He currently lives and works in Chicago, IL.

Opened in New York in 1991, Randy Alexander Gallery is a contemporary art gallery focused on work by emerging and established conceptually based artists. In New York, the gallery presented early solo exhibitions by numerous artists including Rirkrit Tiravanija, Fred Tomaselli, and Dan Peterman.

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