Thinkspace Presents:

(Los Angeles, CA) Thinkspace is honored to welcome Denmark based artist Armsrock along with New York City based artist Imminent Disaster to our gallery for Refuge, their first two-person show together.

Refuge is the forced necessity of societies in collapse. It begins with people in motion, moving away from circumstances that are barren or perilous, that are unable to sustain their life or are actively seeking to end it. Refuge carries with it the transience of being in between one home and another; it is a liminal space, its structures are built to be packed away with ease; it momentarily rebuilds community while acknowledging the fragility of its permanence.

This idea of Refuge grounded in the local presence of tent cities in Southern California will be the basis of the upcoming collaborative installation between Armsrock and Imminent Disaster. This exhibition will illustrate the fragile and temporary nature of any refuge and the collaborative installation between the two artists will be an allegory of sorts illustrating how we are all stuck in the same boat, which seems to be sinking.

“Refuge’s political underpinnings only intensify its visual impact as a catalogue of catastrophes and archetypal contemplations sketched on walls and dangling from ceilings – a mélange of textiles, dimensions, and heroic execution.”

– JUXTAPOZ

Imminent Disaster "Crossing the River" (detail) Image Courtesy Thinkspace Gallery

Armsrock "Gaza" Image Courtesy Thinkspace Gallery

Armsrock artist bio:

Armsrock is an urban-artist and activist who, for the last several years, has been working with the human condition in the urban environment. He has been working with the medium of drawing in various ways to explore and comment on the city and the society that’s housed within it. He has been trying to question the role of art and artist in society by making art that is ephemeral, for free and for everybody. By creating hundreds of unique drawings of his fellow citizens, and placing these original pieces on the walls of the city, in an attempt to generate a critical understanding of the stories and fates that houses around and in all of us, he hopes to send a signal or raise a question about the details and mechanisms of our society.

Armsrock has taken part in a number of high profile events. His project ‘Passage / Works’ was part of LYSLYD in Copenhagen, Denmark where his subjects were etched with a needle onto black pani photo slides and projected across the city for the month of February. This past February also saw his installation based show ‘Zettelkasten’ open in Copenhagen. Other recent high profile events include his ‘Discontinuities (Fragmentation)’ installation at the Hochschule Fur Kunst University Of The Arts in Bremen, Germany, his participation in the recent GLOW 09 – International Forum of Light in Art and Architecture in Eindhoven, Germany and his massive site-specific installation at the Museum Of Cycladic Art in Rome, Greece this past fall. His work has shown the world over and his message is just beginning to be spread.

Artist website: http://www.armsrock.blogspot.com/

Imminent Disaster artist bio:

Imminent Disaster is an emerging Brooklyn-based artist creating in a variety of mediums including wheat pasted prints pulled from linoleum block cuts, hand-cut paper work, silk screening, collage and assemblage. Disaster is inspired by the street as an environment: a place with people, structures and history that are constantly being destroyed and rebuilt. Combining carefully researched fact and legend, she creates figurative images and historically inspired broadsides that are glimpses of a world that has fallen through the cracks of time.

Disaster has participated in the Miss Rockaway Armada, The Swimming Cities of the Switchback Sea, The Swimming Cities of Serenissima, and Wooster on Spring, amongst other high profile group and featured exhibitions, including showing during Art Basel in Miami, FL for the past two years with Thinkspace (2008 GenArt Vanguard / 2009 Aqua Wynwood).

Artist website: http://www.flickr.com/photos/disasterstrikes/

Take a ‘Sneak Peek’ at the works for ‘Refuge’ coming together:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thinkspace/sets/72157623167694675/

Tran Nguyen "What the World Doesn't Know" Image Courtesy Thinkspace Gallery

Tran Nguyen artist bio

Tran Nguyen is a Vietnamese artist specializing in fantastical and surrealistic imagery. Tran is fascinated with creating imagery that can be used as a psycho-therapeutic support vehicle. Currently based in Savannah, Georgia, she enjoys the aesthetics of nature and the outdoors which is often incorporated into her work. She is currently enrolled at the Savannah College of Art and Design where she will graduate with a B.F.A in illustration in the year ahead.

Artist Statement:

Human distress and weariness of the soul are prevalent illnesses we’ve all encountered in our existence. It is ubiquitous to say that life is hard and it’s even harder to relieve ourselves of this chronic disquiet. It is my hope that the milieus portrayed in ‘Nurturing the Uneased Soul’ pay homage to those who are facing everyday-life difficulties – you, your family, friends, neighbors, acquaintances, or even strangers.

The visual metaphors that are depicted in my paintings capture our emotional turmoil. They embody someone that we can contemplate with, something that reorganizes our cluttered mind. It’s somewhere that nurses the unattended thoughts we’ve tucked away, deep inside our psyche. My imageries serve as a reservoir for the mind to collect itself, replenish itself, and resolve itself from its emotive tension. My hopes are that once the viewer has plunged into my oeuvre, they are able to emerge from the pilgrimage with a new, untarnished mindset. With whatever existent hardship you may be enduring, I deeply hope it can help nurture your exasperated soul.

Take a ‘Sneak Peek’ at the works for ‘Nurturing the Uneased Soul’ coming together here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thinkspace/sets/72157623292253588/

About Thinkspace Gallery:

Established in November of 2005, Thinkspace exists as a catalyst for the ever expanding new contemporary art movement that is exploding forth from the streets and art schools the world over. We are here to help represent this new generation of artists, to provide them that home base and to aid them in building the right awareness and collector base necessary for long-term growth.

Our aim is to help these new talents shine and to provide them a gallery setting in which to prove themselves. It is our hope and dream that through these opportunities these individuals will prosper and continue to grow to amaze us all for years to come. With the love of and for our community, and with the talents of so many incredible artists involved, we believe that this movement will provide the necessary proving ground for the ideas and dreams of today to become the foundations of a new tomorrow.

Exhibition run dates: March 12^th – April 2^nd, 2010

Opening Reception: Fri, March12^th 7-11PM

Thinkspace Gallery is located at 4210 Santa Monica Blvd (near Sunset Junction), in the Silver Lake area, Los Angeles, CA 90029. Gallery hours are Thursday thru Sunday, 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. and by appointment. For more information, please call 323.913.3375, visit www.thinkspacegallery.com, or email contact@sourharvest.com.

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