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      In the Wake of Tragedy, Thinkspace Projects Launches a Benefit Auction

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      Shawn & Andrew Hosner of Thinkspace Gallery

      In the Wake of Tragedy, Thinkspace Projects Launches a Benefit Auction

      September 9, 2024

      Art

      Kate Mothes

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      In 2005, Shawn and Andrew Hosner founded Thinkspace Projects in Los Angeles’s West Adams District before rapidly expanding its program and collaborating with numerous projects nationally and internationally. The gallery showcases the best in New Contemporary art—or lowbrow—a movement that emerged in the 1990s on the West Coast partly in response to what was seen as a “high-brow” conceptual turn on the East Coast.

      The New Contemporary moveent rejected what the Hosners describe as an “inaccessible garrison of ‘high culture,’” instead focusing on subjects often often overlooked in the art world like pop culture and the subcultural. The couple’s personal collection, accrued for decades, reflects a deep-seated love for the genre. Now, hundreds of paintings, sculptures, and collectibles by acclaimed artists are up for auction.

      ROA, “Mouse in a Cage,” steel, ink, and acrylic on wood

      In February, Shawn Hosner died from breast cancer. The “ultimate gallery mom,” as Andrew described her, she was a fierce champion of artists and viewed the gallery as a family. Unfortunately, her battle with the illness wiped out the couple’s savings, which also served as the gallery’s safety net. In an effort to stay afloat, Andrew has organized the auction as a fundraiser to continue Shawn’s vision and legacy for Thinkspace.

      The auction takes place in two parts over two days: September 12 launches the main auction at 10 a.m. Pacific Time, in person, at Los Angeles Modern Auctions. On September 13, a separate online-only auction launches at 10 a.m.

      If you’re in the area, you can preview the works from today through September 13. See and bid on pieces by numerous artists Colossal has featured over the years, like ROA, Kazuhito Kawai, Lisa Ericson, Banksy, En Iwamura, Brian Rochefort, and many more.

      In memory of Shawn, a portion of proceeds from the auction will benefit the Keep A Breast Foundation. Bid now on LAMA’s website.

      Lisa Ericson, “Safe Passage” (2018), acrylic on panel

      James Cauty, “Riot Shield (Dismaland)” (2015), acrylic on polycarbonite riot shield

      Pejac, “Four Bees” (2020), acrylic and oil pastel on cardboard

      Hebru Brantley, “Untitled” (2020), acrylic and pastel on canvas

      Kazuhito Kawai, “The Magic Mirror” (2022), glazed stoneware

      Taylor Lee, “Giant Happy” (2020), glazed stoneware

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    • 150 Shares189 Views

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      In ‘Spirit Level,’ Tau Lewis’s Monumental Figures Usher in an Unearthly World

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      Installation view of ‘Tau Lewis: Spirit Level’ (2024) at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. Photo by Mel Taing. All images courtesy of ICA Boston, shared with permission

      In ‘Spirit Level,’ Tau Lewis’s Monumental Figures Usher in an Unearthly World

      September 6, 2024

      Art

      Grace Ebert

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      At the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, Tau Lewis (previously) presents a vast cosmology in which monumental, mythic beings herald in a new world. Five figures stand nearly 11 feet tall in draping garments, their hands positioned in distinctive gestures. With titles like “The Doula” and “The Reaper,” each bears a particular role as they loom over a large circular quilt at the center of the gallery floor.

      From found fabrics and objects, Lewis created the towering sculptures for Spirit Level, her first solo museum show in the U.S. The Toronto-born artist maintains a robust collection of materials in her Brooklyn studio, which she painstakingly stitches and sculpts into unearthly beings. These works continue her interest in how objects hold meaning and memory.

      “Mutasis Moon” (2021), recycled leather, seashells, sand dollars, acrylic paint, PVC pipe, galvanized steel, muslin, and recycled poly fibers, 40 x 40 x 25 inches. Photo by Pierre Le Hors, courtesy of the artist and Sadie Coles HQ, London, © Tau Lewis

      Her 2021 figure “Mutasis Moon,” for example, is an alien-like creature with four eyes and turquoise hands. Wrapped around a galvanized steel and PVC armature, the friendly painted-leather figure stands with arms outstretched as if welcoming the viewer.

      In Spirit Level, remnants of clothing, muslin scraps dyed with rust, snakeskin, conch shells, and coral bone merge, transposing the materials’ origins into new contexts. “The Doula,” for instance, wears a dark green, blue, and brown gown of leather and suede and is what the artist calls a “portrait of the sea.” Conjuring the dark depths of the ocean, the sculpture alludes to a space where life and death coexist.

      The gold-outfitted figure is titled “The Handle of the Axe,” which references the epigraph of Alice Walker’s 1992 novel Possessing the Secret of Joy that states: “When the axe came into the forest, the trees said, ‘the handle is one of us.’” Arms open for an embrace, the sculpture draws on the tensions between the desire for nonviolence and the struggle for liberation.

      At the center of the figures is “The Last Transmission,” the sprawling quilt that radiates outward from a starfish at the center. Small fabric panels adorned with glass, beads, and wire form an elaborate patchwork, appearing as an architectural portal to another universe.

      Spirit Level is on view in Boston through January 20, 2025, after which it will travel to David Zwirner in Los Angeles. Find more from the artist on her website and Instagram.

      Installation view of ‘Tau Lewis: Spirit Level’ (2024) at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. Photo by Mel Taing

      “Harmony” (2019), recycled leather, recycled poly fibers, rebar, wire, hardware, seashells, stones, and acrylic paint, 39 3/4 x 47 x 35 inches. Image © Tau Lewis

      “Knot of Pacification” (2021), recycled leather, wool, and suede, 114 x 100 inches. Image courtesy of the artist and Night Gallery, Los Angeles, © Tau Lewis

      Installation view of ‘Tau Lewis: Spirit Level’ (2024) at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. Photo by Mel Taing

      Installation view of “The Last Transmission” (2024), recycled leather and suede, cotton canvas, acrylic paint and finisher, natural dyes, assorted found metal, wood, ceramic, and glass objects, wire, beads, seashells, coated nylon thread, and coated cotton thread, overall diameter approximately 240 inches. Photo by Mel Taing

      Detail of “Mutasis Moon” (2021), recycled leather, seashells, sand dollars, acrylic paint, PVC pipe, galvanized steel, muslin, and recycled poly fibers, 40 x 40 x 25 inches. Photo by Pierre Le Hors, courtesy of the artist and Sadie Coles HQ, London, © Tau Lewis

      “Venus in Leo” (2023), steel, wood, enamel paint, acrylic paint, leather dye and finisher, recycled leather and suede, recycled fabric, found jewelry, clam shells, and coated nylon thread, 68 x 18 x 18 inches. Photo by Charles Benton, courtesy of the artist, Night Gallery, Los Angeles, and JTT, New York, © Tau Lewis

      Detail of “Venus in Leo” (2023), steel, wood, enamel paint, acrylic paint, leather dye and finisher, recycled leather and suede, recycled fabric, found jewelry, clam shells, and coated nylon thread, 68 x 18 x 18 inches. Photo by Charles Benton, courtesy of the artist, Night Gallery, Los Angeles, and JTT, New York, © Tau Lewis

      Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month.

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    • 100 Shares149 Views

      in Art

      Sliced Slivers Emanate from Barbara Wildenboer’s Altered Books

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      “An African Survey.” All images © Barbara Wildenboer, shared with permission

      Sliced Slivers Emanate from Barbara Wildenboer’s Altered Books

      September 4, 2024

      Art Craft

      Jackie Andres

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      While heavy, hardcover reference books often embody prestige and historical value, the comprehensive volumes also carry an air of intellectual overload. Filled from cover to cover with extensive and complex concepts, the tomes beckon the Paradox of Knowledge, which states that the more we learn, the more we realize how little we actually know.

      This vexing liminal space between the known and unknown is a driving force for Barbara Wildenboer’s work. The Cape Town-based artist (previously) sources secondhand books that span a wide range of languages, worldviews, and subjects such as philosophy, art, history, music, biology, archaeology, and more. Fascinated by linguistics and systems of writing, Wildenboer aims to decode the ways that we assign meaning to symbols.

      “A World History of Art”

      Scalpel and scissors in hand, Wildenboer transforms countless book pages into narrow, capillary-like slivers that splay outward from the spine. Through these symmetrical sculptures, the artist references other naturally mirrored forms like the brain’s left and right hemispheres linked by the corpus callosum, the wingspan of the death’s-head hawkmoth, and the Rorshach inkblot.

      Wildenboer connects these formal qualities to the process of deciphering texts. Her biography notes, “she cuts through these dense and claustrophobic discourses, rendering them mute.” Instead, she alters books to the point that they’re no longer legible, transforming the once familiar characters into new glyphs.

      See more from the artist on her website and Instagram.

      “Genesis”

      “Cogito Ergo Sum” More