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Sayre Gomez

STUDIO VISIT

In collaboration with the Yuz Museum in Shanghai, Sayre Gomez presents "Studio Visit," a video introducing his studio practice within the context of driving in Los Angeles. The artist drives us through the city sharing some of the major influences and points of reference appearing throughout his work. 

The video is made concurrently with the exhibition "In Production: Art and the Studio System" on view at the Yuz Museum, featuring works from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's permanent collection curated by Rita Gonzalez.

"In Production: Art and the Studio System" emphasizes the overlapping histories of visual art and film, with a particular focus on how the site of the studio, both in visual arts and in cinematic production, has radically shifted in the last 20 years. Featuring 24 contemporary artists whose works critique, appropriate, and engage with Hollywood and the film studio system, the exhibition highlights the exceptional gifts and acquisitions related to film and video that have entered LACMA’s permanent collection in recent years.

Many artists have considered the proximity to movie studio facilities, and other sites of production and post-production, as one of the essential lures of making art in Southern California. Since the dawn of cinema, movie studios have been sites where crews of hundreds or even thousands manufacture a temporary fiction that will hopefully become a lasting image. While the work of movie production is a collaborative effort involving a vast network of people, the labor of the visual artist has long been understood as a solitary endeavor in the studio. While artists have indeed depended on the centralized sphere of the studio to create their works, the late 20th century ushered in new forms of dematerialized and decentralized artist practices, including the rise of film and video in an art context. As the birthplace of Chinese cinema, Shanghai is an especially fitting location to explore these crucial developments.

Sayre Gomez (b. 1982, Chicago) works across mediums, including painting, sculpture, and video, to address themes of perception and representation. His works often deploy a range of painting techniques drawn omnivorously from Hollywood set painting, commercial sign painting, automotive airbrushing, and other traditions. The city of Los Angeles serves as a frequent setting and subject, given homage through references to roadside signage, car culture, fantastical sunsets, and other aspects of Angeleno visual culture. Recurring metaphors such as windows, doors, gates, and walls are often used in Gomez’s work as part of an investigation into the role of context in the distribution and legibility of images in the 21st century.

Gomez holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. His works are held in the permanent collections of LACMA, Los Angeles; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Marciano Art Foundation, Los Angeles; Arsenal Contemporary, Montréal; and the Rubell Family Collection, Miami. The artist lives and works in Los Angeles, California.