Christopher Grimes Gallery presents Kota Ezawa at LOOP14

Kota Ezawa
Silent Film (Newman), 2014
40” (looped) Single-channel video, black and white, sound
Edition of 5 + 1AP


Presented by Christopher Grimes Gallery (Sta Monica, CAL) at #LOOP14

Ezawa’s “Silent Film (Newman)” is an examination of the making of an abstract painting. The video shows a clip, taken from Emile de Antonio’s famous documentary Painter’s Painting, in which Barnett Newman explains the use of the mark down the center of the canvas, his so-called, “zip.” Ezawa has removed a Newman’s own commentary, leaving instead the silence created in the space between audible breaths. The viewer sees Newman’s hand gestures and facial expressions and must deduce from these the making of an abstract painting.

Kota Ezawa was born in 1969 in Cologne, Germany. He lives and works in San Francisco