Anthony Pearson

Jason Haam is pleased to present an exhibition of new works by Anthony Pearson. The show will open on April 5th and will be on view through May 29th, 2018 in the Gallery’s first and second floor exhibition spaces. The show will be comprised of recent works in gypsum from 2014 to 2018.

As a visionary who challenges the boundaries between different disciplines of art, Anthony Pearson merges characteristics unique to paintings and sculptures to create reliefs in hydrocal, a type of gypsum cement, which the artist pigments, pours, and/or etches to create works that highlight the antiquity of the artform and the modernity of the image. Due to their three-dimensional disposition, the reliefs react to the setting and the lighting in a manner that makes each viewing experience unique. His works, therefore, cannot be contained within the borders of the frame. Highlighted by the presence and the absence of light, Pearson’s works are constantly evolving, never to be appreciated the same way twice.

In his first ever solo exhibition in Seoul, Pearson displays the Plaster Positive, the Etched Plaster, and the Embedment series, three distinct typologies of his works that are created through the manipulation of hydrocal. Each has a particular production method: the Plaster Positive is manipulated through the gravitational flow of the material itself, which takes on a naturalistic form, emphasizing the fluidity in shape and the solidity in material. The Etched Plaster, on the other hand, is set within the frame, hardened, and etched on the surface to create images reminiscent of a sunburst. The Embedment, the most recent of his oeuvre, is poured over a frame stretched with fabric, which is later torn off when the hydrocal dries. The result is of imprints and filaments of the fabric left on the surface, very much similar to the appearance of an actual canvas. By additionally incorporating color pigment into the hydrocal, Pearson further emphasizes his ingenuity through the merging of paintings and sculptures.

Born in 1969 in Los Angeles, CA, Pearson began his artistic studies at the California College of Arts, where he received his BFA in 1996 and later an MFA at UCLA in 1999. Solo and group exhibitions since then include Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis, MN; Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis, MO; Drawing Room, London, UK; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH; deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA; Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO, and more.

His works are included in the public collections of The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Art in Embassies, Washington, DC; and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA.