Anna Rosen & Matt Connolly
Night Gallery
2276 East 16th St.
Los Angeles, CA 90021
May 25 – June 22
Anna Rosen – “Sketchers Shape-Ups Work”
Alternate Titles:
Double Duty
Tangy Tragedy
After Earth
Citation Reference
“Your Boobs Will Be Jealous”
Alien Child
Night Gallery is pleased to present Anna Rosen’s first solo exhibition “Skechers Shape- Ups Work.” Reflecting the double entendre located within Rosen’s paintings, the exhibition title is simultaneously a statement that Skechers Shape-Ups live up to their claim and the name for a body of artwork employing Skechers Shape-Ups. Fascinated by the Skechers company’s ability to stratify walking into productive and non productive spheres (depending on whether you are wearing Shape-Ups or not), Rosen conflates the claims of advertising with the claims an artist can make about his or her work.
Skechers Shape-Ups Work = This is a Painting
In Rosen’s paintings, the shoe is neutered of its intended use value but its presence as symbol, material, and design is strengthened. In effect, even though these shoes can no longer be worn they are still Working. They signify a productive space as they enhance Rosen’s compositions through their odd, cushy volume and athletic details. The Shape- Ups also provide a conceptual and aesthetic umbrella under which Rosen is able to explore the alien, the mystical, the martial, the humorous, and the post-apocalyptic. Through her explorations Rosen proves that Skechers Shape-Ups DO in fact work. In painting as with Skechers Shape-Ups, the truth of a claim often lies in the embrace of its subjective limit, i.e. its untruth. Skechers Shape-Ups Work because how could they not?
Matt Connolly – “Work”
A farmer friend of mine has a small hand painted sign hanging on his garden gate: “When I count my blessings, I count you twice”. Though I’ve never asked, I have always preferred to think of it as a message from the farmer to his garden. The farmer is in possession of the sort of super natural skill that comes only from decades of experience and the grace of God, and so his garden bears him fruit, a blessing to be sure. Beyond that, the garden offers the farmer a frame through which to move sensibly through an endless series of days and years. Gardening allows him to watch and respond to nature unfolding. While the quality of the one’s crop may vary from year to year based on any number of conditions, I think that if one is conscientious and focused with regard to that which he or she watches and responds to, there is one aspect of work that is always improving.
