Marlborough is pleased to present its second solo exhibition by New York-based artist Lucas Ajemian. The show expands upon his critically lauded laundered paintings with the introduction of shaped canvases describing the silhouettes of everyday objects, along with the addition of an animated two-channel video.
Ajemian’s process begins with a negotiation with another artist to obtain a painting, then moves through a reductive course, where the end result is a material and authorial transference. Using other artists’ paintings as raw material, Ajemian soaks, machine-washes, cuts-up and re-stretches canvas in both conventional rectilinear shapes as well as the more surprising shapes of a blazer on a hanger or a refrigerator with an open door. The staging of these shaped works retain a kinetic energy, in the suggestion of an interaction or an interim state that reinforces their circuitous mode of creation.
Transition and a cannibalistic reuse of imagery are central to his video as well, animating still images of vegetables, fruits and other detritus into a kind of digital compost. While dynamic and formally witty, these works also broadcast a critique that directly reflects on his approach to painting, challenging issues of authorship and a fixation on process.
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