Main Gallery:
Allison Sommers
‘Schlaraffenland’

Project Room:
João Ruas
‘III’

Opening Reception:
Fri, May 7th 7-10PM with both artists in attendance

The Mandoline Grill Food Truck will be out during the opening reception – come hungry!

Both exhibitions on view: May 7th – June 4th

(April 15th, 2010 – Los Angeles) Thinkspace is honored to welcome back Virginia based artist Allison Sommers for her second solo show with our gallery, following a smaller exhibition in our project room last spring.

In this new series Sommers aims to engage with the metaphor of Schlaraffenland, the world of plenty, to explore the facets of gross abundance and to complicate what it means to take pleasure in the flesh.  In Schlaraffenland, everything and everyone is part of a grotesque banquet of plenty, and consumption of others is not a transgressive act, but rather a necessary engagement of the world around them.

There is an eroticism that charges Schlaraffenland with excitement and danger; while some creatures give themselves freely for consumption, others are trapped, tricked, or cajoled into giving bits of themselves up to the feast.  The uncertainty this creates in the relationships between her creatures, who are at once both so cheerful and dangerous, is fascinating.  It's the tension created by this ambiguity that invigorates the world of these creatures: seductive, dangerous, peculiar Schlaraffenland.

We are also excited to welcome back João Ruas for his second solo show in our project room this May. ‘III’ asks the question - what divides the sacred from the mundane? Is that a universal or a personal matter?  Can a moment, a place, or a person in your life ever be sacred? These questions were the starting point of obsessive and transforming thoughts and drawings which resulted in this series of works. Iconography obviously plays a big part in the aesthetic being explored by Ruas in ‘III’, but so do everyday life, everyday dreams and everyday fears. Sacred can give you hope and happiness. Sacred can bring you disillusionment and tears.

In our main gallery space:
Allison Sommers
‘Schlaraffenland

Abandoning deference for playful irreverence, Allison Sommers draws on her interests in renaissance and baroque art, toying with staid motifs and trading solemnity for nose-thumbing whimsy. She delights in deconstructing the seriousness of historical tropes of art, and tempers sweetness with subtle touches of dark foreboding and sexual deviance.

Allison Sommers studied early modern history at the University of Virginia, where she was able to legitimize a lifelong love of the historical narratives and themes of the Old World, much of which continue to inform her work. She currently lives and works in Charlottesville, Virginia, where she lives with her husband, Gerrit, and their hedgehog, Ludwig. She has previously exhibited work at Ad Hoc (NYC), Gallery1988 (Los Angeles and San Francisco), Distinction Gallery (Escondido), DvA Gallery (Chicago), and at the Gen Art Vanguard New Contemporary Art Fair during Art Basel Miami in 2008 and the Aqua Art Fair during Art Basel Miami 2009.

Take a ‘Sneak Peek’ at the works for ‘Sclaraffenland’ coming together:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thinkspace/sets/72157623393138819/

Artist website: www.allisonsommers.com 

In our project room:
João Ruas
‘III’

Born in Brazil, 28-year old artist João Paulo Alvares Ruas was still a young child when his interest for visual art started to grow. Comic books were his first bridge to lines and colors, during high school much of his time was devoted to creative thinking due to the almost alternative education institution he studied under. Later, he took Design as his choice in University.

After a three year stint in London, Ruas went back to his home town, São Paulo, where he works and lives.

Take a ‘Sneak Peek’ at the works for ‘III’ coming together:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thinkspace/sets/72157623517671516/

Artist website: http://feral-kid.com/