Juxtapoz Magazine – Gregory Rick’s “Party at Megiddo” @ BEYOND THE STREETS, Los Angeles
Past THE STREETS is pleased to announce Get together at Megiddo, the LA solo debut from Oakland-based visible artist Gregory Rick. A recipient of SF MOMA’s 2022 SECA Artwork Award, new graduate of Stanford University’s MFA art practice software, and participant in Past THE STREETS’ inaugural Put up Graffiti exhibition, Rick will showcase a new assortment of function that builds on the genre of record painting, describing his art as discovering “the recognized, the obscure, and the neglected”, though questioning the who’s and why’s of background.
A native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Rick’s operate is encouraged by particular experiences, but is not entirely private. It tells tales that reflect his lifestyle as it relates to a dialogue with the broader environment. Exactly where fantasy provides voice to the underbelly, the lumpen in tandem displaying the familiar and grandiose. His do the job tethers jointly seemingly opposing ideas between the particular, the historic and the political.
“I’m portray on a shaky historic line cemented in humility and conviction. I occupy my pictures with characters who provide as archetypes in conjunction with memory and self-exploration reflecting on the absurdness and monumentality of record,” Rick shares.
The title for Rick’s present brings together two words and phrases that appear inextricably opposing yet cemented in cognitive dissonance. Megiddo is a reference to the struggle of Armageddon, becoming the metropolis in which the good final battle was prophesied to happen. It references a party at the last struggle of humanity, questioning the unsure situations we stay in, in which we rapidly feed the fireplace of the anthropocene, on cruise command in the speedy lane to extinction with these reckless ferocity it nearly appears to be as if we are celebrating our very own demise. The exhibition has couple of responses but as an alternative reflects and fosters lots of thoughts as Rick ponders a very important component of this modern day instant.
Rick’s fondness for artwork commenced close to the time his father was sentenced to prison for manslaughter. It served as both of those a implies of getting company in a chaotic childhood – as a single has regulate of the narrative in one’s very own photos – and as a link with his father by the meticulous copying of illustrations from an old armed forces encyclopedia that he remaining at the rear of in advance of staying incarcerated. When educational institutions in his space stopped featuring artwork courses, Rick turned infatuated with the art that was conveniently obtainable, which was graffiti. He would devote his lifetime to deciphering the cryptic language, which led to difficulties with the regulation, including prices that ended up eventually cleared after Rick enlisted in the Army. There he was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division, with whom he fought in Iraq from 2005 to 2006.
Following his enlistment expression was up, Rick discovered it challenging to adjust again to his previous lifestyle and finally uncovered himself homeless and battling with a variety of problems. He even now carried about pen and paper and would attract for the similar good reasons that determined him in his youth. All through this seminal issue in his lifestyle, he sought enable from the nearby Veterans Affairs place of work, wherever art turned a critical aspect of his recovery.
“Gregory Rick’s work speaks about electric power and anguish, very good and evil. About resiliency. He contextualizes these narratives by mining the complexities of our collective previous and sharing perspectives often omitted in historical accounts. His skill to shine a light on the oppressed and forgotten is a triumph that we’re happy and enthusiastic to share with Los Angeles,” claims gallery director Dante Parel.
Over and above THE STREETS Gallery
434 N La Brea Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90036