Laurel Gitlen is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by Ryan Foerster, Jessica Jackson Hutchins and Chadwick Rantanen.

The photographs, sculptures and drawings by Foerster, Hutchins and Rantanen, respectively, share a concern for the physical body: its presence in the making and viewing of the work; as an object that is simultaneously familiar and erotic; and as the fantastic, banal or decaying form that is individual, human and mortal. This is evident in Foerster’s photographs (often made using expired film and paper) and Rantanen’s drawings (where mark-making is handicapped by an elaborate contraption of markers bundled together). Hutchins’ work, too, is imbued with pathos for the bruised and broken: objects are stacked upon each other, relying on one another for support and stability. 
 A central work in the exhibition, Hutchins’ large untitled sculpture, consists of two ceramic vessels perched on a white plaster form that resembles both mattress and pedestal, pressing heavily into the cushions of a well-worn loveseat. While familiar materials in her work refer to everyday rituals (eating, reading, sleeping, sex), Hutchins’ abstracted assemblages assert themselves as resolved compositions with their own inherent formal logic. Her poetic language, where vessels act as stand-ins for bodies and furniture becomes emotional topography, merges the spiritual with the domestic.

Recent sculptures by Chadwick Rantanen utilize the aesthetics and materials of the corporate and institutional world: sandblasted glass in pastel hues and self-supporting, telescoping, anodized aluminum poles propped into place with tennis balls, like ambulatory walkers. In his new drawings on Duralar, Rantanen attempts to reproduce abstract compositions using a polychrome palette of markers, bundled together with tape and wire. The drawings, made in sets, are both elegant and awkward abstractions in which a systematic approach to mark-making foregrounds human and material errors. These shortcomings, variations of hand and color, become central events in his compositions.

Ryan Foerster’s practice combines photographs, zines and found objects, all taken from the artist’s own experience and immediate surroundings. Many images begin as biographical or narrative, but through abstractions from available light become atmospheric compositions, blurring the line between action and accident. Coupled with residual images and errors from a shared darkroom, the works obscure private and public, as representational and abstract images are combined with the readymade. 
 
 Since 2007, Ryan Foerster has had solo exhibitions at Ribordy Contemporary, Geneva; Art Metropole, Toronto; and the Swiss Institute and White Columns, New York. Foerster lives and works in New York. Jessica Jackson Hutchins has exhibited widely, including the 2010 Whitney Biennial and group exhibitions at the ICA Philadelphia, the Walker Art Center and the Seattle Art Museum. This fall, her work will be the subject of a solo exhibition at the ICA Boston and will be included in the 11th Lyon Biennale. Hutchins lives and works in Berlin and Portland, OR. Chadwick Rantanen’s recent exhibitions include solo exhibitions at Dan Graham, Los Angeles; and Jancar Jones Gallery, San Francisco; and group exhibitions at Clifton Benevento, New York and Roberts and Tilton, Los Angeles. Rantanen has an upcoming solo exhibition at Standard (Oslo), Oslo. Rantanen lives and works in Los Angeles.

The gallery is open Wednesday–Sunday, 11–6, and by appointment. For more information or images, please contact [email protected]