M+B is pleased to present One By One, an exhibition of new work by Case Simmons, the artist’s first solo show with the gallery. The exhibition runs from June 21 through August 30, 2019, with an opening reception on Friday, June 21 from 6 to 8 pm.
Simmons is best known for his large-scale digital collages that combine imagery from pop culture, social history and the arts. Culling thousands of images from disparate sources online, the artist re-contextualizes these visual elements, stitching them together into richly detailed worlds.
One By One debuts a new Temple piece from Simmons’ well-known series. A celebratory blitz of intricately assembled images that Simmons has collected, cut and constructed into a precarious and precise landscape. Composed of thousands of layers, the artist sources visual references from across the Internet, including a compendium of obscure B-movie posters, as well as the online archives from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Getty Open Content Program. For Simmons, the searching process is an essential component to his practice—a surfing through images, histories and information urging discovery and play. Using formal strategies of quotation, repetition and hybridization, he creates a meticulous visual tapestry that’s provocatively psychological, immersive and explorative.
Exhibited alongside the large-scale Temple collage is a suite of new Cloud works. For this series, the artist returns to his training in painting to consider form and composition, using digital means to create richly textured cloud-like formations. While the Clouds are made in a process similar to the Temples, the more improvisatory gestures in this work create a montage of emotional range expanding between a blurring of forms and the stark clarity of photographic images.
Finally, a singular text work titled Press Release Poem 2000-2019 completes the show. A stuttering, serialized collage of press releases sourced from E-Flux’s announcement archive.
Case Simmons (b.1983) was born in Clinton, IA and studied at the San Francisco Art Institute. As one half of the artist collaboration Simmons & Burke, his work has been exhibited internationally and is held in public collections including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Jumex Collection, Mexico City; the Me Collectors Room, Berlin and most recently the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
To download a preview of the exhibition, click here.
For press inquiries, please contact info@mbart.com. For all other inquiries, contact Shannon Richardson, Jonlin Wung, John T.D. Murphy or visit our website at www.mbart.com.
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