CURATED BY BRIAN ROCHEFORT

JESS FULLER
JOANNE GREENBAUM
SADIE LASKA
BRIAN ROCHEFORT
MOLLY ZUCKERMAN-HARTUNG

JUNE 24 – JULY 31, 2020

SOCO Gallery is thrilled to present an exhibition of new works by Los Angeles-based artist Brian Rochefort, along with Jess Fuller, Joanne Greenbaum, Sadie Laska and Molly Zuckerman-Hartung. This will be the artists’ first  exhibition with the gallery. 

The exhibition, Turpentine, includes 12 of Rochefort’s ceramic vessels ranging in sizes from 6” to 11’” tall. The works are part of an ongoing series inspired by the famous image of Francis Bacon’s disarrayed studio. Here, the vessels are used as a canvas to reference modern and contemporary abstract painters that have influenced the artist. Rochefort uses the simple cylinder form and paints the surface with glazes and pigmented clays. Historically, this technique was used to illustrate a story or image about the artisan or owner. Rochefort uses the vessel in a similar way, however the story and images are rooted in nonrepresentational painting. 

The ceramics are an exploration of color and texture created by over 30 glazes, clays, slips and pigments.  The custom-blended pigments are combined with the glazes, glass fragments and earthenware to create abstract explosions resembling paint cans.  The New York Times describes Rochefort’s  “paint cans”  as “...cylindrical pieces formed on the pottery wheel and subsequently glazed to resemble cups with overflowing streams of color bubbling and hardening down the sides.” (New York Times Style Magazine, Aug. 7, 2019)

Rochefort has selected four abstract female painters to exhibit alongside of: Jess Fuller, Joanne Greenbaum, Sadie Laska, and Molly Zuckerman-Hartung. All four artists share similar visual qualities - their paintings are big, vibrant, confident and abstract. Rochefort’s  ceramic vessels cluster in the center of the gallery like an installation of a painters studio. The original inspiration of Bacon’s studio comes into play, only this room is curated with other artists which interplay and speak to the power of abstract art.   

ABOUT THE ARTIST/CURATOR

Brian Rochefort (b. 1985) lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.  He holds a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design (2007) and was a 2018 Visiting Artist Lecturer at the University of Iowa. He has completed residencies at The Mistake Room, Guadalajara, MX (2018) and the Lillian Fellowship Residency at the Archie Bray Foundation (2009). Solo exhibitions include Caterina Tognon, in collaboration with Van Doren Waxter, Venice, IT (forthcoming), Massimo DiCarlo, London, UK (forthcoming), and Van Doren Waxter, New York, NY (2017, 2019), among others. Rochefort has participated in group exhibitions at The Cabin, Los Angeles, CA; Sorry We’re Closed, Brussels, Belgium; Retrospective Gallery, Hudson, NY; and Steve Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA. He was awarded the Lillian Fellowship from the Archie Bray Foundation for Ceramic Arts in Montana 2007-2008. Rochefort was recently included in the museum exhibitions Regarding George Ohr at the Boca Raton Museum of Art, FL; and From Funk to Punk at the Everson Museum of Art, NY (both, 2017).