Juxtapoz Magazine – Gregory Rick’s “Party at Megiddo” @ BEYOND THE STREETS, Los Angeles
Past THE STREETS is happy to announce Party at Megiddo, the LA solo debut from Oakland-based visual artist Gregory Rick. A recipient of SFMOMA’s 2022 SECA Artwork Award, new graduate of Stanford University’s MFA art exercise system, and participant in Over and above THE STREETS’ inaugural Article Graffiti exhibition, Rick will showcase a new selection of operate that builds on the genre of background portray, describing his artwork as checking out “the acknowledged, the obscure, and the overlooked”, though questioning the who’s and why’s of historical past.
A indigenous of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Rick’s perform is motivated by private ordeals, but is not solely particular. It tells tales that replicate his life as it relates to a dialogue with the wider globe. Where myth offers voice to the underbelly, the lumpen in tandem displaying the common and grandiose. His function tethers jointly seemingly opposing concepts amongst the individual, the historic and the political.
“I’m portray on a shaky historical line cemented in humility and conviction. I occupy my pics with figures who serve as archetypes in conjunction with memory and self-exploration reflecting on the absurdness and monumentality of background,” Rick shares.
The title for Rick’s display combines two words that feel inextricably opposing yet cemented in cognitive dissonance. Megiddo is a reference to the struggle of Armageddon, being the city in which the good very last struggle was prophesied to come about. It references a celebration at the final battle of humanity, questioning the uncertain periods we reside in, exactly where we quickly feed the fire of the anthropocene, on cruise manage in the speedy lane to extinction with such reckless ferocity it practically would seem as if we are celebrating our have demise. The exhibition has couple responses but in its place reflects and fosters several inquiries as Rick ponders a important section of this contemporary moment.
Rick’s fondness for art started around the time his father was sentenced to jail for manslaughter. It served as each a suggests of gaining company in a chaotic childhood – as a single has management of the narrative in one’s very own photographs – and as a link with his father via the meticulous copying of illustrations from an aged navy encyclopedia that he still left driving in advance of staying incarcerated. When colleges in his area stopped presenting artwork courses, Rick became infatuated with the art that was commonly offered, which was graffiti. He would devote his daily life to deciphering the cryptic language, which led to issues with the law, together with costs that were in the end cleared following Rick enlisted in the Military. There he was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division, with whom he fought in Iraq from 2005 to 2006.
Right after his enlistment term was up, Rick identified it tough to regulate back to his aged life and eventually identified himself homeless and having difficulties with a amount of troubles. He nevertheless carried all-around pen and paper and would attract for the exact factors that enthusiastic him in his youth. During this seminal issue in his lifetime, he sought assistance from the nearby Veterans Affairs business office, wherever art became a critical part of his recovery.
“Gregory Rick’s do the job speaks about electricity and anguish, fantastic and evil. About resiliency. He contextualizes these narratives by mining the complexities of our collective earlier and sharing perspectives generally omitted in historic accounts. His potential to glow a light on the oppressed and forgotten is a triumph that we’re proud and thrilled to share with Los Angeles,” claims gallery director Dante Parel.
Past THE STREETS Gallery
434 N La Brea Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90036
