Kendell Carter: Excerpts from the Book of Love

Edward Cella Art & Architecture presents Kendell Carter: Excerpts from the Book of Love, a solo exhibition of Los Angeles based artist Kendell Carter. Featuring only six artworks from four moments in the artist’s oeuvre over the past decade; the objects exemplify artist’s enduring commitment to pursue the notion of Love as a radical catalyst of transformation and change.

Sustaining a dedication to observing and exploring race, gender, history, and consumer culture, Carter manifests a studio practice acknowledging the rapidly integrating and shifting nature of today's visual cultures. Employing both sculpture and painting processes; Carter creates distinctive hybrid cast paintings incorporating the freehand gestures of graffiti made of aerosol spray, casting techniques, and an intuitive process based method of making physical objects that emerge from difficult and uncertain conditions.

Reconciling the power of language with the mysticism of abstraction; Carter seeks to create artworks that resonate energy and are intended as instruments of change. Carter asserts, “my Love paintings capture the frequency of Love so to record, hold and redeposit that energy into a physical space through feeling and anchor that belief in place with sight.” He continues, “Art’s extraordinary strength is its ability to arrest and dissolve beliefs caused by linear thinking. Visual art uses iconography and gestures to create belief through seeing creating conditions in which heartfelt and tangible perceptions can shift.”

The exhibition features work from four distinct bodies of Love painting made over a ten-year period and reflect the evolving visual forms the artist has developed and explored. The exhibition anticipates and precedes a publication that documents this distinguishing part of artist’s oeuvre. Entitled, Kendell Carter: The Book of Love, the publication will gather these thematically related works and place them in perspective of the artist’s development and in dialogue with the simultaneous and seismic reappraisal of the contributions of African American artists over the past decade. Contextualized within the social and political demands of contemporary moment, Carter’s intentions and aims are even more urgent and powerful.

PUBLIC EXHIBITION PROGRAM

Join us for a live web-broadcast with Thomas Lavin,​ gallerist Edward Cella and ​artist ​Kendell Carter for a conversation about Carter's distinctive practice and the role of Love in contemporary art and culture on Wednesday, August 5th at 1 pm PST.

Kendell Carter: Excerpts from the Book of Love is presented concurrently with Between Worlds, a group exhibition of new and recent works by Cathy Daley, Rema Ghuloum, Robert Gunderman, Brad Miller, Lester Monzon, Patti Oleon, Ruth Pastine, Alex Rasmussen, Aili Schmeltz, Chris Trueman and Amir Zaki.