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Swarm Gallery

January 30 - March 15, 2010

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560 Second Street Oakland, CA 94607
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Stock Up On Heal and Mana Potions Casey Jex Smith, Cat
Exhibit Opening | Saturday, January 30, 6-8PM Casey's life thus far has been fully immersed in the Mormon faith and culture. In this church, much like any other, there is a significant visual history. He has always culled from this source as reference for his collages and pen and ink drawings that explore a narrative of his own making. In his current body of work, "Stock Up On Heal and Mana Potions," Smith deals with personal identity and finding meaning in between three seemingly disparate worlds; religion, sci-fi/fantasy, and "high-art". His work blends appropriated imagery and ideas from illustrated Bibles, Dungeons & Dragons manuals, Durer etchings, Agnes Martin paintings, Mormon architecture, NASA photos, The Lord of the Rings, and Sunday School flannel-board cut-outs into semi-cohesive narratives. This work attempts to legitimize how he spends his time by visually placing art, religion, and high-geekdom on the same hierarchical strata. This blending and prioritizing is a reflection of how he functions in the world. Frodo's ring is a metaphor for spiritual weakness, a temple becomes a repository for wooden Frank Stellas, Big Foot is the Bible's Cain, and a James Turrell installation is a meditation on the Holy Ghost. The majority of the recent single-channel video animations are created in part from appropriated American advertising images of the 1950s to 1970s, an era which historically represents a massive change in the cultural landscape of the country. This period is not referenced out of a simple sense of nostalgia but rather for an historical counterpoint to our present era. Due to evolving economic, social, and ethnic factors in the middle of the 20th century, our cultural homogeny began a period of erosion. Now, however, global telecommunications and corporate culture are causing a different sort of homogeny to evolve, one based on entertainment and consumerism.
Stock Up On Heal and Mana Potions Casey Jex Smith, Lehi's Vision (2009), Pen on paper, 60 x 80 inches