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Marx & Zavattero

January 8 - February 15, 2009

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77 Geary Street 2nd Floor San Francisco, CA 94108
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Hybrids CS1 Hybrids I-Chrysina Smartcarius (conceptual view of installation)
Thursday, January 8, 5:30-7:30 PM Marx & Zavattero are excited to present a new series of egg tempera paintings, watercolors, and wall installation by highly regarded Los Angeles artist Paul Paiement. Marking his third solo exhibition at the gallery, Hybrids CS1 will be on view January 8 – February 14, 2009. Mining the territories of painting, biology, technology, and science, Paiement fuses an array of influences and creates entirely new works of art from a traditional medium – paint. Paiement’s evocative transformations of gadgets such as cell phones, iPods, video game accessories, and cars into a fantastical series of new insect species take on multiple meanings resulting in a body of work that is as unique and thought-provoking as it is beautifully rendered. The artist’s Hybrid H series features a new relief element of which he terms “Ben Day dot/half tone patterns” consisting of small circular painted wood dots nestled into the painting’s surface. These dots suggest a gradual transformation of his subjects by way of a three-dimensional element, influenced by the mosaic of pixels that are used to create digital images – and they provide optical amusement as well. Ideas of alteration and perception, reality and whimsy are the foundation for Paiement’s works. In the past several years, he has focused on installation projects that challenge his two-dimensional panel and paper pieces. These projects allow him to activate his uber-species and at times literally dwarf or engulf the viewer. For this exhibition, Paiement will create a monumental 13-by-9-foot acrylic on acrylic painting of a hybrid Smart Car uber-species titled Hybrids I – Chrysina Smartcarius. Here, a beetle and smart car morph into a single organism, radiating a multitude of Ben Day dots from its body as if in liftoff. Paiement has shown widely in solo and group shows in New York, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada, London, France, Japan, Chicago, and Southern California, including The Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA; The Centré d’Art Contemporain, Pont-Aven, France; The Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, NY; The Armory, Pasadena, CA; and the Nunnery Gallery, London, England. His work will be featured in the upcoming 2009 group exhibition Natural Blunders at the de Saisset Museum of Art in Santa Clara, CA. Additional notable group shows include Observations at Carl Berg Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; the international traveling exhibition Miniature in London and Tokyo; and in Cyborg Manifesto or The Joy of Artifice at the Laguna Art Museum. Paiement’s work has been featured in several publications including Art in America, ARTnews, Artscene, Modern Painters, Artforum, The Los Angeles Times, The Orange County Register, Statement, Artweek, SF Weekly, and the New Art Examiner. The book Hybrids 1.0 - 3.5 was published by Laguna Wilderness Press in association with Paiement’s solo exhibition at the Laguna Art Museum in 2005. Paiement received his MFA from the University of Southern California in 1995.