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Opening Reception: Thursday April 7th, 6-9pm
Closing Reception: Thursday April 28th
Ever Gold is pleased to announce the solo show EVER WASH featuring Guy Overfelt, curated by Tony Labat. Guy Overfelt recently has been shown at the Oakland Art Museum in 2010 and is known for his unrelenting love for his Trans AM American muscle car. Guy is known for his large-scale inflatables, burnout drawings and performances.
EVER WASH is an exhibition hosted in a now defunct jewelry store (Ever Gold) located at street level of a single room occupancy rental hotel building on the edge of the Tenderloin and Union Square.
The exhibition space is presented as a minimalist laundromat, a functional washer and dryer available for free use and the gallerists will act as attendants.
A live broadcast on Justin.tv/guyovefelt will allow the casual viewer the opportunity to check out the action remotely.
Overfelt’s EVER WASH references romanticized aspects of poverty and economic disparity that appear in pop culture like Don Henly’s ‘Dirty Laundry’ as well as canonized works of art like Degas’ ‘Laundry Woman With Toothache.’
DIRTY LAUNDRY
“In 1998 Guy Overfelt asked me to shoot him with a taser. Two tasers came out of the gun, one landing exactly at the tip of his nose. Guy collapses to the floor, wriggling in pain, or just from the shock of the sudden impact and electrical charge. At the end of the video document of the action/performance, there’s a smile on my face. I am still trying to reconcile with that image of sadistic pleasure and mischievousness, but it speaks volumes about not only the relationship Guy and I have developed over the years, but about his work as well.
Since the 90s, Guy Overfelt has produced a provocative body of work that includes a high percentage of actions, installations and street performances that refuse to accept a passive audience. He invites and instigates situations primed for activation in order to become a spectator himself. (And I’m sure a similar “smile” comes when watching/observing the results of his actions.) When curating this show at Ever Gold, I was hoping that Guy would design one of such works from his repertoire. He came through again.
Turning the gallery space into a free laundry mat, with attention to minute details of camouflage, the site/space is addressed from inside out: from piles of detergent as cocaine with a mirrored tabletop, dropped lighting fixtures and a live feed recording the interactions, to the slight of hand in changing the sign From Ever Gold to Ever Wash. Guy has created and designed a work that poignantly makes us look for the signs that have always been there, but we resist to acknowledge. With all its references, it points to the implications of the politics of the urban, and this landscape is revealed, twisted and inverted.”
Tony Labat
2011
Tony Labat is Chair and associate professor in the New Genres department. He received his MFA from SFAI in 1980. He has been producing thought-provoking work in various media for more than two decades. Dedicated to working in multiple disciplines with each project, his art often combines elements of installation, sculpture, performance and video. Labat's immigration to the United States from Cuba at age 15 has had a profound influence on the many evolutions of his work. Having exhibited at prestigious galleries and museums around the world, Labat's work resides in a number of prominent collections and has received several awards and grants, among them two from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Gallery Open Wednesday- Saturday 1-6pm
