Opening Leap Day, Saturday, February29, 2020 from 8pm to Midnite
General Projects 3611 Pomona St. Los Angeles, CA 90031
Open Hours: Thursdays 7-9pm or by appointment
Insert Blanc Press is pleased to announce a new exhibition opening at General Projects: Daniel Newman: 52 PICKUP.
Daniel Newman’s 52 PICKUP presentscurious items, strange stories, hoaxes, and other streams-of-consciousness, a selfless supply of starting points and their extensions.
Enticing enough to sustain our more sensational notions, and thoughtfully strenuous, Newman’s work evokes the generative stages that exist in their own obscurity and deliberate disorder.
Newman has made the switch from schema to mode, you’ll pick it up, like a fresh cobra hosting a matador to tea.
General Projects 3611 Pomona St. Los Angeles, CA 90031
Open Hours: Thursdays 7-9pm or by appointment
Insert Blanc Press is pleased to announce a new exhibition opening at General Projects: Joel Kyack: I AM the present.
Joel Kyack is an interdisciplinary artist and art educator who lives and works in Los Angeles. Recent solo projects include Hold On Tightly / Let Go Lightly, Workplace Gallery, London, UK (2017); and On the Floor in the Cave of Skulls, Francois Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles (2016). Recent performances include Your Optimism Fills Graves, Workplace, London (2015); and Buy What I Say, FIAC, Paris (2014). Kyack received his MFA from the University of Southern California in 2008 and attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2004. He is represented by Workplace Gallery in the UK, François Ghebaly in Los Angeles and Praz Delavallade in Paris.
If You Happen Along Bodysnatch Lane: An Intimate Performance and Fundraiser for Gawdafful National Theater’s supernatural saga, The Dope Elf
General Projects is pleased to host a two-night intimate performance and fundraiser to help take Asher Hartman and Gawdafful National Theater’s ambitious six-hour traveling show The Dope Elf on tour to Portland’s Yale Union and San Francisco’s The Lab.
Friday, JUNE 21 & Saturday, JUNE 22
1st Show, both nights8:30pm. Door and cocktails: 8:00pm
2nd Show, both nights10:00pm. Door and cocktails: 9:30pm
4 SPECIAL DONOR VIP TICKETS each performance: $100. You will receive complimentary elf ears and the bar is open to you!
General Projects 3611 Pomona St. Los Angeles, CA 90031 Phone: 323-496-3468
Please note performances will take place in and out of doors
Come and get!
-Three scenes fromThe Dope Elfperformed for three intimate groups
- A special edition poster forThe Dope Elf byMark Allen
- VIP tickets will receive hosted complimentary Candice Lin concocted cocktails served by the inimitable Bryatt Bryant!
The fundraiser will support the building of a miniature village created by Los Angeles theater and visual artists. Gawdafful National Theater will live and perform in the installation for one month in each location!
Featuring Michael Bonnabel, Philip Littell, Zut Lorz, Paul Outlaw (June 21 only), Joe Seely, and Jacqueline Wright. Costumes by Sofia Benito. One of the production's amazing ceremonial robes, crafted by Nikii Henry and Brian Getnick, will be on display.
Philip Littell (left) and Zut Lorz (right) in The Dope Elf.Costumes by Sofia Benito and mask by Brian Getnick. Photo by Ian Byers-Gamber.
General Projects 3611 Pomona St. Los Angeles, CA 90031
Opening on Black Friday, November 23rd 7-10pm Open Hours: Thursdays 7-9pm
Insert Blanc Press is pleased to announce a new exhibition opening at General Projects: Familiar Laundry by Jeremy Kennedy.
The exhibition includes a Series of 7 Original Works on Paper and a Limited Edition of hand prepared Archival Inkjet Prints, plus a collection of additional works on paper, sculptural pieces and documents from the artist’s studio, Table Blue.
There will also be a customized kubb (King Tackle) pitch set up in the adjacent Outside Gallery for anyone interested in a match of one of the artist's favorite non-athletic games.
The series of originals and limited edition hand prepared works will be available for sale at the opening on Black Friday, November 23rd, 2018 and on the Insert Blanc Press website.
The installation of Familiar Laundry at General Projects evokes an experience of the artist’s studio, the warmth and welcoming environment as well as the biting humor and caustic wit often found in his extensive collection of works from over the past decade. Kennedy’s multi-disciplinary catalog draws heavily from a core of uniquely designed humor and word-play. Kennedy continually builds, and maintains a heavy focus on the power of collaboration and the importance of relatable conceptual references.
Since the late 1990’s, Jeremy Kennedy (b. 01.01.1980) has been creating and exhibiting art and ideas in both community and academic settings. Before moving to Los Angeles in 2009, the largely self-taught artist spent over a decade living and working in Bloomington, Indiana. His pieces and projects have been featured in publications and journals internationally, and in galleries, streets, backyards, and basements across the U.S. Kennedy is an active sound maker, co-founder and playwright with P/Sicho Street Theatre Company, and he is a founding editor of Rebel Hands Press.
What Can The Semi-Tropic Spiritualists Do For You? Astri Swendsrud & Quinn Gomez-Heitzeberg September 7 - November 4, 2018
General Projects Outside Gallery 3611 Pomona St. Los Angeles, CA 90031
Opening September 7th 7-10pm
Open Hours: Thursdays 7-9pm
Insert Blanc Press is pleased to announce a new exhibition opening at General Projects & Outside Gallery: What Can The Semi-Tropic Spiritualists Do For You? by Astri Swendsrud & Quinn Gomez-Heitzeberg.
The exhibition includes a Series of twelve Original Drawings and an Edition of ten Archival Inkjet Prints and a new book publication, The Semi-Tropic Spiritualist Guidebook, which will be available for purchase at the exhibition’s closing event and book launch, on Friday, November 2, 2018 and is now available for Pre-Sale and will begin shipping in early November!
What Can The Semi-Tropic Spiritualists Do For You? is an exhibition of two interactive installations, Test Site No. 6: The Semi-Tropic Spiritualist Pilgrimage and Test Site No. 9: The Semi-Tropic Spiritualist Symbology Divination System. Alongside these installations, this exhibition also launches the publication of The Semi-Tropic Spiritualist Guidebook.
Semi-Tropic Spiritualists began in 2012 as an ongoing series of performance works, objects and illustrated texts by Los Angeles-based artists Astri Swendsrud and Quinn Gomez-Heitzeberg. Their works explore the history of spiritual belief and metaphysical practice in Los Angeles through the Semi-Tropic Spiritualists, an organization that created a campsite meeting place outside the city limits of Los Angeles in 1905. Spiritualism has described itself as a science, a philosophy and a religion. The artists are interested in this system as a model for examining ideas of faith and skepticism, belief and charlatanism, as well as for the development of a space dedicated to investigation and the search for knowledge.
The exhibition What Can The Semi-Tropic Spiritualists Do For You? considers the desire for practical efficacy that often accompanies the development of metaphysical or spiritual practices. The works presented engage the complexities of translating spiritual experience into physical form, and raise questions of desire, authenticity and authority. The first installation, Test Site No. 6, continues the Semi-Tropic Spiritualist’s interest in geography and history, while also asking viewers to engage in personal contemplation. In the tradition of the religious pilgrimage, the artists created a self-guided tour, through which visitors can spatially experience the legacy and values of the group, ponder their own responses, and walk away with a souvenir. The second installation, Test Site No. 9, moves the locus of investigation away from the external world and toward internal experience. Through the creation of an interactive divination system, the Semi-Tropic Spiritualists invite visitors to engage with the group’s symbology as a method of personal guidance or enlightenment.
The accompanying publication, The Semi-Tropic Spiritualist Guidebook, brings together images, texts, excerpts of performance scripts, and printed ephemera from the Semi-Tropic Spiritualist’s previous exhibitions. The book is organized as both a record of the project’s Test Sites from 2012-2018, and as an idiosyncratic guidebook to California’s spiritual history and geography. The Semi-Tropic Spiritualist Guidebook will be available for purchase at the exhibition’s closing event and book launch, on Friday, November 2, 2018.
The Semi-Tropic Spiritualists have exhibited their installations and performance works at Richard Telles Fine Art, Klowden Mann, The Vincent Price Museum, and Chime & Co. in Los Angeles; Shangri-La, Joshua Tree, CA; and Llano del Rio, CA among other locations. Their work will also be part of the upcoming exhibition Totenpass at Visitor Welcome Center, Los Angeles, in October 2018. Both artists received their MFAs from CalArts in 2008.
Make Lover Return Dorothy Hoover June 16 - August 12, 2018
Now Extended thru Saturday August 18 ! incl. final open hours Thursday August 16 from 7-9pm and a closing party Saturday August 18 from 1-5pm
We will not be open Thursday August 9th for open hours
General Projects 3611 Pomona St. Los Angeles, CA 90031
Insert Blanc Press is pleased to announce a new exhibition opening in our General Projects space: Make Lover Return :: Dorothy Hoover.
Opening June 16th 7pm-10pm Open hours Thursdays 7pm-9pm or by appointment
Dorothy Hoover is an LA-based visual artist and scenic designer. Her work is preoccupied with corporeal presence, whether directly with actor’s bodies or by creating an allusion or void with objects. Dorothy has shown at Honor Fraser Gallery, Machine Project, PAM, Half Gallery LA, and William Leavitt’s Studio. Her design credits include Camino Real (Boston Court), Sneaky Nietzsche (LACMA), Cattywampus (REDCAT), Of Government (Son of Semele), and Peter & the Starcatcher (LA Mission College). She has an MFA in Scenic Design from CalArts.
Demon Purse BBQ + Closing Party Andrew Choate May 28, 2018 3-9pm
General Projects 3611 Pomona St. Los Angeles, CA 90031
Insert Blanc Press welcomes you to celebrate the closing of our inaugural show in our new General Projects space: Demon Purse by Andrew Choate.
We will BBQ many things, and we will drink many drinks and we invite you to bring many things to throw on the BBQ. Hey, even your demons are welcome! And you're welcome to bring many drinks to drink and drinks to share with all your lovely little demons too!
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Andrew Choate has been making objects that combine his interests in form, trash and language since 1999. The sculptures in “Demon Purse” are made of materials sourced from the detritus of other artists installing their work (Paul McCarthy), roommates moving out (anonymous grubs), and craft-store closeouts brought upon by political misadventures (Hobby Lobby.) An abiding dedication to the dual sense of purpose and play within language appears on or surrounding the objects: letters to the objects, or from them to us.
Andrew Choate is the author of "Stingray Clapping" (Insert Blanc Press), "Langquage Makes Plastic of the Body" (Palm Press), "Too Many Times I See Every Thing Just the Way It Is" (Poetic Research Bureau) and, forthcoming in June 2018, "Learning" (Civil Coping Mechanisms/ Writ Large Press). "I Love You More," a collection of his texts for performance will be published by Insert Blanc Press in 2019.
As @saintbollard he photographs and organizes performances around bollards. He won the award for Best Visual/ Performance Art and the Warwick Broadhead Memorial Award at the 2016 Dunedin Fringe Festival. Exegesis Eisegesis Encaustic, his series of collaborative paintings with Katie Herzog, were on display at Klowden Mann in June and July, 2016. As "The Unwrinkled Ear," he hosts a radio show on KCHUNG every other week and curates a concert series devoted to the international world of improvised music. He is a founding and current member, along with Janne Larsen, of the performance art dining collective Inner Dinner.
He cashed at the Amateur World Disc Golf Championships in Charlotte, NC in 2012. He lives and works in Los Angeles.
Insert Blanc Press is pleased to announce the inaugural show opening in our brand new General Projects space: Demon Purse by Andrew Choate. Andrew Choate has been making objects that combine his interests in form, trash and language since 1999. The sculptures in “Demon Purse” are made of materials sourced from the detritus of other artists installing their work (Paul McCarthy), roommates moving out (anonymous grubs), and craft-store closeouts brought upon by political misadventures (Hobby Lobby.) An abiding dedication to the dual sense of purpose and play within language appears on or surrounding the objects: letters to the objects, or from them to us.
This exhibition will include an event on April 27 and a memorial day closing party on May 28.
Andrew Choate is the author of "Stingray Clapping" (Insert Blanc Press), "Langquage Makes Plastic of the Body" (Palm Press), "Too Many Times I See Every Thing Just the Way It Is" (Poetic Research Bureau) and, forthcoming in June 2018, "Learning" (Civil Coping Mechanisms/ Writ Large Press). "I Love You More," a collection of his texts for performance will be published by Insert Blanc Press in 2019.
As @saintbollard he photographs and organizes performances around bollards. He won the award for Best Visual/ Performance Art and the Warwick Broadhead Memorial Award at the 2016 Dunedin Fringe Festival. Exegesis Eisegesis Encaustic, his series of collaborative paintings with Katie Herzog, were on display at Klowden Mann in June and July, 2016. As "The Unwrinkled Ear," he hosts a radio show on KCHUNG every other week and curates a concert series devoted to the international world of improvised music. He is a founding and current member, along with Janne Larsen, of the performance art dining collective Inner Dinner.
He cashed at the Amateur World Disc Golf Championships in Charlotte, NC in 2012. He lives and works in Los Angeles.
Sunday 11 am-2 pm & 4-7 pm @ Poetic Research Bureau
951 Chung King Road, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Open Press is a medium to extend the work of the writer, editor, and curator, to instigate new channels of reciprocity among those interested and engaged in what might constitute the literary at any given time. Over the course of three days, Open Press 2016 will feature roundtables, readings, panels, performances, a moveable book fair, and more in various locations across the Los Angeles area.
people: Stephanie Sauer, Raquel Gutiérrez, Tia Blassingame, Carrie Hunter, Amy Berkowitz, Amanda Ackerman, Harold Abramowitz, Andrea Quaid, Michelle Detorie, Brenda Iijima, Taleen Kali, Teresa Carmody, Janice Lee, Ben Fama, Syd Staiti, Trisha Low, Lauren Levin, Kim Calder, Monica McClure, Joseph Mosconi, Andrew Maxwell, Mathew Timmons, Greg Curtis, David Shook, Roberto Castillo, Mijail Lamas, Olivia Taylor Smith, Jeremy Kennedy, j. shelley harrison, Mark Rice, Guan Rong, Eric Kim, Andrew Choate, Kathleen Kim, Brian Griffith, Sun Araw, Aaron Beasley, Debbie Graber, Kelman Duran, Anthony Seidman, Sergio Eduardo Cruz.
Friday October 21 from 7-12 pm at Insert Blanc Press 2806 1/2 Lincoln Park Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90031
Insert Blanc Press and Outside Gallery present
- Greg Curtis: Step & Repeat - 7pm
- Performances readings and translation - 8:00 pm w/ Phoneme Media: David Shook, Roberto Castillo, Anthony Seidman; Tripwire: David Buuck; Círculo de Poesía & Valparaiso Editions: Mijail Lamas, Sergio Eduardo Cruz
- Performances, readings and the archives - 9:00 pm w/ Unnamed Press: Debbie Graber; Rebel Hands Press: Jeremy Kennedy, j. shelley harrison, Mark Rice; Los Angeles Contemporary Archive: Kelman Duran
- Performances, vocalizations and improvisation - 10:00 pm w/ The Unwrinkled Ear: Andrew Choate, Brian James Griffith, Kathleen Kim, and Sun Araw
Saturday October 22 from 1-3 pm @ Ave 50 Studio
eohippus labs will be joined by ypolita press, Econo Textual Objects, Copilot Press, Primrose Press, and MONDO BUMMER for a panel that wishes to ask how publishing is an act of writing.
Saturday October 22 from 3:30-5:30 pm @ Ave 50 Studio
ENTROPY will be joined by Hex Presse, DUM DUM Zine, Portable Press @ Yo-Yo Labs, Les Figues Press for a panel related to the theme of interspecies communication.
Sunday October 23 from 11 am-2 pm @ Poetic Research Bureau
The Poetic Research Bureau hosts "Wonder & Krupskaya Eat Dim Sum Together.” There will be dim sum provided. Syd Staiti films; live version of IRL podcast with Ben Fama and Monica McClure; Lauren Levin reading.
Sunday October 23 from 4pm-7pm @ Poetic Research Bureau
Open Press host "A Finale Reading." Readings from: David Shook, Anthony Seidman, Guan Rong, Monica McClure, Trisha Low, Brenda Iijima, Sergio Cruz, Kim Calder, Amy Berkowitz, Aaron Beasley + more TBA
Rabbit's Foot Michelle Carla Handel Outside Gallery Opening Saturday, March 26th at 8:00 PM
2806 1/2 Lincoln Park Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90031
"Depend on the rabbit's foot if you will, but remember it didn't work for the rabbit."—R. E. Shay
Adhering strictly to early tradition, a person in search of luck should carry the foot of a hare, the rabbit’s larger cousin. Historically, it was the hare’s foot that possessed magical powers. However, most early European peoples confused the rabbit with the hare, and in time the feet of both animals were prized as potent good luck charms.
The luck attributed to a rabbit’s foot stems from a belief rooted in ancient totemism, the claim, predating Darwinism by thousands of years, that humankind descended from animals. Differing from Darwinism, however, totemism held that every tribe of people evolved from a separate species of animal. A tribe worshiped and refrained from killing its ancestral animal and employed parts of that animal as amulets, called totems.
Remains of totemism are with us today.
In biblical literature, totemism is the origin of many dietary laws prohibiting consumption of certain animals. It has also given us the custom of the sports mascot, believed to secure luck for a team, as well as our penchant for classifying groups of people by animal images or traits. On Wall Street, there are bulls and bears; in government, hawks and doves; and in politics, elephants and donkeys. We may have abandoned the practice of physically carrying around our identifying totems, but they are with us nonetheless.
Folklorists have not yet identified the “Hare” tribal society that gave the early inhabitants of Western Europe, sometime before 600 B.C., the rabbit foot amulet. They have ample evidence, though, of why this lagomorph became a symbol of good luck, not bad.
The rabbit’s habit of burrowing lent it an aura of mystery. The Celts, for instance, believed that the animal spent so much time underground because it was in secret communication with the netherworld of numina. Thus, a rabbit was privy to information humans were denied. And the fact that most animals, including humans, are born with their eyes closed, while rabbits enter the world with eyes wide open, imbued them with an image of wisdom: for the Celts, rabbits witnessed the mysteries of prenatal life. (Actually, the hare is born with open eyes; the rabbit is born blind. And it is the rabbit that burrows; hares live aboveground. Confusion abounded.)
It was the rabbit’s fecundity, though, that helped to give its body parts their strongest association with good luck and prosperity. So prolific was the animal that early peoples regarded it as an outstanding example of all that was procreative in nature. To possess any part of a rabbit—tail, ear, foot, or dried innards—assured a person’s good fortune. Interestingly, the foot was always the preferred totem, believed to be luckier than any other body part.
Why the foot? Folklorists claim that long before Freudian sexual interpretations existed, man, in his cave drawings and stone sculptures, incorporated the foot as a phallic symbol, a totem to foster fertility in women and a cornucopian harvest in the fields.
