The City/“La Ville” | Chris Vasell: Chris And
417 Wall St Los Angeles, CA 90013
Sunday, May 16 at 4:00 PM 8:00 PM
Ends Jun 27, 2021
Chez Anonyme is pleased to announce The City/ “La Ville”, a group exhibition, and Chris And a solo exhibition by Chris Vasell. Both open May 16th and will run until June 27th. Please join us for a celebration on Sunday between the hours of 4pm - 8pm. Also, please plan a visit via Calendy or email. The City/"La Ville" features a multigenerational group of artists and poets who are largely living or have lived in the Los Angeles area. The group exhibition takes the City as its starting point, an excavating muse, placed in constellation and conversation to Arthur Rimbaud’s poem “The City/La Ville,” and the resounding freedom echoed in the magical chambers of the poetic itself. Chris And takes an episodic approach to the solo exhibition, placing his practice in context to the group exhibition, the city and a never-ending continuum of mark-making. Chris Vasell's work is an enigma to its creator with a philosophical seriality infused throughout his oeuvre. Whether it be the city he has dwelled, an exploration of streets, meeting of characters or sensation of color: all of these parlances exist in an infinite pursuit of play. Both exhibitions circulate the collective tones of these artists and poets dealing obliquely, concretely and poetically with the thematic of the shared urban experience that classifies as city living. Set within a concrete building in downtown Los Angeles, Chris And & The City/“La Ville” conjures an intimate ode to the metropolis and the wonder of new specters where the howls in the mud continue to reign, but the day sends forth calm lights and new beginnings. The City/"La Ville” features the works of Madame Anonyme, Kim Fuck, John Matthew Heard, David Horvitz, Barry Johnston, Devin Kenny, Nicole Lesser, Nihura Montiel, Ellen Schafer, Mira Schnedler, Samael Sklar, Michelle Song, Janet Sternburg, Molly Surazhsky, Mary, Adam Tullie, Laure Vigna and Yelena Zhelezov; and the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud, Aram Saroyan, Marsie Scharlatt, Barry Schwabsky, Robert Lundquist, Richard McDowell and Michael Kennedy Costa. There will be a limited-edition booklet made of the poems featured as part of the exhibition and available for sale during the exhibition. Chez Anonyme extends itself as a hostess for an expanded field of art. Following in the footsteps of Katherine Drier and Marcel Duchamp’s Société Anonyme, it aims to reconsider and question what is the avant-garde of contemporary art through the re-contextualizing of art within virtual, physical, non-commercial of venues and scenarios. Chez Anonyme debuted at an apartment show in February 2019 where guests were given keys to enter at their own leisure to experience an exhibition during the height of the Frieze art fair debuting at Paramount Studios, and now is returning to the city traversing the lines of Skid Row Los Angeles. Chez Anonyme aims to establish an international artist residency and centre in the near future dedicated to contemporary art and the study of the avant-garde.