Jingze Du: True Colors | Tiger Rocha: bodyfountain | Shingo Yamazaki: Acts of Service
6830 Santa Monica Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90038
Thursday, October 17 at 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Ends Nov 15, 2024
Steve Turner is pleased to present True Colors, a two-part solo exhibition consisting of new paintings by Dublin-based Jingze Du. The first part features forty-three mostly small-scale paintings that depict animals precisely painted in black, white and shades of gray. These works are composed of thin layers of paint meticulously applied with an array of brushes. Viewers often assume that Du uses an airbrush and are always astonished to learn that he does not. Instead, he only uses age-old techniques that he learned as a child prodigy in Yantai, China. These sweet images of cats, dogs, pigs, goats, rabbits, monkeys, ducks and other animals are installed throughout the main gallery, each one vying for our attention, love and possible adoption. However, True Colors has a second room of paintings which completely changes the mood. They are loose adaptations of famous paintings from the past and include Manet’s The Execution of Emperor Maximilian; David’s The Death of Marat; Goya’s The Third of May 1808 and Vermeer’s Woman Holding A Balance. They are also painted in shades of gray, black and white, however in contrast to the animals, they are composed of loose gestural brush strokes which obscure most of the source image. With one exception, Du chose paintings that depict historical events notable for their violence, with one outlier: the Vermeer, wherein science and reason are highlighted. Through Du’s juxtaposition of animal and human, precise and loose and adorable and horrible, he suggests a world view that is more than black and white.
Jingze Du (born 1995, Yantai, China) moved to Dublin when he was thirteen years old. He later earned his BA at the National College of Art & Design, Dublin (2017) and his MA from the Royal College of Art, London (2019). He has had solo exhibitions at Sifang Museum, Shanghai (2022); Steve Turner, Los Angeles (May & October, 2020, 2021 & 2023); Steve Turner, New York (2023) and Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing / Shanghai (2021 & 2023).
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Steve Turner is pleased to present bodyfountain, a solo exhibition by New York-based Tiger Rocha, featuring four large-scale abstract paintings that are emotional explorations of the artist’s desires. They are composed of layers of thinned and sculptural oil paint that Rocha slashed and dripped across the canvas over a period of several months. He describes the paintings as expansive erotic environments, landscapes strewn with the energy and traces of his body, desires, and emotions. The paint, like blood or other bodily fluid, fountains in all directions conveying Rocha’s sense of ecstasy.
Tiger Rocha (b. 1998, Pleasanton, California) earned a BFA at the Rhode Island School of Design (2021) before moving to New York where he now lives. He has had a solo exhibition at Steve Turner, Los Angeles (2023); two-person exhibitions alongside Drew Dodge at 1969 Gallery, New York (2023) and KIAF, Seoul (2023) and has had work included in group exhibitions at Steve Turner, Los Angeles (2022) and Untitled, Miami Beach with Steve Turner (2022).
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Steve Turner is pleased to present Acts of Service, a solo exhibition by Los Angeles-based Shingo Yamazaki that features nostalgic paintings depicting scenes from his family’s restaurant in Honolulu. He draws upon childhood memories to present a behind the scenes look at the restaurant showing taped up notes and business cards, cluttered shelves, and the careful placement of images that are specific to Hawai’i. To Yamazaki, the restaurant was a second home rather than just a place of work. He conveys the rhythm of work and play shared by many immigrant families as they share their culture with the communities in which they settle.
Shingo Yamazaki (born 1985, Honolulu) earned a BA from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. His work combines Hawai’i’s multicultural iconography with his personal history as a mixed Korean and Japanese American. His work has been exhibited at Sow & Tailor, Los Angeles; Steven Zevitas Gallery, Boston; and Richard Heller Gallery, Los Angeles. This is his first exhibition at Steve Turner.