Niche.LA presents 04/05/06
NICHE.LA PRESENTS 04/05/06
new work by Retna and Michael Allen
curated by Marcela Garate
LOS ANGELES, CA – On September 14, 2006 (12:00 – 9:00PM), Niche.LA presents “04/05/06,” curated by Marcela Garate, featuring digital artist Retna and video artist Michael Allen.
Los Angeles based artist Retna removes corporate advertisements of women from illuminated signs and embellishes them in a style that not only recalls Mayan and Egyptian hieroglyphs but even the aesthetic heights of Byzantium with its mosaic tiling of Christ and other deities. In one work, the well-known and ill-fated singer, Aaliyah, gazes upwards while color explodes like jeweled fragments around her. Retna’s intervention in these advertisements elevates the perception of the mostly anonymous females – fodder for representing desire and selling other objects – to a form of idolatry.
NICHE.LA PRESENTS “THRee”