LVL3 is proud to announce Ball Bearing, a three-person exhibition featuring work by AJ Kahn (Los Angeles, CA), Gonzalo Hernandez (Miami, FL), and Gary LaPointe Jr. (Chicago, IL)
Ball bearings function to bear and balance weight to enable motion. Countless unnoticed, mundane objects facilitate much of the everyday movement of things. In Ball Bearing, the three artists thrust viewers through associations provoked by everyday objects, sayings, and materials.
Kahn’s work propels us through the emotive language and imagery of James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, most pointedly, the phrase “ live, laugh, love.” The material and textual symbols in his abstract paintings parse out the loaded connotations with the phrase–now most commonly found in the home decor of United States Suburbia. Hernandez’s mediated textiles are created from expressions in both English and Spanish that are transposed into jacquard loom works. Both ‘text’ and ‘textile’, his works probe how cultural idioms reflect the complexity of the construction of identity. LaPointe’s works are physical disruptions to our pre-destined associations, his ready-made sculptures toy with our conceptions of water bottles, Adidas shoes, pick-up trucks, and the language around construction itself. While Kahn and Hernandez’s works examine constellations of identity formation, LaPointe’s sculptures intentionally grapple with the spectrum of masculinity. Ball Bearing pushes us out of functional fixedness and permits conversations around construct
Opening: Saturday, April 30th, 6 – 10 pm!
Gallery hours are Sundays 1-4 pm and can also be made by appointment. Email team@lvl3official.com or call/text 312-469-0333 to reserve a time outside of gallery hours.
Proof of vaccination and masks are required for all visitors during opening events, regular gallery hours, and all private appointments.
