SCOTT TRELEAVEN : TEMPORARY TEMPLES
Marc Selwyn Fine Art is pleased to announce an exhibition of work by Toronto based artist Scott Treleaven. This the artist’s first solo show in Los Angeles. The exhibition is presented in cooperation with Scenic and Simon Watson and opens Saturday, March 19 through April 21.
Scott Treleaven’s collages and films celebrate the hidden streams of occult and symbolist influence in contemporary punk culture. His subjects turn away from the mainstream religious and social systems that condemn them, choosing instead to create adjunct cultures they can truly call their own; a world replete with its own set of secret lineages and social codes, Rorschach-esque monuments and sexually-charged altars.
Already an established name in indie and underground circles, Treleaven’s 22-minute cult film, THE SALiVATION ARMY (2002), has been variously compared to Jarman, Anger, Dennis Cooper, and to Burroughs’ seminal gay manifesto, The Wild Boys, and was tipped as one of the best underground short films of 2002 by The Village Voice. The harrowingly Romantic story of the rise and fall of a gang of young queer radicals, the film draws heavily on the artist's own experiences publishing a zine of the same name, bringing together his eye for potent imagery and interest in street-level mythologies. This exhibition will mark the release of a limited edition DVD of THE SALiVATION ARMY, along with an accompanying print.
Similarly, the scenes of orgiastic exotica that make up Scott Treleaven’s collages have conjured associations with Moreau, Géricault, and even CB DeMille, as King’s Road punks and comely young Paris Commune rioters revolt against backdrops of 17th century witches’ sabbats and Victorian Hellfire Club rallies. Key to the potency of the work is Treleaven’s inclusion of his own personal photographs of the 21st century progeny of these traditions. Using mechanical reproduction as a leveling medium, his meticulously layered black and white photocopies evoke a stark noir sensibility, alluding to zine culture, anarchist broadsheets and underground missives. Eruptions of rich colour and origami paper flowers heighten the Baroque compositions, venerating the violent clash between high and low, lyrical and political, tragic and heroic.
Marc Selwyn Fine Art is open Tuesday through Saturday, 11:00am to 6:00pm. For more information please contact Jennifer Pregenzer at (323) 933-9911.
