Mitchell Syrop

Mitchell Syrop’s lithographic and laser pigment prints and installations expose the human condition of being trapped within systems, be they interpersonal, societal, economic or political. Engaging with Syrop’s idiosyncratic use of language, text and found images means being told not to ‘quit your day job’ and reminds us of the irony of believing one is unique. Having studied under the original Conceptualists, including Huebler, Asher and Baldessari, Syrop, along with artists Barbara Kruger and Jenny Holzer, engaged with commodification, mass marketing and the aesthetics of advertising. The clichés, or slogans of culture, present in Syrop’s work are inserted onto images of cells under a microscope or ‘perfect’, travel-advertising photographs of sandy beaches. Inviting multiple interpretations of his interchange between text and image, Syrop evokes a structuralist understanding of language as a system of arbitrary signs. The private, the public, love, grief, existentialism and subjectivity intertwine in the hands of the artist, whose work reveals human vanity and pride while remaining honest in its own complicity of recycling clichés. Written by Goldsmiths CCA ...

Since 2009, François Ghebaly has presented an innovative, eclectic program of Los Angeles-based and international artists. With a history of identifying and championing diverse voices and emerging talent, the gallery’s roster has grown to include 27 artists and 2 artist estates, ranging from early career, such as Sharif Farrag and Ludovic Nkoth, to mid-career, like Christine Sun Kim, Meriem Bennani, Kelly Akashi, Farah Al Qasimi, and Genesis Belanger, to well established, including Sayre Gomez, Kathleen Ryan, Neïl Beloufa and Candice Lin as well as underground legends, like Patrick Jackson and Mike Kuchar. The gallery advances the reach of its artists’ visions by publishing exhibition catalogues and producing artist editions. Located since 2013 in a 12,000 square foot warehouse space in Downtown Los Angeles, the gallery is a mainstay of the burgeoning Arts District community, and recently expanded to New York's Lower East Side. François Ghebaly’s program demonstrates a commitment to challenging work across all media and to fostering the progressive, boundary-pushing practices of its artists. ...