The exhibition investigates how art offers alternatives to our subjective and often predetermined perceptions of every day life and the reality as a whole. It proposes a query into our current and generally shared territory of veracity asking if it is merely an amalgamation of phantasmagorical images brought by annotations of both direct and indirect social experiences and realized through acumen sustained by various beliefs, traditions and practices that often fail to rise above our everyday reality.

The concept of perception is challenging as it unites philosophical and cultural visualizations, through actions of both the unconscious and active consciousness. Considered in the right context, perception can be stripped of its allegorical denotation and the exhibition is an invitation to participate in this process. It is rather apparent that for any investigation into the construction of history, either shared or individual, a perception must first be established, yet how well can we communicate our relative truths and what tools do we use to transmit meaning? One way in which the presented artists are implementing this is through a personal and collaborative study of the ambiguous realm where a conceivably tenuous line divides the individual and our collective perspective.

For this body of work, Shana Lutker fuses the unconscious with the corporeal to evoke a perception construct through the ephemeral states of her dreams. Often a by-product of her own everyday experiences juxtaposed with references to Sigmund Freud and the commonly accepted vernacular of psychoanalysis, these dreams uncover the hidden inner workings of our unconsciousness. The residual of that process has been produced as a comprehensive recording of the artist’s dreams that occurred within one year and a series of drawings and narratives in the form of newspapers, publications and catalogues.

Justin Beal and Mateo Tannatt present a video taken from a collaboratively produced show “Alteration Demonstration: Tasteful Guidance”. The video documents the artists at a deconstruction of a useless, old sofa in order to make room for needed exhibition space. A seemingly unassuming act, the process of the removal takes roughly 45 minutes to complete while the partakers seek help of hammers, electric and non-electric saws, knives and spray paint. Simultaneously to the action another removal takes place – colored dots cover the artists’ heads forcing the viewer to abandon any presumed identities. The dots also appear on a second monitor in a synchronized animation obfuscating the apparent parallel in favor of an abstract, yet poetic connotation.

Shana Lutker received her MFA from UCLA in 2005 and her BA from Brown University in 2000. She is preparing an upcoming solo exhibition at the CCA Wattis Institute in San Francisco, CA, curated by Jens Hoffman. Past solo shows include the Room Gallery at UC Irvine and the Wetterling Gallery in Stockholm, Sweden. She was also included in the California Biennial at the Orange County Museum of Art, and in group shows at The Project, New York, Harris Lieberman, New York, D’Amelio Terras, New York, Sweeney Art Gallery, UC Riverside, CA and the Kunstverein Langenhagen in Langenhagan, Germany.

Justin Beal received his MFA from USC this year and his BA from Yale in 2001. He has had recent solo exhibitions at Sculpture Center in Long Island, and at LA><ART in Los Angeles. His work has been included in the Moscow Biennial, at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, and group shows at the Sweeney Art Gallery, UC Riverside, CA; Casey Kaplan, NY; De Appel Centre for Contemporary Art in Amsterdam, and MAK Center at the Schindler House in Los Angeles, CA.

Mateo Tannatt received his MFA from UCLA in 2007 and his BFA from Cooper Union in 2001. His solo exhibition includes Guild & Greyshkul, New York in 2005, and group exhibitions at Gavin Brown’s Enterprise at Passerby, New York, Rivington Arms, New York, Daniel Reich Gallery, New York, and Black Dragon Society, Los Angeles.