In Museums & Art Institutions

Armory Center for the Arts

The world premier of Raymond Pettibon and Yoshua Okon’s video collaboration will open at the Armory Center for the Arts in the Pasadena Art Alliance Gallery on Friday, May 22, 7pm to 9pm and will be on view through August 30, 2009. Opening Reception, Friday, May 22, 7pm - 9pm.

Echoing both Raymond Pettibon’s Weatherman ’69 (1989-1990) and Yoshua Okon’s Lago Bolsena (2004) and Bocanegra (2005-7), this video installation, a collaboration between the two artists, explores the subculture of old hippies and beach bums from Venice Beach. The videos feature men who have been living on the beach for more than 30 years forming a tightly-knit alternative community that, despite its lack of functionality and lack of touch with mainstream reality, thrives and survives on its own terms—paying a high price to do so nonetheless.

The inspiration for the piece comes from the past-life therapist which Okon and Pettibon visited together, and who told the artists that one of them had been a hippie cult-leader in a past life. This drove them to seek out this particular group of men and start working with them. This show is curated by the Armory’s Adjunct Assistant Curator, Andrew Berardini.

Raymond Pettibon (b. Tucson 1957) has shown his work in numerous survey exhibitions worldwide. Recent solo exhibitions include the CAC Málaga in Spain and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and he was the recipient of the 2004 Whitney Biennial Bucksbaum Award. He lives and works in Los Angeles and is represented here by Regen Projects.

Yoshua Okón (b. Mexico City, 1970) lives and works in Mexico City and Los Angeles. He has exhibited at the CCA Wattis, San Francisco; The New Museum, New York; Hayward Gallery, London; PS1 MOMA, New York, and The Project, New York. In 2008 he participated at Art Perform, Art Basel Miami Beach and in 2005 at Turin Triennale, Castello di Rivoli, Italy. He was recently the subject of a ten-year survey at Lothringer 13 - Städtische Kunsthalle in Munich, Germany.

This exhibition will be on view in the Pasadena Art Alliance Gallery located on the second floor of the Armory at 145 North Raymond Avenue, Pasadena. Admission is free. The gallery is open Tuesday through Sunday from 12 noon and 5pm, or by appointment. The Armory is easily accessible from the Gold Line Memorial Park Station in Pasadena. The curator may be contacted at Andrew.Berardini@gmail.com for questions.

The Armory Center for the Arts.

145 North Raymond Avenue, Pasadena. (626) 792-5101. Website:www.armoryarts.org

Open Tuesdays through Sundays, noon until 5:00 p.m. Cost: Free.