“Disturbing the Peace: Assemblage, Sculpture, and Painting 1963-2011” by Ed Bereal

@Harmony Murphy gallery, Downtown Los Angeles
February 11 – April 2, 2016

First solo exhibition ever in LA (!) at Harmony Murphy for Ed Bereal, and inaugural exhibition for Harmony Murphy gallery’s new place. It has at least tripled the size compared to the previous one. This couldn’t be a better space for Bereal’s works. Each piece is like it was meant to be here. The whole exhibition has found its right pace and give it back the triple to the viewer. As good as the best exhibition at the Hammer Museum!

Ed Bereal (born 1937) is an American artist best known for his work in assemblage and for his participation in exhibitions and performances that addressed political issues and racial stereotypes from the 1960s onward.

The exhibition shows among the strongest works from 1963 through 2011, including footage of his performances with the theater troupe Bodacious Buggerilla and clips from his short-lived show on PBS.

The works presented in this exhibition bridge his long and varied career, representing the central themes that have guided his practice as well as his distinct talent for assemblage, humor, and political commentary. Although the characters and conditions have shifted, evolved, and devolved over the past half century, his work is rooted in the heart-of-the-matter, remaining thought provoking and innovative despite the revising context.

“I’m not into art for art’s sake. I’m not into entertaining wealthy people. I think art can instruct, and I think it can destruct“

These words summarize pretty well the spirit and intention of Bereal‘s entire body of work . Each piece has a target, a strong commitment, full of important details that are not the result of chance in order to deliver Bereal’s opinion. Each piece is made as if it were the last, the last artist’s gesture. Indubitably the strongest commitment seen for years.

These are the reasons we select Ed Bereal in our Ultimate Artist selection. BCh

 

 

Read more Bereal’s story he tells on ArtForum, about the interesting moments he went through during the Watts Riots “In the 1960s, I was living a privileged life thanks to Bob Irwin and a few of my elders who had positioned me very well in the art world. Dwan Gallery was paying me to stay in my studio, and that was working pretty well until 1965. One morning during the Watts riots, I walked out of my house and there was a jeep parked across Venice Boulevard that read more here

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ABOUT

Ed Bereal (born 1937) attended Chouinard Art Institute from 1959- 1962 and later taught at University of California, Irvine and Western Washington University.

He has  been a recipient of several prestigious awards, including those from the Janss Foundation (Los Angeles), the Copley Foundation (New York) and the National Endowment for the Arts (Washington DC).

His work is in the collection of many major museums including The Museum of Modern Art, NY; The Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C.; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; Museum of Fine Arts Houston, TX; and The Brooklyn Museum, NY.

He has been the subject of exhibitions at international venues including Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2006) and Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2009); L.A. Object & David Hammons Body Prints, Tilton Gallery, New York, NY (2006);  as well as participating in Pacific Standard Time at The Getty Museum, Los Angeles (2011).