“The Adopted” by Joshua Hagler

@JAUS, Los Angeles
January 29 to March 6, 2016 (by appointment only)

First solo show in Los Angeles for newly LA-based artist, Joshua Hagler.

Hagler’s current series takes stills from Western films he has seen.  Through this series of large scale paintings, he aims to reveal the behind-the-scene psychology of each film and of each character he depicts.  Sometimes just a fragment of a narrative, a face or a crucial moment from a film appears on the canvas.  Working on this series, he thinks about how he fits in within the context of the history of American settlers as he refers himself to as a “descendant of settlers.”  We are led to ask ourselves, “What does that legacy mean now?” It leads me to further thoughts about racism, and even about the current immigrant situation as well. (see more with the video below)

 

Francis Bacon in the Far West

 

In terms of technique, Hagler is undoubtedly a great painter.  His gestures have something in common with Francis Bacon in the way he alternately controls and loosens up with the medium.  In regards to his diptychs, Hagler employs some risky processes.  Once he is almost done with a painting, he places different colors of paint here and there, then takes one half of the canvas and covers it with the other half like a sandwich.  The paint mixes naturally with the weight, just a bit, but enough to make the figures appear wounded, less recognizable yet more real at the same time.

 

 

Video

The exhibition shows a montage video of the Western movies he chooses as inspiration.  The video is for some reason very moving.  This may be, because he mixes the images and dialogue so well that we don’t see them as extracts from movies, but as fleeting moments.

---

 

This young artist, Joshua Hagler is very promising and we’re happy to select him for the “Emerging Artist”section of bAm.

---

 

Interesting Video produced by

Ink & Other – Ep. 02 – Joshua Hagler

Joshua Hagler’s Website

Read more about Joshua Hagler on JAUS