Dreamin' of a...
Charlie James Gallery is pleased to present Dreamin’ of a..., a group exhibition conceived by Los Angeles-based art historian and curator Sagi Refael featuring work by Adar Aviam, Mara De Luca, Rafa Esparza, Robert Ginder, Renée Lotenero, John Knuth, Marisa Mandler, David O’Brien, Rotem Reshef, Glen Wilson, Nathan Zeidman and Barak Zemer.
The show is a tribute to the landscape of Los Angeles, as seen and experienced by walking its streets and taking its public transportation. The show closely examines the tensions between the glamorous cinematic and televised images of the “City of Angels” and the grittier realities of life in the city. Dreamin’ of a… takes its title from John Knuth’s piece from 2018, a mylar sewn landscape composed on a cardboard sign the artist bought from a homeless person. The piece expresses LA as microcosm of the American Dream and suggests the outlet of creativity and imagination as a means of socio-economic advancement. The artworks gathered for the show vary widely in media and operate together as a form of “Gesamtkunstwerk”, aiming to synthesize from many perspectives an idea of the identity of Los Angeles. Emphasizing the city’s fragmented and evolving nature, its continuous becoming and collapsing, Dreamin’ of a… examines the act of dreaming in LA and its linkage to branding and image-making, contemplating drives to self-measure and climb socially against the broader canvas of time, landscape, and community.
Sagi Refael (b. 1980, Tel Aviv, Israel) graduated from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem with BA (2005) and MA (2008) degrees in art history. Refael moved to Los Angeles, California in 2012. He has delivered lectures at the University of Southern California, UCLA, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the University of La Verne, American Jewish University, Minshar college of art in Tel Aviv and Mount San Jacinto College in California. Over the past 12 years he has curated and mounted more than 40 exhibitions across the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Refael lives and works in Los Angeles, California.
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