The Curio Shop
Charlie James Gallery is delighted to present our first solo exhibition of LA-based artist Richard Ankrom titled The Curio Shop.
In The Curio Shop, Ankrom will transform the gallery into a gift-shop retail environment littered with sculptures large and small from his Fetish Figurine series. Objects are selected for their cultural resonance and are then subjected to a process of masking with synthetic rubber. Zippers, studs, hooks and the like are tucked into the rubber surface using dental tools. Some zippers are painted gold, other are shiny stainless steel. A bristling contempt for effusive sentimental goods that pander to contrived pop nostalgia leads Ankrom to distort these figures and subvert their original manifestations. In this process, mass produced figurines become individualized and in a way surreal.
Richard Ankrom (b. 1955) is best known for his 2002 Guerrilla Public Service piece, wherein he fabricated and attached an Interstate 5 freeway panel and shield to an existing overhead sign on the northbound 110 Fwy in downtown Los Angeles because valuable merge lane information was missing from the provided signage. Ankrom has exhibited widely around the Los Angeles area, including the Fowler Museum, Grand Central Art Center, Museum of Neon Los Angeles, and the Riverside Art Museum, as well as internationally in Sydney, Australia and Tokyo, Japan. His work has been covered by the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, KCET, Modern Painters, and LA Weekly. Ankrom works and lives in Los Angeles.
Installation
