When walking through the breezeway at Hauser & Wirth, one passes the industrialiesque semi-opulence of the space and Manuela’s, and is greeted with camping tents installed in the main courtyard, as if it were just around the corner on skid row, the first tent speaking up with the phrase “This could be u” in red.
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David Hammons installation at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles

These tents are relatively new, there is no displacement or cleanup required. This is a signature of the eminent artist, David Hammons, at least for this show. This re-placement, as it were, of dignity recurs throughout the exhibition.

The exhibition includes a wide variety and shapes of assembled and repurposed objects, partially “completed” paintings, draped, reused tarps, carpets, and various other found materials. While the presentation is “finished”, attentively beautiful in its approach and display, one doesn’t feel the need to pull back the curtain. Reinforcing this is the dedication of the exhibition to the great musician Ornette Coleman, who is referenced by the artist as a “Harmalodic Thinker.”
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David Hammons’s sculptures act equally with his “dressed” paintings

The story of the origins and use of the materials displayed doesn’t come from when they were new, but after they had been reused, collected as a form of survival, and therein lies the eloquence of this exhibition of David Hammons work.

Back in front, upon entering from the street, one enters the galleries to the left hung sparely with paintings by Guillermo Kuitka, each of which draw one into their dark corners of memory and at times loneliness, actual or painted. One series focuses on dark, black interiors made occupied by the chairs, beds, leftover furniture. Another large grid of equal sized paintings begin in some aspect with a division down the middle, delineated by paint applied against an edge, referencing each other throughout as in a photo spread across the gutter of a book.
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Guillermo Kuitka’s paintings and mixed media works focus on use of space

One gallery focuses on small works of top, almost aerial views of the plans of well-known building such as the Hollywood Bowl, treated as if they are objects, or jewels to be more closely studied.

The counterpoint of these two exhibitions coincides with a resonance that each offers to us, our sense of place, space, and our lives in them. Find out more about these exhibitions at https://www.hauserwirth.com