John Zane Zappas
HÜPLÜP
October 6 – 29, 2017
H Ü P L Ü P is comprised of 14 oil stick drawings on melamine panel, and two large-scale sculptures — one in the gallery in San Luis Obispo and the other sited a short drive away on the coast in Los Osos.
This group of drawings is organized by a snaking, spiral movement that articulates nesting volumes of line. These compositions, in turn, reflect nuanced connections between the hard and soft coded meanings of language in its evolving visual form.
Echoing the spirals of the drawings, Straw Throne, with its coiled construction of straw wattle (long mesh tubes filled with straw used to mitigate erosion), creates a circular seating platform around a central, stupa-like form that simultaneously obscures the gallery’s sightlines and grounds the space. Visitors to the gallery are invited to sit on the throne for as long as they like.
The final work in the show, Sand Pew, is oriented with a view of the Pacific Ocean and Morro Rock. The sculptural bench is made of compacted sand and a viewing is scheduled for the morning following the opening, after which, the piece will be left to reintegrate with the landscape.
By infusing traditions of focused presence with the built and natural environments of my native Central Coast, these provisional monuments seek to reorder our understandings of power, place, and permanence.
John Zappas
Los Angeles, CA
9/30/17
John Zane Zappas (b. 1985, Torrance, CA) lives and works in Los Angeles. Zappas received his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2012 and has attended residencies at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and Bemis Center for Contemporary Art. Recent solo and group exhibitions include: SPF 15 (San Diego), The Landing (LA), BBQ (LA), Interface (Oakland), hotel-art.us, & Vacancy (LA).
