Jeremy Everett: TacocaT

Wilding Cran Gallery is pleased to present Tacocat, a solo exhibition of new works by Los Angeles-based artist, Jeremy Everett.

Within the exhibition of Tacocat, Everett has united distinct chapters of his body of work to comment on the raw beauty of dysfunctionality, granting the viewer access to the conceptual landscape that lies between the marvelous and the mundane. 

Across the breadth of his oeuvre, Everett enlists an experimental and explorative approach to conceptually deconstruct the pillars of his own iconography. Born of an integral respect for disruption, imperfection, and the power of process, the artist builds upon methods of architecture and photography to inform the fabrication of his paintings and sculptures. From more technically driven projects, such as his Gauze paintings and Flare series, to the playful disassembly of iconic furniture, Everett's work explores the tension between the form and function of an object in space. 

Whether filling hollow cubes of stretched canvas with brightly hued smoke, or allowing a grid of gauze to morph and pull under the weight of swirling layers of paint, Everett cedes control to the 

elements of his surroundings. There is a meticulous level of planning that allows the works to perform their own assembly, with the anticipated intervention of light, wind, gravity, and time. The meaning of each piece is captured within the infrastructure of the canvas itself; the surface is but a window through which we may witness the story of creation. 

Themes of duplication and reflection, of photocopies and shadow doubles, permeate the gallery space, summoning the illusion of encountering the artist's emotional experiences in situ. At the heart of Tacocat, the artist has planted a palm tree covered in graffiti, one inspired by a photograph taken while walking along Venice Beach. By copying and removing the replica of the tree from the context of its environment, Everett relocates the architecture of a specific moment of awe, inviting the viewer to join him in a transient, yet monumental encounter. 

The exhibition's title, Tacocat, encapsulates Everett's fascination with reflection and reproduction, along with a humanely familiar attraction to the bizarre. Unlike other palindromes, "tacocat" exists outside of reason, humorously fabricated specifically to bemuse interpretation. There is a humor to matter without function, just as there is a humor to words without language. Everett's Tacocat projects the ineffable power of nonsense; it reminds us that our perception of meaning is in a constant state of ebb and flow; it challenges us to comprehend without analysis and encourages us to lean into our questions, whether or not we discover an answer that we can define.