Exhibition by Simone Montemurno
May 18th—June 15, 2024
Opening: Saturday May 18th, from 2-5pm
Gallery Hours: Saturdays, from 2pm – 5pm.
Transcriptions, After F. Kolar presents a body of work by Simone Montemurno based on her discovery of nearly 200 watercolor landscapes by an unrecognized artist, F.Kolar at a flea-market in Prague, Czechia. The landscapes were painted between 1923 and 1959, a period defined by Hitler’s occupation of the Sudetenland and the show trials of the Communist Putsch. Montemurno makes “cover” paintings of Kolar’s works, pairing the original with her version and adding historical ephemera to create collage-like configurations. Transcriptions, After F. Kolar considers individual lived experience in the landscape of history, and weaves together ideas about time, memory, socio-political and family history, and the value of material culture. Each work is accompanied by an audio track—a combination of narrative and description—enacting an oral history of the time and place conjured.
Simone Montemurno was born in Manila, Philippines. She has a background in photography and art history, moving to Los Angeles to earn her MFA from CalArts (2011). She makes paintings, sound recordings, and books inspired by the cultural artifacts one might encounter in a regional folk art museum, out-of-the-way collection or overlooked archive. In 2023, Montemurno was an artist in residence at Monson Arts in Monson, Maine. This fall, the music label HaHa will release a cassette edition of Montemurno’s collaborative work with artist/composer Byron Westbrook. This is Montemurno’s third solo exhibition in Los Angeles, prior exhibitions being at Los Angeles Contemporary Archive (LACA) and metro pcs, in L.A. She has participated in exhibitions at Chicago’s Soccer Club Club gallery, BASILICA, Hudson, NY, Craft Contemporary and The Main Museum in L.A., and the Indianapolis ICA among other venues.