Greg Ito and Honor Titus at Penske Projects

Artists: Greg Ito, Honor Titus

Exhibition title: The Garden

Curated by: Sophia Penske

Venue: Penske Projects, Los Angeles, US

Date: June 27 – July 27, 2019

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Penske Projects

Los Angeles – The Garden, an exhibition set within an abundant and symbolic garden featuring new paintings by Los Angeles-based, Japanese American artist Greg Ito and Brooklyn-born, multi-disciplinary artist, musician and poet Honor Titus, will open June 27, 2019 in Los Angeles.

Curated by Sophia Penske, the timely and immersive exhibition brings together artists working across the visual arts, music, poetry and film at a moment when the city is in full cross-cultural and creative bloom. Lush flowers and verdant foliage arranged in different scales and materials by floral designers Ezra Woods and Michael Woodcock of Pretend Flowers and Plants will wend through the gallery space reflecting the vibrant cultural and geographic context for the artists’ work.

A collection of new paintings by Ito explore themes of duality and dichotomy, time and morality. In the artist’s surreal garden, the Los Angeles landscape is depicted, often symbolically by the artist’s hand, as a magical and colorful garden of mystery, beauty, and sometimes misfortune. Ito’s crisply rendered images and symbols paint Tinsel Town as a city where dreams can be made and broken. Viewers will encounter iconography engrained in LA’s contemporary landscape such as looming helicopters, palm trees, ocean sunsets, and wildfires as Ito navigates them through the various facets of our lives, speaking to love, fear, companionship, and tragedy.

Titus’ works reflect the isolation and romance of the big cities he has inhabited; Los Angeles, New York, London and Paris. His work is influenced by the music, memories, literature, architecture and advertising experienced on the streets of these chaotic places. Connected by an air of sentimentality, the paintings Vuillard & Me, Linden Blvd Jazz Radio, and Missed Reflections, reflect the spontaneous outings with friends wandering the hot city streets and the artist’s attraction to the infinite possibilities of the summer months.

Los Angeles-born Greg Ito (born 1987) is a Japanese American artist who attended the SF Art Institute and co-founded SFAQ and Ever Gold Gallery before returning Los Angeles before returning to Los Angeles where his artistically inclined family, including uncle Peter Shire, resided. Recent exhibitions include Arsenal Contemporary – Toronto, Andrew Rafacz – Chicago, Et al., San Francisco, Jeffrey Deitch, New York, Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles, Steve Turner, Los Angeles, and Mon Cheri, Brussels. Current exhibitions include No Place Gallery, Columbus. OH., The Drake Hotel, Toronto, Ochi Projects, Ketchum, ID. Upcoming exhibitions include Division Gallery, Montreal, Smart Objects, Los Angeles, Weiden + Kennedy, Portland and Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles. Recent press includes Artforum, Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, CARLA, AUTRE, Amadeus Magazine, LALA Magazine, C Magazine, Los Angeles Magazine, MOUSSE, Libertine Dune Japan, San Francisco Chronicle, and more.

Brooklyn-born, Honor Titus (born 1989) is a Los Angeles-based multidisciplinary artist, poet and musician, who honed his craft as a visual artist in New York through an apprenticeship with Raymond Pettibon and work with Dan Colen, Danny Fox, Kevin Francis Gray and Ryan McGinley. Titus has performed in international galleries and institutions such as PACE Gallery, NY; the New Museum, NY; Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin; and Show Studio, London, and has been featured on BBC Radio 1(UK) His poetry has been published in the New York Times and The Guardian (UK).

Sophia Penske is a 24-year-old, Los Angeles-based curator and art advisor with experience in the fields of finance, music, art and fashion. After focusing her education on Art History and pre-law at Cornell University, she worked at Di Donna Galleries and Michael Altman Fine Art and Advisory Services, LLC in New York, prior to establishing Penske Projects in December 2018. Penske Projects endeavors to find, explore and develop emerging artists, making their work more accessible across diverse cultural audiences. The Garden curated by Penske, is the first Penske Projects exhibition open to the public in Los Angeles, California.