Artist: Andy Hope 1930
Exhibition title: #believe
Venue: LOMEX, New York, US
Date: November 3 – December 17, 2017
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and LOMEX, New York
Lomex, in a special collaboration with Hauser and Wirth, is pleased to present Andy Hope 1930, #believe, on view from November 3rd until December 17th.
In advance of the subprime mortgage crisis of 2007, the housing market bore witness to a furious rise in valuation, a “space opera” of skyrocketing prices.
In the ashes of the ensuing collapse, as in the demise of any market, what remained was a mountain of paper and digital files, composed of mostly meaningless data. Filing cabinets full of spurious research and worthless stock certificates were abandoned in foreclosed offices; outmoded hard drives filled with strings of meaningless figures were trashed.
Using a language drawn both from the historical avant-garde and science fiction, Hope has created a new body of work that activates these contexts to think through questions of value; philosophical, social and economic.
Four “brains in a vat”, tawdry symbols that refer to both financial networks and classic science fiction, converse about metaphysics, unaware of their predicament. Messages of devaluation, revaluation, and fiscal utility circulate throughout the gallery, without rhyme or reason.
Images from comic books, from errant corners of culture, and from iconic moments of art history mingle with signs of terrestrial and cosmic exploration.
The works on view raise uneasy questions about an uncertain future, drawing on images arising from the fallible deceptions of an uncanny present.
Andy Hope 1930, #believe, 2017, exhibition view, LOMEX, New York
Andy Hope 1930, #believe, 2017, exhibition view, LOMEX, New York
Andy Hope 1930, #believe, 2017, exhibition view, LOMEX, New York
Andy Hope 1930, #believe, 2017, exhibition view, LOMEX, New York
Andy Hope 1930, #believe, 2017, exhibition view, LOMEX, New York
Andy Hope 1930, Universal Proletarian, 2017, Acrylic and Lacquer on canvas, 180 × 150 cm (70 7/8 × 59 inches)
Andy Hope 1930, Universal Proletarian, 2017, Acrylic and Lacquer on canvas, 180 × 150 cm (70 7/8 × 59 inches)
Andy Hope 1930, Subprime Loan, 2017, Acrylic and Lacquer on canvas, 120 × 100 cm (47 1/4 × 39 3/8 inches)
Andy Hope 1930, Subprime Loan, 2017, Acrylic and Lacquer on canvas, 120 × 100 cm (47 1/4 × 39 3/8 inches)
Andy Hope 1930, #believe, 2017, exhibition view, LOMEX, New York
Andy Hope 1930, Unit 4: The Phenomenology of Spirit, 2017, Four Glass Fish Tanks, Colored Dye, Apple Macbook Pro 2017, Silicone, Aquarium Pumps, Javascript Executable Program, Dimensions variable
Andy Hope 1930, AAA, 2017, Acrylic on canvas, 70 × 60 cm (27 1/2 × 23 5/8 inches)
Andy Hope 1930, A Space Philosophy I, 2017, lacquer and oil on canvas, 120 × 80 cm (47 1/4 × 31 1/2 inches)
Andy Hope 1930, #Believe, 2017, acrylic and lacquer on canvas, 120 × 100 cm (47 1/4 × 39 3/8 inches)
Andy Hope 1930, USS Enterprise, 2017, Acrylic and lacquer on canvas, 60 × 70 cm (23 5/8 × 27 1/2 inches)
Andy Hope 1930, A Space Philosophy II, 2017, lacquer and oil on canvas, 120 × 80 cm (47 1/4 × 31 1/2 inches)