Artist: Anja Salonen
Exhibition title: New Dimensions in Recreation
Venue: ltd los angeles, Los Angeles, US
Date: November 10 – December 21, 2017
Photography: ©Blake Jacobsen / all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and ltd los angeles
ltd los angeles is pleased to present New Dimensions in Recreation, Los Angeles-based Anja Salonen’s first solo exhibition with the gallery.
The contortionist’s body does not follow natural laws, torqueing limbs in a fashion that we know bones and ligaments should not allow. Beyond a reasonable suspension of disbelief, the body decontextualizes in real time, like a skeleton organizing its own constituent pieces in alphabetical order, becoming an arrangement of things. Salonen de-creates her painted figures through perspectival shifts and displacements more often associated with objects, digital media, and carnivals, texturing bare legs and wet lips as if they were malleable clay, plastic toys, or animated gifs.
In News Dimensions in Recreation, Salonen’s works display a network of precise distortions. Occupying corners and the floor, the X, Y, and Z axis paintings combine to form an anamorphic über image. A red thumb probes into space like a rude hologram, a checkered floor sucks down into a vortex. The bodies and furnishings in this new, extra-dimensional language flow like the manipulations within digital software, coded with virtual layers and the evidence of photos and flesh having been clicked and dragged with skew and warp tools. Cut, paste, enhance.
In addition to these paintings and their vivid scenes, New Dimensions in Recreation aptly premieres Anja Salonen and Marty Tzonev’s animation Pocket vacuum, 2017.
In 2017, Salonen was featured in several group exhibitions in New York and Los Angeles. She has been featured in numerous international magazines including The New York Times, i-D, AQNB, Art Viewer, Contemporary Art Daily, New American Paintings, Artspace and Elephant
Anja Salonen, New Dimensions in Recreation, 2017, exhibition view, ltd los angeles
Anja Salonen, New Dimensions in Recreation, 2017, exhibition view, ltd los angeles
Anja Salonen, New Dimensions in Recreation, 2017, exhibition view, ltd los angeles
Anja Salonen, New Dimensions in Recreation, 2017, exhibition view, ltd los angeles
Anja Salonen, New Dimensions in Recreation, 2017, exhibition view, ltd los angeles
Anja Salonen, New Dimensions in Recreation, 2017, exhibition view, ltd los angeles
Anja Salonen, New Dimensions in Recreation, 2017, exhibition view, ltd los angeles
Anja Salonen, New Dimensions in Recreation, 2017, exhibition view, ltd los angeles
Anja Salonen, New Dimensions in Recreation, 2017, exhibition view, ltd los angeles
Anja Salonen, New Dimensions in Recreation, 2017, exhibition view, ltd los angeles
Anja Salonen, Plain Talk, 2017, Oil and acrylic on canvas, 60 x 36 in (152.4 x 91.4 cm)
Anja Salonen, Where did you get that hat!, 2017, 11 x 9 in (27.9 x 22.8 cm)
Anja Salonen, Where did you get that hat!, 2017, 11 x 9 in (27.9 x 22.8 cm)
Anja Salonen, Where did you get that hat!, 2017, 11 x 9 in (27.9 x 22.8 cm)
Anja Salonen, Where did you get that hat!, 2017, 11 x 9 in (27.9 x 22.8 cm)
Anja Salonen, The long-lasting intimacy of strangers (scarred), 2017, Oil on canvas, 72 x 96 in (182.8 x 243.8 cm)
Anja Salonen, Screen 1 (It must be moon glow), 2017, Oil on panel and hinges, 72 x 144 in (182.8 x 365.7 cm)
Anja Salonen, Screen 1 (Reared rats on a visual cliff), 2017, Oil on panel and hinges, 72 x 144 in (182.8 x 365.7 cm)
Anja Salonen, Screen 2 (This place can save your life), 2017, Oil on panel and hinges, 72 x 144 in (182.8 x 365.7 cm)
Anja Salonen, Screen 2 (Bathtub built for two), 2017, Oil on panel and hinges, 72 x 144 in (182.8 x 365.7 cm)
Anja Salonen, Space must take its toll, 2017, Oil on wood panel, 72 x 36 x 36 in (182.8 x 91.4 x 91.4 cm)
Anja Salonen, Rehearsal for the Weightless State, 2017, Oil on wood panel, 72 x 36 x 36 in (182.8 x 91.4 x 91.4 cm)
Anja Salonen, Boosting your output of good ideas, 2017, Oil on canvas, 72 x 96 in (182.8 x 243.8 cm)
Anja Salonen, Boosting your output of good ideas, 2017, Oil on canvas, 72 x 96 in (182.8 x 243.8 cm)
Anja Salonen, New Dimensions in Recreation, 2017, exhibition view, ltd los angeles
Anja Salonen, New Dimensions in Recreation, 2017, exhibition view, ltd los angeles
Anja Salonen, Pocket vacuum, 2017, (a collaboration with Marty Tzonev), Length: 4 min, 27 sec.
Anja Salonen, It must be moon glow soft, 2017, Printed fleece and foam, 60 x 36 in (152.4 x 91.4 cm)
Anja Salonen, Soft space must take its toll, 2017, Printed fleece and foam, 60 x 36 in (152.4 x 91.4 cm)
