Strange Days

Mariano Ching, Robert Langenegger, Danny Licul

September 18 – October 17, 2015

Mariano Ching Danny Licul and Robert Langenegger installation view
Mariano Ching Danny Licul and Robert Langenegger installation view
Danny Licul line of paintings
Mariano Ching Pale Moments After the Explosion Series: Man, 2013 Acrylic and oil on shaped canvas 18 x 18 in. / 45.7 x 45.7 cm.

Mariano Ching
Pale Moments After the Explosion Series: Man, 2013
Acrylic and oil on shaped canvas
18 x 18 in. / 45.7 x 45.7 cm.

Danny Licul line of paintings
Mariano Ching Danny Licul and Robert Langenegger installation view
Mariano Ching drawing
Danny Licul Sock Puppet Presentation (#24), 2013 Acrylic on canvas 12 x 9 in. / 30.5 x 22.9 cm

Danny Licul
Sock Puppet Presentation (#24), 2013
Acrylic on canvas
12 x 9 in. / 30.5 x 22.9 cm.

Danny Licul Sock Puppet Presentation (#44), 2015 Acrylic and oil on canvas 12 x 9 in. / 30.5 x 22.9 cm.

Danny Licul
Sock Puppet Presentation (#44), 2015
Acrylic and oil on canvas
12 x 9 in. / 30.5 x 22.9 cm.

Danny Licul Sock Puppet Presentation (#14), 2012 Acrylic and oil on canvas 12 x 9 in. / 30.5 x 22.9 cm.

Danny Licul
Sock Puppet Presentation (#14), 2012
Acrylic and oil on canvas
12 x 9 in. / 30.5 x 22.9 cm.

Danny Licul Sock Puppet Presentation (#37), 2014 Acrylic and oil on canvas 12 x 9 in. / 30.5 x 22.9 cm.

Danny Licul
Sock Puppet Presentation (#37), 2014
Acrylic and oil on canvas
12 x 9 in. / 30.5 x 22.9 cm.

Danny Licul Sock Puppet Presentation (#12), 2012 Acrylic and oil on canvas 12 x 9 in. / 30.5 x 22.9 cm.

Danny Licul
Sock Puppet Presentation (#12), 2012
Acrylic and oil on canvas
12 x 9 in. / 30.5 x 22.9 cm.

Danny Licul Sock Puppet Presentation (#27), 2013 Acrylic and oil on canvas 12 x 9 in. / 30.5 x 22.9 cm.

Danny Licul
Sock Puppet Presentation (#27), 2013
Acrylic and oil on canvas
12 x 9 in. / 30.5 x 22.9 cm.

Danny Licul Sock Puppet Presentation (#21), 2013 Acrylic and oil on canvas 12 x 9 in. / 30.5 x 22.9 cm.

Danny Licul
Sock Puppet Presentation (#21), 2013
Acrylic and oil on canvas
12 x 9 in. / 30.5 x 22.9 cm.

Danny Licul Sock Puppet Presentation (#31), 2013 Acrylic and oil on canvas 12 x 9 in. / 30.5 x 22.9 cm.

Danny Licul
Sock Puppet Presentation (#31), 2013
Acrylic and oil on canvas
12 x 9 in. / 30.5 x 22.9 cm.

Mariano Ching Ghosts of the Highway Series 3, 2013 Acrylic and oil on paper 18 x 24 in. / 45.7 x 61 cm.

Mariano Ching
Ghosts of the Highway Series 3, 2013
Acrylic and oil on paper
18 x 24 in. / 45.7 x 61 cm.

Robert Langenegger As long as our artwork remains committed to the poorest of the poor and does not end up serving the rich the work will prosper, 2012 Diptych, acrylic on paper 11 7/8 x 18 in. / 30 x 46 cm. overall

Robert Langenegger
As long as our artwork remains committed to the poorest of the poor
and does not end up serving the rich the work will prosper, 2012
Diptych, acrylic on paper
11 7/8 x 18 in. / 30 x 46 cm. overall
 

Danny Licul Sock Puppet Presentation (#3), 2012 Acrylic and oil on canvas 12 x 9 in. / 30.5 x 22.9 cm.

Danny Licul
Sock Puppet Presentation (#3), 2012
Acrylic and oil on canvas
12 x 9 in. / 30.5 x 22.9 cm.

Robert Langenegger It was all arts work and none of it was mine, 2012 Acrylic on paper 30 x 21 7/8 in. / 76.2 x 55.4 cm.

Robert Langenegger
It was all arts work and none of it was mine, 2012
Acrylic on paper
30 x 21 7/8 in. / 76.2 x 55.4 cm.

Press Release

Strange Days

Danny Licul, Mariano Ching and Robert Langenegger

 

September 18 - October 17, 2015

Opening Reception: Friday September 18th, 7-10 PM

 

The title for this exhibition references the eponymous song by the Doors, in which all that is normal or mundane can quickly be turned upside-down, nonsensical and perverse. The three artists in this exhibition all work in forms of twisted narratives. All three share a colorful, illustrative, and comical style. However, each provides a unique, sometimes oblique, perspective on the world around us, where fiction combats reality, and humor struggles with depravity.

 

Danny Licul (Brooklyn, USA) dives into the messy world of childhood, specifically the laboratory of the middle-grade school classroom . The artist has created a hybrid realistic / fantasy model of his own school, in which he poses loosely molded clay figures to create the school room scenes he references in paint. Here we see part of Licul’s ongoing “Sock Puppet Presentation” series, where children present their puppet creations to the rest of the class. Through chaotic brushwork and vibrant color, Licul shows the struggle of individuality developing in controlled environments, and the conflict of personality that emerges through competition and expression.

 

Mariano Ching (Manila, Philippines) depicts worlds that are infused with surrealist, psychedelic themes. His images are a mixture of dystopian dreams, carnivalesque and grotesque figures, phrenology, metaphysics, religious iconography, DIY design and entropy. Ching is endlessly expanding his visual universe, producing bodies of work in drawing, painting, wall installations, and sculptures that incorporate burnt wood, wax and found objects. In his Pale Moments After the Explosion series, Ching’s characters are transcendent, oblivious in the midst of a narco-nicotine fueled vision quest. His Ghosts of the Highway series is a totemic representation of a cinematic road-trip combines dreamscapes and the detritus of travel, creation and experience.

 

Robert Langenegger (Manila, Philippines) creates vulgar, cartoonish narratives in the attempt to turn the aesthetics of “high art” completely upside down. Working in a rough, intentionally awkward style, he combines extremely distasteful humor, carnal excess, body fluids and unclean protagonists to show us the corruption, selfishness, vanity and sexual depravity that underlie and pervert our modern life. Themes range from sex tourism in Asia to global class warfare, the hypocrisy of organized religion, racism, and consumerism. In works with humorous, rambling titles, Langenegger depicts a drugged-addled character who’s domestic threat is ambiguous. Elsewhere, the artist pokes fun at the strange bedfellows that work together to keep the global capitalism machine moving.

 

The exhibition opening coincides with Greenpoint Gallery Night, which includes many neighborhood art venues and concludes with an after party at Broken Land.

 

For additional information please contact Owen Houhoulis (owen@owenjamesgallery.com)