SUSAN SILTON: WE

Luis De Jesus Los Angeles is very pleased to announce SUSAN SILTON: WE, the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. The exhibition will be on view from June 26 through August 14, 2021 with an opening reception to be held on Saturday, June 26th from 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm. Appointments are optional and may be made at luisdejesus.com/contact.

In her latest body of work, Silton questions the nature of reality versus appearances. WE is a set of sixteen photo-etchings depicting scenic landscapes of the Armstrong Redwoods National Forest. The prints are divided into pairs of images that, at first glance, appear almost identical. However, the images have been slightly modified from one another, exposing the stark differences of individual perception.

Further complicating the viewer’s perception is the accompanying text. Under the parallel images are variations of the phrase, “WE SEE IT DIFFERENTLY, YOU AND I.” The phrase is conjugated in all sixteen verb tenses of the English language – past,present and future – exposing how time plays a crucial role within this dichotomy. As Silton expresses, “Difference is guided by both object and subject, by conditions, by temporality. This same tree looks different on different occasions, and for various reasons, not the least of which is that I’m looking at it and you are looking at it, and we are different.”

Silton’s etchings are accompanied by an original short story by the award-winning writer Dana Johnson, which moves, dreamlike, between time and place as it relates interactions between two white women and a black boyfriend. As in Silton’s etchings, “we,” “us,” and “they” take on differing, nuanced tones as the narrative progresses, and together, the layering of these elements invokes complex and previously unobserved associations about where we intersect and where we adamantly differ.

Susan Silton's interdisciplinary projects engage multiple aesthetic strategies to mine the complexities of subjectivity and subject positions, often through poetic combinations of humor, discomfort, subterfuge and unabashed beauty. Silton’s work takes form in performative and participatory-based projects, photography, video, installation, text/audio works, and print-based projects, and presents in diverse contexts such as public sites, social network platforms, and traditional galleries and institutions.

Silton’s work has been exhibited/presented nationally and internationally at Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; SFMOMA, San Francisco; LA><ART, Los Angeles; Hammer Museum; ICA/ Philadelphia; MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles; and Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, among others. Projects include the commissioned site-specific performance Quartet for the End of Time, produced by LAND (Los Angeles Nomadic Division); the site-specific opera, A Sublime Madness in the Soul (2015), which presented through the windows of the artist’s then-studio in downtown Los Angeles; In everything there is the trace at USC Fisher Museum, the book project and Who's in a Name? (2013). In November 2015, Silton’s Whistling Project was included in SITE Santa Fe’s year-long series of exhibitions, SITE 20 Years/20 Shows, which included a commissioned performance by Silton’s women’s whistling group, The Crowing Hens. She has received fellowships and awards from the Getty/California Community Foundation, Art Matters, Center for Cultural Innovation, Cultural Affairs Department of the City of Los Angeles, The MacDowell Colony, Banff Centre for the Arts, Durfee Foundation, The Shifting Foundation, and Fellows of Contemporary Art (FOCA). Most recently, she has been awarded an LA Metro commission for permanent installation in the Wilshire/Fairfax subway station. Silton’s work has been featured in numerous publications. Susan Siltonlives and works in Los Angeles.

For further information, including images and previews, please call 213-395-0762, or email: gallery@luisdejesus.com.

SUSAN SILTON

WE

June 26 - August 14, 2021

Press Release