Jo Hormuth by Kusseneers gallery

JO HORMUTH

KUSSENEERS GALLERY – De Burburestraat 11, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium – www.kusseneers.com

© Jo Hormuth & Kusseneers Gallery © All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying) without permission in writing from the publisher.

Born in 1955, USA. Jo Hormuth lives and works in Chicago, Illinois.

Jo Hormuth's work swings between the coolly elegant and the flat out funny, enlisting a diversity of means and media while employing simple conceptual strategies to decidedly poetic ends. Individual works range from video and photography to sculpture and installation. Much of her work involves the transformation and/or re-contextualization of a familiar thing (i.e.: a skirt, a baseball, a pansy). This "shift" has the potential to unlock meaning latent within the object. She transforms “the familiar” to create situations that become springboards for the viewer to consider many relationships, contradictions and possibilities. Concepts of repetition, similarity and difference are directly engaged as well as scale changes, unlikely materials, use and context. Humor is embraced, and she believes, as Man Ray did, that it is the best communicator. Formalism is undermined by subjective content and apparent contradictions abound in the work in terms of materials or presentation. Jo aims to work the gap where everyday life and culture overlap. John Phillips

Studio view

exhibition view at the Cultural Center in Chicago, November 2011 Better Grammar, 2011 Archival Lambda photographs 1/4" Museum Grade UV non-glare acrylic 1/8" Dibond aluminum Âą 301 x 164 cm / 9' 10.5" x 5' 4.5"

Better Grammar (pink twenty-three), 2011 Archival Lambda photographs 1/4" Face-mounted to Museum Grade UV non-glare acrylic and 1/8" Dibond aluminum 171,5 x 104,5 x 1,6 cm / 67 1/2" x 41 1/8" x 5/8"

Better Grammar (green nineteen) 2011 Archival Lambda photographs 1/4" Face-mounted to Museum Grade UV non-glare acrylic and 1/8" Dibond aluminum Âą 170 x 101 x 1,6 cm / 66 3/4" x 39 3/4" x 5/8"

Cabrini-Green 3/26/06, 2006, photograph printed with pigment ink on archival paper

Tower, cast epoxy and flashe acrylic, dimensions variable, 10 units - each unit ± 25,4 x 33 x 16,5 cm / 10” x 13” x 7”

WInk & TOWeR The size of these pieces is based on a 15” monitor and has connotations with bubble gum Chiclets. The cast pieces are stacked in a standard bond brick pattern and appear to float against the wall.

Wink, 2003-2010 cast epoxy and flashe acrylic ± 150 x 230 cm composed of 20 units, each unit ± 25,4 x 33 x 16,5 cm / 10” x 13” x 7”

installation view of 6 unique Massage Therapist Frames & Wink at the-solo-project 2010 in Basel, Switzerland

MASSAge THeRAPIST FRAMeS Hormuth instructed massage professionals to execute various strokes into wet clay, which she subsequently cast and painted in shiny monochrome enamel. each piece hangs on the wall as an empty frame and registers one type of stroke repeated around the perimeter like an ornamental pattern. The works are variously pock-marked, squeezed, smeared, fingered or pinched into their form according to each specialized massage gesture. They ask us to pay attention rather than instructing us to relax. Hormuth disengages the connection a painting habitually affirms between touch and expression. The hole at the center of Hormuth’s frames, the blank wall, stands for all artworks in their role as a place to project our imaginings. David Humphrey excerpt from the book “Blind Handshake” 2009

Myofascial-Elbow (dark chocolate and bubble gum colored) unique Massage Therapist Frames, 1999-2009, cast epoxy resin and flashe acrylic each frame: ± 43 x 33 cm / 17” x 13”

installation view of 3 unique Frames at the exhibition Anymore, January 2011 at Kusseneers Gallery, Antwerp frame far right: Pincer Compression (gold leafed), unique Massage Therapist Frame, 1999-2009, cast epoxy resin and flashe acrylic ± 55 x 46 cm / 21.5” x 18”

left page: Thumb Over Thumb-Effleurage (lipstick red colored), unique Massage Therapist Frame, 1999-2009, cast epoxy resin and flashe acrylic ± 43 x 33 cm / 17” x 13”

Trigger Point (milk chocolate colored) unique Massage Therapist Frame, 1999-2009, cast epoxy resin and flashe acrylic ± 30,5 x 56 cm / 12” x 22”

left page: First Twist (caramel colored) unique Massage Therapist Frame, 1999-2009, cast epoxy resin and flashe acrylic ± 62 x 42 cm / 25.5” x 16.5”