Remember those kids who would cover the pages of their notebooks with elaborate doodles when in class? Now imagine if one of those kids continued working on those doodles for years, perfecting the varying densities of graphite until they made up abstract, rambling landscapes. That's what the work of JuSTIN MARGITICH looks like, now on display at MOSKOWITZ Gallery in LA. Virtuose was the first word gallerist Adam Moskowitz could think of to describe Margitich last Saturday at the opening. “Justin would have been working on this stuff even if this exhibition wasn’t happening," he said. "That’s just how he is. He has to do these drawings, whether people will see them or not."
A project started in 2008, the six pieces are part of an ongoing body of work. Always beginning in the top-left hand corner of a sheet of paper or panel and working his way down and across, the artist spends about a month and a half working on each surface. The pieces are large, around 60 by 88 inches, and the experience of seeing them in person is completely different from looking at them online. The constant skewing of perspective is hypnotizing, drawing your eyes through a sublime and dystopian landscape.
"I'm interested in landscapes that are based in reality but are made fantastical and mythological; and how they mirror cultural ideas or ideals," Margitich told me. "Many of the compositions are closely inspired and lifted from the work of historical landscape paintings, mostly those of the Hudson River School. The newer work is less obviously landscape. The forms are harder edged and repetitious; they use icons and symbols, and the idea of cropping to reflect a sort of electronic, machine-like landscape.”
Although abstract, the drawings deal with urban sprawl and the thought of humanity as a destructive force. But there is also beauty. Looking at Cached Landscape, a drawing composed of a million fragile pencil and silverpoint marks, I find myself pondering whether it was really worth taking all those notes in class or if we should all have been doodling.
Atmospheres is on view at Moskowitz Gallery through May 28
Moskowitz Gallery
743 N. La Brea
Los Angeles, CA 90038
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Justin Margitich and Adam Moskowitz
A project started in 2008, the six pieces are part of an ongoing body of work. Always beginning in the top-left hand corner of a sheet of paper or panel and working his way down and across, the artist spends about a month and a half working on each surface. The pieces are large, around 60 by 88 inches, and the experience of seeing them in person is completely different from looking at them online. The constant skewing of perspective is hypnotizing, drawing your eyes through a sublime and dystopian landscape.
"I'm interested in landscapes that are based in reality but are made fantastical and mythological; and how they mirror cultural ideas or ideals," Margitich told me. "Many of the compositions are closely inspired and lifted from the work of historical landscape paintings, mostly those of the Hudson River School. The newer work is less obviously landscape. The forms are harder edged and repetitious; they use icons and symbols, and the idea of cropping to reflect a sort of electronic, machine-like landscape.”
Although abstract, the drawings deal with urban sprawl and the thought of humanity as a destructive force. But there is also beauty. Looking at Cached Landscape, a drawing composed of a million fragile pencil and silverpoint marks, I find myself pondering whether it was really worth taking all those notes in class or if we should all have been doodling.
Atmospheres is on view at Moskowitz Gallery through May 28
Moskowitz Gallery
743 N. La Brea
Los Angeles, CA 90038
Map
Justin Margitich and Adam Moskowitz