CHAZ BEAR
SOMEONE, ANYONE
SOLO EXHIBITION (MAIN ROOM )
OPENING RECEPTION: OCTOBER 24-25, 2020 // BY APPOINTMENT ONLY
EXHIBITION DATES: OCTOBER 24 - NOVEMBER 24, 2020
GALLERY HOURS: TUES - SAT / 12PM - 6PM
NEW IMAGE ART, 7920 SANTA MONICA BLVD LOS ANGELES CA 90046

Chaz Bear (b. 1986) lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area. He grew up in suburban South Carolina and graduated from the University of South Carolina with a BFA in Graphic Design in 2009. Shortly after graduating, Bear began releasing music and touring as Toro y Moi. As his music career progressed, he continued to hone his graphic design skills, designing all of his album covers and merchandise. Along the way, Bear relocated to Berkeley and started an art and design studio in Oakland, which opened the door for his fine art practice to grow. He creates in various disciplines and mediums, including photography, printmaking, drawing and painting, but has focused on painting in recent years. Bear has recently had solo shows in Los Angeles, Tokyo and Portland.

The work in, “Someone, Anyone” is composed of acrylic paintings on stretched canvas supports, laser cut metal wall sculptures, and a series of photographic prints derived from a collaboration with photographer Kelsey McClellan. The common element of this show emerged much the same way that themes of some of Bear’s previous work have-- as a humble sketch in a notebook. This sketch, of two figures holding hands, became not only a repeated form throughout the body of paintings and sculptures, but also the basis for the entire collaborative photographic series. As this image continued to take on a life of its own, it eventually became apparent that, although the figures were holding hands, they were in fact doing so through a layer of fabric. In the end, this image, along with much of the work in this show, became a reflection of the inherent alienation that’s come along with this socially distanced era.