L&M Arts showcases Jenny Holzer: The Future Please, the artist’s first major exhibition in Los Angeles in many years. To mark the occasion the exhibition will be presented in two parts. The West Gallery will take the viewer through a selection of the artist’s work from the 1970s to the present, including granite benches and her iconic LED signs. The East gallery will showcase Holzer’s latest body of work, the Redaction Paintings, based on declassified and other sensitive US documents and inspired by Russian Constructivism.

For decades, Holzer has captivated audiences with her work, using text as her primary medium. The words themselves, often presented as declarations, are charged or everyday in nature, and sometimes they are both. Their full power, however, rests in the artist’s means of communication. Holzer employs painted signs, bronze plaques, stone benches, posters, hats, condoms, and LED signs to convey her ideas, offering her content in uniquely humble and democratic ways, the accessible materials in stark contrast to her complex thoughts.

In this exhibit, Holzer’s 1980s plaques will be shown along with her granite benches, displayed in both the interior and exterior spaces of the gallery. Early LED signs, which brought the dazzle of new technology to the work, will also be on view. Their glittering messages and the urgency of their fleeting presentation are quite unlike the enduring, obdurate nature of the inscriptions in stone. The LED medium still resonates for the artist, who will include a new installation that makes use of the latest technology and a sculptural configuration to present declassified documents from the wars in the Middle East.

The possibility for visual art to be composed of language is seen most clearly in the artist’s recent light projections. Holzer’s work has always been with words, their presentation, and how they interact with the environment of exhibition. In the projections, language and site become one and the same.

Jenny Holzer, 13 September until 27 October, L&M Arts, Los Angeles, 660 South Venice Boulevard, Venice, CA, 90291. www.lmgallery.com

Credits:

1. Truisms, 1983, © 1983 Jenny Holzer, member Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
2. Under a Rock: You create an incident…, 1986, © 1986 Jenny Holzer, member Artists Rights Society (ARS). NY Photo: Eeva Inkeri.