Divine Gluttony

divine GLUTT NY j o n

g o m e z

—

k ay l a n

g e o r g e

GLUTTONY An unpardonable sin entailing a total loss of grace. A required language credit when I attended Cornell University was reading Dante’s Inferno in its original tongue of Italian. The paradox of the legato of the Italian language and the profound horrors of the world that Virgil leads the pilgrim through is the seemingly insurmountable challenge that Kaylan George and Jon Gomez have undertaken; maintaining grace under fire of gluttonous subject matter. They are in esteemed company with the likes of John Altoon, Mike Kelley and Paul McCarthy, all who have been purged out the rectal cavity at the other end, grace intact, thus ingesting the underlying sin itself.

K AY L A N G EO RG E A banquet table: 25’ long, filled with a smorgasbord of childhood neglect, rejection, bestial mutilation, garnished with obsessive self-reflection and heaping portions of angst. Surprisingly absent from the feast; the belch of self-indulgence. / This 25’ journey coaxed along by tentacles, donned with prophylactic gloves, ink black, inflated with neglect. / Sterile white spaces—playgrounds for the chef or the diner? / Constipated bowels compacted with heroic detail. / Vermin being masticated in to hamburger meat spat out by the mark making that gave them life. / The grotesque and the pristine encased in perfect symmetry, Minimalism unravels her intestines. / Disharmonious systems, life, art, tango to an earth scorching rhythm.

JON GOMEZ SHYLOCK: “The pound of flesh which I demand of him is dearly bought, ‘tis mine, and I will have it.” (William Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice) / Gomez has given quite a bit more than a pound of his flesh, molded with charcoal, oozing from plus size frames, borders between bodies all but obscured. / Draftsman as sculptor. Coal dust as clay. / The corpulence is massaged on to surface, unctuous, even with the dryness of the medium. / Fetishistic in the pleasures that are derived from extracting impossible detail. The artist, emaciated from the transfer of life from the real to the visual, a leather carcass, road kill on a desert road. / Traditional beauty and symmetry are repugnant, stale and lifeless. / Undulating flesh is where it’s at. Taught perfection, blasphemy. / The artist very much biting off more than he can chew and there is no waste in this depraved landscape.

03

04

06

08

10

k ayl an george

14

21

23

25

jon gomez

29

30

32

36

38

43

45

46

48

50

INDEX

K AY L A N G EO RG E

JON GOMEZ

14. Crematorium, 2011-12

28. Untitled, 2011

40. Hands 2, 2012

34. Post-Mortem 3, 2010

Ink on Paper

Ballpoint on canvas

Graphite on paper

Graphite on paper

inches

62 x 60 inches

14x 17 inches

mounted on refurbished mat 36 x 28 inches

29. Self Portrait, 2011

40. Hands 1, 2012

Ballpoint on canvas

Graphite on paper

48. Post-Mortem, 2010

66 x 46 inches

14 x 17 inches

Graphite on paper, mounted on refurbished mat

34. Vessel 3, 2011

44. Feet 1, 2012

Charcoal on wood door

Graphite on paper

80 x 36 inches

14 x 17 inches

36x 28 inches 49. Post-Mortem 2, 2010 Graphite on paper

34. Vessel 1, 2011

44. Feet 2, 2012

mounted on refurbished mat

Charcoal on wood door

Graphite on paper

36 x 28 inches

80 x 36 inches

14x 17 inches

35. Vessel 2, 2011 Charcoal on wood door 80 x 36 in.

35. Vessel 4, 2011 80 x 36 inches Charcoal on wood door

2685 South La Cienega Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90034 gallery@nyeplusbrown.com 310 559 5215 nyeplusbrown.com —­ In conjunction with Jon Gomez and Kaylan George: Divine Gluttony September 13, 2012 — Designed by Kyle LaMar & Kaylan George — Music by Dmitri Shostakovich Waltz No. 2