Studio Orta

The Ben Maltz Gallery in Los Angeles presents Food Water Life Lucy + Jorge Orta's first major exhibition on the West Coast (August 16–December 6, 2014). The artists will be in the Los Angeles gallery to sign their book, which accompanies the exhibition, on Saturday October 25, 3-6pm.

The exhibition presents three bodies of work that span close to two decades of their collaborative work. Through sculptures, drawings, video and installations the artists explore major concerns that define the twenty-first century: biodiversity, environmental sustainability and climate change.

As heirs to the practice of social sculpture, formulated by the German artist and activist Joseph Beuys in the 1960s, the Orta’s works are relics of their own function—captivating assemblages such as the Mexican Kitchen, and the Fluvial Intervention Units are respectively, a platform for the preparation of food and mechanisms to purify water. Other sculptures, including the diptych video projection Antarctica were created for a 2007 expedition to the Antarctic that forms part of an effort to amend the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The featured works are metaphors-in-action, constructions that perform the tasks of which they are emblematic.

This exhibition, curated by curatorsquared and organized by Tufts University Art Gallery, Medford, MA, tours to the Richard E. Peeler Art Center, DePauw University, USA (February 5–May 7, 2015) and the London Museum, Ontario, Canada (August 29–December 6, 2015)

Key dates to meet the artists and the curators.

Tuesday October 21, 11:15am Public lecture Otis College of Art & Design, 9045 Lincoln Boulevard, LA 90045
Thursday October 23, 10am Public lecture Otis Graduate Studios, 10455 Jefferson Blvd, Culver City 90230. Map

In conversation with curators Ginger Gregg Duggan and Judith Hoos Fox, followed by a book signing and reception
Saturday October 25, 3-6pm Ben Malz Gallery, 10455 Jefferson Blvd, Culver City 90230. Map