David Choe “Nothing To Declare” Exhibition at Lazarides – Exhibition Recap | A.Okay Official: Where Sneaker, Toys, Fashion and Art Meet

David Choe "Nothing To Declare" Exhibition at Lazarides - Exhibition Recap

The much anticipated new David Choe exhibition, “Nothing to Declare”, opened its doors on April 23rd at Lazarides Gallery in Los Angeles.

“Driven by an unquenchable thirst for life, Choe saps every possible drop of experience – good or bad – out of his remarkable adventures. From incarceration in a Tokyo jail to hitchhiking down the Mississippi River via paddleboat, freight train hopping city to city and hunting for dinosaurs in the Congo jungle, David weaves these encounters into his work projecting a dramatic and fantastical, often sexually explicit, vision of the world he so lustfully inhabits.

Choe sculpts and paints in oils, acrylics, crayon and mixed media. His credibility as an ‘artist’, albeit one inclined to utilise public spaces every so often, is hardly in doubt. Influences flow through comic book culture to gothic art, impressionism and the surreal. The content of Choe’s work is equally complex and in contrast to the slick, succinct, populist messages of some of his contemporaries. The fictional military heroes of GI Joe wield boomboxes above Arabic slogans; hip young metropolitan ladies whisper their cruel conspiracies; seedy delights beckon from behind pretty vistas; grown men scream for ice cream; absurdist animals rope humans into their incomprehensible schemes. On the street, base titillating yet supposedly ‘tasteful’ advertising becomes doctored with intestines and tribal fetishes, echoing the sensual abyss of de Sade. Pictures titles include I Fuck Nerds. Equally, Choe’s figurative and collage work displays sensitivity and intricacy rarely matched by Manhattan’s girly fashion illustrator set. We should be grateful, not offended, by the insights into Choe’s potent imagination and agenda; and the alluring, intricate slag smelted from its process of reconciliation.”

In this new exhibition the artist shows a very impressive line-up of new works. Included are sculptures, paintings and much more. The large space of the gallery is entirely dedicated to his new body of work.

Lazarides in Los Angeles
320 North Beverly Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90210

The exhibition is open until May 23rd. Luckily Brandon Shigeta passed by the exhibition and documents it in detail.