January 8 through February 13

Ron Laboray -- New Work

There is a certain type of personality that compulsively archives things. It's a behavior that occasionally shows up in creative fields: musicians who become ethno-musicologists, novelists who parse linguistic forms, and visual artists who arrange images as cultural information. The need to catalog is not reserved for archivists, obviously, but is shared by viewers who find organizational systems to be useful tools in uncovering meaning and context.

Ron is an archivist whose paintings inhabit the intersection of geography and popular culture. He uses maps to place his subjects and to spark recognition. South Park, Arlen and Malibu are names of real places. These titles drop entire narratives and cultural histories into the arms of viewers looking to decode the abstract swirls and puddles that make up Laboray's visual language.


South Park #1, 2009, enamel and automotive urethane on aluminum, 48" x 60"