Joseph Hawa: Inside the White Cube May 16, 2009

The Box contemporary art gallery is proud to present the works of artist Joseph Hawa. This collection of original mixed media work will open at the Costa Mesa gallery on Saturday May 16, 2009, from 7:00 PM until 10:00 PM. The exhibition will run through Friday, July 3, 2009.

“It is a rare and special honor”, says curator Johnny Sampson, “to be exhibiting an artist of such caliber and scope as Joseph Hawa”. His white on white series demands an interaction between the viewer and the work; each piece is pure, raw and unbelievably sophisticated and must be interpreted through the viewer’s own frame of reference. Hawa’s negation of color allows the viewer to insert his or her own perception into the work, making each piece a personal experience into the sublime.

Painstakingly precise and intricate, Santa Ana based Hawa’s sophisticated sculptural paintings explore texture and the dramatic dance between shadow and light to form his geometric, abstract, and representational masterpieces. Urbane, yet undeniably human, his work elicits emotions as pure as his color palate. It is this unique ability to inspire that sets him apart, both as an artist and as a person.

This exhibition of original paintings plays on the nature of Hawa’s work and Brian O’Doherty’s seminal text regarding the gallery space, Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space. O’Doherty’s collection of essays, first published in Artforum, explore the history and significance of the gallery space, here applied to the contemporary art setting. In this context, The Box gallery hints at the sacredness of the art piece while simultaneously refusing to become the shrine. “There is a world without, and another within”, corrects Johnny Sampson, “Yet they are still the same—the viewers brings with them their lives, the artist, his. It is my passion to reveal them to each other”.

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