Joe Zorrilla
May 2 - July 3, 2015
1010 N Highland Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90038
I warn you
that first of all in everything I write
I am hanging from the wing of a fly
that second of all in everything I write I am hanging from the wing of a fly
or rather I am clinging tooth and nail
that third of all in everything I write
I am hanging from the wing of a fly
etc etc
- Nicanor Parra
Joe Zorrilla works within a wide range of mediums, but what is at the core of his practice is investigatory in nature and his concerns are fundamentally experimental. For his first exhibition at Hannah Hoffman Gallery, Zorrilla presents a constellation of objects, drawings and photo-graphs all of which result from working within a limited field of materials and actions, mostly found and readily available, which the artist collects around his home and while traveling. The works reflect the intimacy of thought and an attempt to work through materials, not solely with them, in search of an event. This notion of the event emerges from “not that which makes the work real, but the ‘impersonified’ reality in it: that which makes it be, far more or still less than reality.” (Maurice Blanchot). The final works exist somewhere between image, document, and thing; attempting to create the experience of the instant and the debauchery of thought.
All of the works near a kind of performativity that also reflects Zorrilla’s approach to the exhibition as a place to thread seemingly disparate activities in space. While diverse in process and material, there is always a continuity as the works in the show point to a unifying utterance that is unfinished but nevertheless full.
Joe Zorrilla (b. 1982) received his MFA from California Institute of the Arts (2012). He has shown at M&B Gallery, Joe Sheftel, and Hannah Hoffman, Los Angeles, and Mount Tremper Arts and West Street Arts in New York. Zorrilla lives and works in Los Angeles.
Joe Zorrilla, Untitled, 2015. Charred wood, bronze. 10 1/2 x 9 x 9 1/2 inches (26.7 x 22.9 x 24.1 cm)
Joe Zorrilla, Torn Intimacy, 2015. Honey, used motor oil, rope, i-hooks, plastic bags. Dimensions variable.
Joe Zorrilla, Structure More Like Breathing # 2, 2014. Found wood, bondo, black eyed peas. 42 x 34 x 41 inches (106.7 x 86.4 x 104.1 cm)
Joe Zorrilla, Cartographies (Pata-boy), 2014. C-print. 20 1/2 x 24 1/2 x 1 3/4 inches (52 x 62.2 x 4.4 cm)
Joe Zorrilla, Horizon Denial, 2014. Blown glass, stone. 10 x 10 x 10 inches (25.4 x 25.4 x 25.4 cm)
Joe Zorrilla, Nine, 2014. Office stationary stickers, produce stickers, and graphite on paper, 9 unframed drawings, each: 16 x 9 inches (40.6 x 22.9 cm)
Joe Zorrilla, Theater, 2014. Rope, shell, wax paper, Sumi ink, and soap on book. 7 3/4 x 10 x 7 1/2 inches (19.7 x 25.4 x 19.1 cm)
Joe Zorrilla, Untitled (hyperbolic plane), 2015. Crocheted yarn, resin. 8 x 8 x 6 1/2 inches (20.3 x 20.3 x 16.5 cm)
Joe Zorrilla, Untitled (Articulate), 2013. Rock, felt. 3 1/2 x 3 1/4 x 4 1/2 inches (8.9 x 8.3 x 11.4 cm)
Joe Zorrilla, Hinges, 2015. Bronze. Dimensions variable
Joe Zorrilla, Impersonified, the Volume, 2015. Wine glass, water, dust, hair, wood, acrylic. 5 3/8 x 5 3/8 x 9 inches (13.7 x 13.7 x 22.9 cm)
Joe Zorrilla, Fissure Drawing No. 1 and Fissure Drawing No. 2, 2014-2015. Wax paper and sumi ink 19 x 15 x 1 inches (48.3 x 38.1 x 2.5 cm) (each)
Joe Zorrilla, Torn Intimacy, 2015. Honey, used motor oil, rope, i-hooks, plastic bags. Dimensions variable
Joe Zorrilla, Self Storage, 2014. Neoprene, fork, resin, L-bracket. 4 x 5 x 11 inches (10.2 x 12.7 x 27.9 cm)
Joe Zorrilla, Cartographies (Charge), 2014. C-print. 20 1/2 x 24 1/2 x 1 3/4 inches (52 x 62.2 x 4.4 cm)
Joe Zorrilla, Untitled, 2014. Found chair, artichoke heart, bone. 17 1/2 x 17 1/2 x 34 inches (44.5 x 44.5 x 86.4 cm)
Joe Zorrilla, Untitled, 2015. Memory foam, glass, bronze, artichoke heart. 27 1/4 x 48 1/2 x 32 1/4 inches (69.2 x 123.2 x 81.9 cm)