Exhibitions

A RAY

Apothecary (UTC) / 744 McCallie Ave. November 3, 2016 - October 7, 2016

John Bohl, Lou Joseph

A Ray is an installation of collaborative paintings by Baltimore artists John Bohl and Lou Joseph, displayed in a series of modular gallery hanging systems designed by the artists. Begun in 2012 when Lou mailed John a set of 10 small paintings to work on while John was in Vermont, they have continued to work on them since in Baltimore, ending up with the over 400 small paintings and 60 larger paintings. These painting are shared and layered, with the artist given control over the individual works and handed back and forth until the artists are satisfied or exhausted and they are then declared done. These paintings include layers of oils, acrylics, gouache, watercolor, graphite, oil markers, spray paint, airbrush and ink, and include elements from the artists’ individual practices, like surrealism, abstract gestural mark-making, weird in-jokes and garish, clashing color.

For this exhibition, the entire set of paintings are displayed in a modular system of racks, boxes, tables, shelves and magnetized holders. We are using this gallery as a tool to help figure out these works in progress, and invite viewers to participate in this process by *carefully* changing out artwork and the racks and boxes to curate relationships between the work and create narrative, formal and/or conceptual themes.

John Bohl was born in 1983. He graduated with a BFA in painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art and currently lives and works in Baltimore. Recent exhibitions include ”Cost-Benefit Analysis” (Transmitter, NY), "Change the Name We Don't Do Shows Anymore" (Franklin Street, Baltimore), and “Movie Posters for the Song Cave” (Jackie Klempay Gallery, NY). He has also produced a variety of prints and publications with Beach Press (London), Oso Press (Los Angeles) and W/_Projects(NY).

Lou Joseph (b. 1975) graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1998, and received his MFA from Indiana University in 2004. He has lived in Tucson, Arizona; Columbus, Ohio; Bloomington, Indiana; Venice, Italy; Philadelphia; and Durham, North Carolina, arriving in Baltimore in 2008. Lou currently works as the Visual Arts Specialist at the Baltimore Office for Promotion & The Arts, and is the director of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Baltimore.