Divisadero Community Gallery Presents:
Gold Love Standard
Featuring: Edward S. de Leon
Exhibition Dates: July 16th – August 31st 2009
Opening Reception: Thursday July 16th 2009, 6 – 9pm
June 23, 2009 – Divisadero Community Gallery presents Edward S. de Leon’s first solo exhibition entitled “Gold Love Standard”, a reinterpretation of illuminated manuscripts in the context of love and money. The exhibition will run from July 16th through August 31st, 2009. The gallery invites the public to attend the opening reception on Thursday July 16th from 6pm – 10pm.
With this series de Leon has created modern-day, deconstructed illuminated manuscripts that blend old and new calligraphic elements. The Zen-like surface of each piece is complicated by the almost ritual process of obsession and destruction that went into their production.
The artist compulsively rewrites unrequited love poems over and over until words and letters overlap and dissolve into the background losing their meaning altogether. The first letter of each poem is outlined in calligraphic script and then filled in with crushed glass – the product of a cathartic hammer. The juxtaposition of shattered glass with careful letterforms represents the possibility of sublimating pain and anger through containment and control.
In addition, de Leon includes small patches of 22 karat gold leaf for its brilliance and durability. Real gold leaf never tarnishes. Gold also goes up in value in the event of a disaster and used to back paper money. Today, many of us have begun to question the real worth of money. This exhibition attempts to examine the ways in which our present "bling" culture -boom, bust, and bailout- informs our intrinsic human values such as love, honor, and duty.
The Divisadero Community Gallery is located at 537 Divisadero between Fell and Hayes. For more information, visit www.divisaderocommunitygallery.blogspot.com or email Jayna Swartzman at J_Swartzman@yahoo.com
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