Galleria Patricia Armocida is proud to present “A Position on a Map”, the second solo exhibition by Jim Houser, opening on Tuesday January 21, 2014 at 7:00 PM.

Fours years after his last exhibition at the gallery, the artist returns with twenty medium and largescale works and two site-specific installations.

Jim Houser’s works are narrative microcosms in which he compulsively presents moments, instants, memories from his life as if it were a self-examination process, cathartically translating them into visual poetry with a pictorial, unique, and distinctive language.

By cataloging his experiences and emotions, the artist creates his own vocabulary of images that guides us through his personal curative iconography.

Jim Houser’s aesthetic combines stylized figures, hand-drawn typography, sound-symbolic words, visual sensations, and geometric shapes, creating quilt-like collages in a cohesive color palette. Houser layers acrylic on wood, fabric and found objects, blurring the lines between collage and sculpture.

This deceptively dimensional quality is further highlighted when the pieces are assembled into one of the artist’s elaborate installations, adding to the complexity of each individual piece by emphasizing a greater inter-connectivity to the body of work as a whole.

Once combined, it becomes clear that all of his works are associative and directly related, connected to each other as if part of a mapping system. And so, much like a position on a map corresponds to an actual physical location, his works mirror events, places, or attachments in his life, thus marking his position in the world.

Jim Houser was born in 1973 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the city where he currently resides. He is a self-taught artist and an member of the Philly-based artist collective Space1026. Houserʼs collages, paintings and installations have been exhibited extensively in institutions such as the Laguna Art Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art as well as galleries in Milan, Paris, Sydney and São Paulo. His work is included in the permanent collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Some more noteworthy exhibitions: Search Party, Jonathan Levine Gallery, New York, U.S.A., 2013; As Quiet As Its Kept, Lebasse Projects, Los Angeles, U.S.A., 2012; The Homebody, Subliminal Projects, Los Angeles, U.S.A., 2010; Make Room For The Emptiness, Jonathan LeVine Gallery, New York, U.S.A., 2009; The Tip of the Sword, Galeria Patricia Armocida, Milan, Italy, 2009; Created by Moonlight, Colette Galerie, Paris, France, 2008; This Beating Heart Acts as a Timer, Painted Bride Art Center, Philadelphia, U.S.A., 2007; This Place is Ours Now, Merry Karnowsky Gallery, Los Angeles, U.S.A., 2006; Babel, Spector Gallery, Philadelphia, U.S.A, 2005; systemsanderrors, Jonathan LeVine Gallery, New York, U.S.A., 2005; Jim Houser, Space 1026, Philadelphia, U.S.A., 1998. Selected group exhibitions: Fairey, Hecox, and Houser, with Shepard Fairey and Evan Hecox, Black Book Gallery, Denver U.S.A., 2011; Americana. Four person show with Adam Wallacavage, Doze Green, and Tara McPherson, Choque Cultural Gallery, São Paulo, Brazil, 2009; In the Land of Retinal Delights: The Juxtapoz Factor, Laguna Art Museum. Laguna Beach, U.S.A. 2009; Weʼll Make a Lover of You, ArtCenter of South Florida. Miami, U.S.A., 2006.

All images Courtesy of Galleria Patricia Armocida, Milano

Galleria Patricia Armocida
Via Lattanzio n°77
Milan 20137 Italy
Ph. +39 02 36519304
info@galleriapatriciaarmocida.com
www.galleriapatriciaarmocida.com

Opening hours
Tuesday - Saturday
11.30am - 1.00pm and 3.30pm - 7.00pm