Nino Mier Gallery is thrilled to present I’ve Got Love for You, the gallery’s fourth solo exhibition with Los Angeles based artist Jon Pylypchuk. The second iteration of an exhibition that premiered at ArtCenter last spring, I’ve Got Love for You will be on view in Los Angeles from October 28th – December 16th, 2023.
In I’ve Got Love for You, Pylypchuk will present a series of sculptures and mixed media tapestries developed over the course of the past year that riff on the motif of endearing, playful ghosts. In Pylypchuk’s characteristic mixture of high and low materials, bronze sculptures resemble crumpled paper bags with ghost-like eyes punched out. On the gallery walls, fuzzy rug tapestries made with found objects feature cartoonish ghosts archly playing with miniature versions of themselves. Elsewhere, an installation of delicate, fabric ghosts float mid-air.
The exhibition is inspired by love and loss, manifesting Pylypchuk’s process of mourning his recently deceased friend, Tony Fernandez. But death does not loom threateningly over Pylypchuk’s work. Rather, his ghosts are wide-eyed and friendly, eager to be seen.
When Tony passed, Pylypchuk became obsessed with making bronze ghosts. They serve as monuments to his memory and as a manifestation of the consciousness transferred through life and death. As time passed after his friend’s death, Pylypchuk’s feelings softened — a process reflected in the pliable materials of his work. In making his soft wall sculptures, Pylypchuk pruned the perimeter of the tapestries to dull the harsh edges, much like how his grief has changed over time. From one life force to the next, ghosts are the transitive medium between states of being: the memory of what once was and the anticipation of what is yet to come.
Throughout the exhibition’s duration, Pylypchuk—also a musician—will stage a series of live performances of original songs made in conjunction with the works in the exhibition, lending a sense of animation to the work.
Jon Pylypchuk (b. 1972, Winnipeg, CA; lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, US) is an indelible figure of the Los Angeles art community--as a fixture of the 2000’s Chinatown art scene, a leader in the 2010’s DTLA art scene, and an artist that embodies the independent and maverick spirit of Los Angeles. He has recently exhibited at ArtCenter, Pasadena, CA, US; Nino MIer Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, US; Petzel Gallery, New York, NY, US; and Eric Hussenot, Paris, FR. Jon Pylypchuk’s works are in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Saatchi Collection, London; the Museum of Old and New Art, Berriedale; the Whitney Museum, New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit and the Albright–Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo.