Los Angeles, CA. (April 3, 2017) Jason Vass (1452 E 6th St, Los Angeles, CA 90021) will be presenting recent works by Mark Dutcher from April 22 until June 3. This is Mark Dutcher’s second exhibition at the gallery.

The exhibition will include recent works done after a period of seclusion that allowed the artist to revisit subjects that have de ned his practice for many years. Dutcher’s paintings occupy an original space between abstraction and representation: autobiography plays an important role in his paintings which, more universally, also allude to themes derived from literature, poetry in particular. Memory is a central subject as his paintings have often been interpreted as elegies to friends or personal heroes of particular signi cance to the artist. Treating the surface of his paintings as pages of an ongoing and often rewritten diary, Dutcher often reworks his compositions, returning to earlier series, adding layers of paint, unexpected gures or simply changing the shapes of abstract forms. Often these changes, consciously or not, do not obliterate entirely the subjacent images, transforming his paintings into complex and elegant palimpsests.

The work in the show will include paintings from his Kick the Can series and Utopian Grid paintings which explore the idea that painting is a utopian moment and how painting can be a memory of a spent desire. Some of the symbols and explorations come from Dutcher’s interest in the idea of the pleasure garden or Eden, Tom of Finland’s boots, the exuberance of a childhood game, confetti cubism and the artists of the Russian avant-garde speci cally Malevich and Lyubov Popova.

About Mark Dutcher

Mark Dutcher’s work is engaged in an ongoing dialogue with the tenets of abstract painting and allegories of the contemporary world. He has been exhibiting his work in Southern California since the early 1990s and has had solo exhibitions at the Huntington Beach Art Center, Santa Monica Museum of Art, and Coagula Curatorial. Dutcher’s work has been in numerous group shows, including the California Biennial at the Orange County Museum of Art, Torrance Art Museum, and the LA Weekly Annual and “Fox Building 103,” an installation organized by the Hammer Museum at Fox Studios.

About Jason Vass

Situated in the burgeoning arts district neighborhood of Downtown Los Angeles in a 2,700-square foot space designed to accommodate diverse exhibitions and related programs, the gallery aims to create an exhibition platform that offers a historical perspective through the lens of contemporary artists. The gallery is committed to cultivating emerging talent and supporting established artists from around the world. Exhibiting artists include: Luke Austin, Deborah Brown, Dan Callis, Mark Dutcher, Nancy Evans, Emiliano Gironella Parra, Douglas Tausik Ryder. The gallery manages the estate of Gene Vass. Jason Vass is open Tues – Sat, 11am – 6 pm.