Johansson Projects presents Hymns to the Moon, where sublime omens haunt everyday spaces, both of the landscape and of the imagination. Robert Minervini and Tadashi Moriyama depict visions of a timeless future.

Moriyama's works swarm with details in their depiction of the last judgment for the digital age. Weeds, wires, blood and guts coil around classical sculpture, original sin and corporate headquarters. At the crux of his painted paranoia, viewers are struck with, surprisingly, an overwhelming sense of euphoria. Even amidst all the anxiety and desire, in the heat of the moment there is a great togetherness. His animations follow un-phased individuals reacquainting themselves with the new landscape we have cultivated. The combination of lunar energy and digital power leads them to a strange state of enlightenment.

Minervini sheds light on the aftermath of some unnatural disaster, presenting it in all of its jaded beauty. His apathetic dystopias are drenched in the washed-out neon hues of Sunset strip. He paints lo-fi Vanitas that reek of expired mortality while retaining a California cool. There is a hallucinatory quality to the works; they bridge the ancient past with a dystopian future while seeming to hover above the present as if in a ghostly dream.

Show runs March 22- May 5, 2012
Opening Reception: April 6, 5-8pm

Johansson Projects is a contemporary art gallery that functions as a curatorial laboratory, creating exhibitions that pair established and internationally-recognized artists with up-and-coming locals. Its moss ceiling by Misako Inaoka and unique architecture allows for innovative exhibitions in a fully immersive viewing environment. With no show confined purely to gallery walls it prompts viewers to actively engage with artists who explore the mysteries embedded in modernity often using unorthodox materials and methods. Johansson Projects is a locus for curators, collectors, and artists to connect and engage in dialogue with the larger art community both regionally and nationally.

Johansson Projects
2300 Telegraph Ave.
Oakland, CA 94612
510.444.9140
Matthew Draving
matthew@johanssonprojects.com

This release was published on openPR.