Lukas Geronimas

Parker Gallery is pleased to present a new solo exhibition by Los Angeles-based artist Lukas Geronimas, his second at the gallery.

Invoking traditions both ancient and sacred, Lukas Geronimas’ works evoke the auratic status of revered objects and spaces. This exhibition features a series of sculptural works that borrow from religious architecture including a column, a tomb, and divine statuary, inviting the viewer to consider the alchemical process by which inanimate things come to be imbued with spiritual significance. In Barnsdall Column, Geronimas sourced old cedar posts from a salvage yard in Vernon, and organized the wood into sections between matte black geometric bands, constructed from plexiglass which the artist has transformed beyond recognition. Custom Hung Valance is a series of wooden racks that support pointed Gothic-style frames made of polished aluminum, stretched muslin, and tinted plywood which mimic a clerestory. Puzzlemaster combines elements from an array of devotional figures such as the Nemes headcloth and ceremonial beard of ancient Egyptian pharaohs, the seated pose of “royal ease” of certain Dharmic idols, the multiple arms included in depictions of Hindu deities, and the heroic proportion and musculature portrayed in renderings of Greek and Roman gods.

In the upstairs gallery, assemblage sculptures titled after the amphibian order Anura occupy the space between cultural and religious object. Geronimas transforms a diverse array of material into idolic forms, amalgamations whose titles are also fusions of frog genuses. Many of the pieces are finished with sharp edges or reactive metals that leave an indexical trace of a finger, emphasizing the unspoken gallery etiquette of “look don’t touch.” This appreciation from a visual distance evokes the awesomeness attributed to sacred objects, while the material itself underscores the intimacy and process of the artist’s studio.

Lukas Geronimas (b. 1980 in Toronto, Canada, lives and works in Los Angeles, CA). Select solo exhibitions include Lukas Geronimas, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2021), Swallow Your World, Parker Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2018), Seminal Echo, 247365, New York, NY (2016), Lukas Geronimas Live from the Landing, the Landing, Los Angeles, CA (2016), and Geatest Show on Rearth, David Petersen, Minneapolis, MN (2015). Select group exhibitions include Strange Attractors: the Anthology of Interplanetary Folk Art, organized by Bob Nickas at Redling Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA (2017), Commodus Operandi, Andrew Rafacz, Chicago, IL (2016), Continuous Surfaces, Andrea Rosen Gallery 2, New York, NY (2015), Three Cups Fragrance, Bodega, New York, NY (2014), Two and a Half Men, Cooper Cole, Toronto, Ontario (2014), and Particular Pictures, Suzanne Geiss Company, New York, NY (2014).