Edgar Arceneaux

Artist’s Statement

Since 1996, my interests have evolved into two branches within my artistic practice. One is studio-based where I make drawings, video and sculptural installations and the other is socially-based. “Drawings of Removal” (1999-present), an ongoing drawing installation, responds to a trip with my parents to Beaumont, Texas, my father’s hometown. For my father, it was an attempt to re-experience the late 1960s. For me, it revealed how everything is in a continual process of motion and change. Many things faded away, including my father’s memories. Within this installation, which is a drawing as well as a sculpture, I have taken my fathers personal memories, and my own, and projected them onto the landscape of Beaumont.

I am the director of the Watts House Project (WHP), an ongoing art collaborative in the form of a neighborhood redevelopment organization. Centered around the historic Watts Towers, the WHP uses interdisciplinary approaches to engage art and architecture as a catalyst for expanding and enhancing community. The first project phase involves transforming the interior, exterior, front yard and backyard of each of the 20 homes on the block through collaboration among an artist, an architect and the residents. Each house is an autonomous sculptural work, and the participants uniquely shape each home.

WHP’s collaborative energy is born from a similar motivation as “Drawings of Removal” — a shared investigation into the transience of site and place juxtaposed with the malleability of the memories that shape the places we call home.

Website: studioedgararceneaux.com

Biography

Select Solo Exhibitions

2009
Peter Blum Gallery, New York
Albion Gallery, London

2008
Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, Los Angeles

2007
Gallery Kamm, Berlin
Adamski Gallery for Contemporary Art, Aachen, Germany

2006
Snake River, a film collaboration with Charles Gaines, Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz, Austria and REDCAT Gallery, Los Angeles
Alchemy of Comedy… Stupid, Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, Los Angeles
Gallery 400, University of Illinois, Chicago
Artpace, San Antonio, Texas

2005
Borrowed Sun, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco
Borrowed Sun, The Kitchen, New York
The Imaginary Number, Kunstwerke, Berlin
Adamski Gallery for Contemporary Art, Aachen, Germany
Mixed Doubles, Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh

2004
Borrowed Sun, Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, Los Angeles
Negative Capability, the Michael Jackson Project, Gallery Kamm, Berlin

2003
An Arrangement Without Tormentors, Witte de With, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
107th Street, Watts, Revolver Gallery, Frankfurt, Germany
Library as Cosmos, Kunstverein Ulm, Ulm, Germany
Library as Chaos, Frehrking Wiesehoefer, Cologne, Germany

2002
Rootlessness…, Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, Los Angeles
Drawings of Removal, The Studio Museum in Harlem, Harlem, N.Y.
The Trivium, Gallery Kamm, Berlin

2001
The Trivium, Montgomery Gallery, Pomona College, Claremont, Calif.

Select Group Exhibitions

2009
Creative Time, Governor’s Island, New York
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco

2008
The Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
The California Biennial, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, Calif.

2007
The Philosophy of Time Travel, The Studio Museum in Harlem, Harlem, N.Y.

2006
Symmetries, MAK Center, Los Angeles
Down by Law, Wrong Gallery, Whitney Museum of Art, New York
Uncertain States of America American Art in the 3rd Millennium, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway; Mus’ee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris; Reykjavik Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland and Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, New York

2005
Uncertain States of America American Art in the 3rd Millennium, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway
Displaced, Neuer Berlin Kustverein, Berlin
Cut, Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, Los Angeles

2004
Quicksand, de Appel, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Upside Down Ludwig Forum, Aachen, Germany
Art Basel Miami, Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, Los Angeles, and Galerie Kamm, Berlin
Common Property, Werkleitz Biennale, Werkleitz, Germany
Art and the Afterall Effect, California College of the Arts, San Francisco
The Michael Jackson Project, Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, Culver City, Calif.

2003
True Stories, Witte de With Museum, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
The Armory Show, New York, with Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, Culver City, Calif.
Korrekturen, Galerie Kamm, Berlin
Urban Aesthetics, The African American Museum of Art, Los Angeles
Jahresgaben, Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen, Germany

2002
Lateral Thinking, San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, Calif.
Personal Plans, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Germany (catalog)
ArtChicago, with Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, Culver City, Calif.
A Moment’s Notice, Inman Gallery, Houston
Mass Appeal: The Art Object and Hip Hop Culture, Gallery 101, Ottawa; Montreal Arts Intercultires, Montreal; The Kyber Center for the Arts, Halifax and the Owens Art Gallery, Sackville, Canada
Prophets of Boom, Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Baden-Baden, Germany (catalog)

2001-02
One Planet Under a Groove, Bronx Museum, New York

2001
Prosthetics, Camouflage & War, Adamski Frehrking Wiesehoefer Gallery, Koln,Germany
Superman in Bed, Museum Am Ostwall, Dortmunt, Germany
Rappers Delight, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco

2000
Video as Female Terrain, Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz, Austria
Sitegeist, Porter Troupe Gallery, San Diego, Calif.
Pierogi Flat Files, Post Gallery, Los Angeles

Awards

United States Artists Award
William H. Johnson Award
Creative Capital
Joyce Foundation Award
American Center for the Arts
LEF Foundation Grant
Pat Hearn Award
City of Pasadena Individual Artists Grant

EDUCATION

M.F.A., 2001
California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, Calif.

B.F.A., 1996
Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, Calif.