This LA artist’s work critically fuses the language of architectural schematics with that of abstract painting, producing complex compositions that reflect on the celebrated, modernist architectural history of Southern California. Eerily detached and devoid of human inhabitants, the images undermine their own nostalgia value with their cold commitment to formal patterns and empirical principles. In House: South View From Court (1999), for example, Appel effaces all transient, atmospheric effects, reproducing only walls, windows, and other functional dividers. Leaving the background white, Appel creates an exaggeratedly virtual space invoking certain aspects of digital aesthetics. Kevin Appel thereby reexamined California architectural modernism of the 1940s and 1950s by updating its idealizing, hyper-rational aspirations into contemporary forms.
Appel was the third recipient of the Citibank Private Bank Emerging Artist Award, created by MOCA and The Citibank Private Bank.
The exhibition was accompanied by a catalogue.
Kevin Appel was organized by Paul Schimmel, Chief Curator, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.