Ellipsis: 2 x 2 Solo Exhibition

2 x 2 Solos is a series of solo exhibitions featuring new work commissioned from four accomplished emerging artists based in the Oakland/Bay Area.

Ben Bigelow presents Ellipsis, a single channel video work consisting of one long continuous tracking shot across the face of a seemingly infinite stretch of big box stores. These buildings dot our landscape with an architecture which is nearly completely utilitarian. Ellipsis turns this repetitious blight into a strangely attractive abstraction, both critiquing the consumerist mundane and somehow reveling in its productions. The menacing quality of these huge masses of concrete and steel is softened by tiny quirks, chinks in the effort to produce structures generic and devoid of qualities, revealing absurdity.

About the Artist: Through combinations of video, installation, performance, sculpture and photography, Ben Bigelow's work explores the shifting identity of Americana and its relationship to technology. This past year he was a Fellow at the Kala Art Institute in Berkeley where he participated in two group shows. Past exhibitions include City Limits Gallery, Oakland; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; and the Harlem Factory Fest in New York City. From 2013-2014 he taught in the Department of Art & Art History at Stanford University and this fall will join the faculty at the Massachusetts College of Art & Design. He has an MFA from Stanford University and a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University.

About the Curator: Aaron Harbour is a curator, writer, and artist operating out of Oakland. He is co-director of Et al., a gallery program in San Francisco, and has additionally curated exhibitions at The Popular Workshop, Important Projects, MacArthur B Arthur, Liminal Space, and Royal Nonesuch Gallery. He runs Curiously Direct, an art criticism blog, and has additionally written for Fillip Magazine, San Francisco Arts Quarterly, Art Practical, Decoy Magazine, Art Cards , and several small publications/artist catalogues. As an artist he has participated in exhibitions at CCA Wattis Institute, City Limits and Southern Exposure.