Adrian de la Peña: Before the Veil, After the Veil

The Aleph’s diameter was probably little more than an inch, but all space was there, actual and undiminished. Each thing […] was infinite things, since I distinctly saw it from every angle of the universe. – Jorge Luis Borges “The Aleph”

God is an infinite sphere, the center of which is everywhere, the circumference nowhere – Liber XXIV Philosophorum

Cornelius Projects will present Before the Veil, After the Veil: The Veil, an exhibition by Wilmington artist Adrian de la Peña. The exhibit features paintings, objects and video that represent the artist’s multi-faceted investigations, representations and manifestations of visions that bend toward the infinite. The exhibition runs from June 18 to Aug. 28, with an opening reception June 18.

The new paintings in this exhibition are a continuation of an ongoing evolving series of works incorporating multidirectional grids resulting in an omnidirectional plane. Each intersection of the grid is at its own center; an unconditional/happiness grid; a queered grid. Layered on top of these works are veils of transparent fabric with varying textures and tension adding to their optic dimension. De la Peña creates a physical analog of a veil of perception that hides, obscures, or changes what lies beneath it.

Included in the exhibit are works constructed from a narrative that was revealed to de la Peña while viewing an exhibition of netsuke at LACMA in the 1990s; the artist posits that the narrative was ‘downloaded’ from a supernatural or extraterrestrial consciousness. The results are paintings on transparent acrylic which the artist suggests are relics of creatures drawn from the narrative who await the reanimation that will occur as the story unfolds. Also included are paintings on canvas that represent beings that may be alternate versions of the artist himself, fractured visions of extrinsic entities, or the visible forms of spirits.

These multiple frames of reference also extend to Subatomic Gestalt, a series of videos de la Peña created while employed by a museum, where he felt he was ‘an artist performing as a janitor performing as an artist.’ Shooting video from the point of view of a dust mop, or spraying cleaning fluid on the impermeable barrier that hovers between the viewer and works of art, de la Peña examines ‘what things are made of’ from the viewpoint of someone who must maintain the bricks, mortar, and drywall of an institution.

Zooming from the quotidian to the cosmic and back again, de la Peña creates speculative fiction about daily life as seen from an oblique perspective.

The exhibition is viewable Saturdays and Sundays, 12 to 5 p.m. or by appointment, June 18 to Aug. 28.

Time: Opening reception 3 to 6 p.m. June 18
Cost: Free
Details: 310-266-9216; corneliusprojects.com
Venue: Cornelius Projects, 1417 S. Pacific Ave., Gabrielino-Tongva Territory, San Pedro