Out-Of-_______

This is not a press release.  In fact, there is no press release for this exhibition.  Initially, when my exhibition “Out-Of-_______” opened at Benevento Gallery, Los Angeles, I felt very comfortable ignoring press release requests and insisting there be no written material in the gallery for media OR visitors.  I produced a trailer to give people a preview and a feel for what they might expect walking in.  Conversely, I spent every day in the gallery, and if people wanted, I gladly walked them through the show and engaged in conversation about the films and artworks, exhibition layout, and my concepts surrounding the curation. Now, six months since closing, the show will be traveling to Galerie Dohyang Lee, Paris, and I feel compelled to write a few words about my show, my opinions, and art exhibition press releases at-large.

This exhibition is meant to be experienced, and I feel it is a disservice to the visitor to have literature that would divert his/her attention away from that experience. The last thing I want is for someone to enter the show, and spend the entire time with their nose in a binder, reading a bunch of words.  There is so much to see, feel, witness, emote, understand and digest, that a press release is absolutely counter-intuitive to that experiential process.  Too often we, as audience, depend on the gallery and the press release to interpret everything for us, to give a road map and answer as to the Who, What, Why, and Where.  This is frequently necessary information in a contemporary art show, and I do not discount the need for written material to contextualize the artist’s work. When I was a gallery owner myself, I relished using the press release as my forum of critical thought. The artists appreciated that I gave them a context within which to work, and visitors used my press releases as launching pads for depthful discussion. Ironically, my press releases even caused disturbance and outrage (they were consecutively posted to a website blog that lambasted art speech as bullshit).

I want to say that in this case, and for this show, I have no words. I have a video that you can watch on YouTube or Vimeo.  And I have some images of the installation at Benevento Gallery. You can contact me for questions but first see what happens when you look up, reflect, and manifest.

Thank you,

Leila Michelle Khastoo
Curator
Los Angeles