Press Release

LA><ART is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new paintings and works on paper by Yaron Michael Hakim. Hovering between abstraction and figuration, Hakim’s latest body of work builds upon his ongoing interest in ritual, history, place, architecture, wanderlust, and the sublime. The artist’s work draws upon his personal history, namely his peripatetic rootlessness and interstitial experience of global culture. His new paintings incorporate elements drawn from the Los Angeles city scape, indigenous textiles and patterns, remote islands printed in an atlas, and figures in vintage Playboy magazines, among other sources. Painted on used Dacron polyester sailcloth and pinned directly on to the wall, these paintings use materials that subtly suggest a hidden narrative of movement and utility. His works on paper, on the other hand, read like intimate notes in a private log book, at once psychological, sexual, improvisatory, and map-like. These works reflect the richness of subjective encounters with “foreign” places.