O Bouna Ventura!

O Bouna Ventura! at Jessica Silverman, Gallery 2, San Fransisco, CA June 2 – July 8, 2017

http://jessicasilvermangallery.com

Justin John Greene’s new series of five oil paintings titled “O Buona Ventura!” explore the successes, risks and hazards of contemporary life. Set in the rotating cocktail lounge of the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles, the works depict the dizzying effect of working/playing around the clock. Each of Greene’s characters is painted in a different style, referencing German expressionism, slapstick cartoons, and Baroque tavern scenes. Their diverse aesthetics amplify the social allegory, rendering some with great individuality and others with the appearance of puppets, super heroes and villains. Much like a Caravaggio painting, the figures are often clustered around a central light source; in these works, the source is wittily absent from view.

Constructed in the mid-1970s, the Bonaventure’s architecture is an icon of postmodernism. Political geographer Edward Soja described the hotel as “fragmented and fragmenting, homogeneous and homogenizing, divertingly packed yet curiously incomprehensible, seemingly open in presenting itself to view but constantly pressing to enclose, to compartmentalize, to circumscribe, to incarcerate.” The rotating bar elicits feelings of being on an unstoppable carnival ride while its windows offer sweeping views of L.A., creating a sense of being in the spinning center of an urban universe. The architectural environment is reminiscent of the round rooms in which Francis Bacon often staged his subjects.

The exhibition title “O Buona Ventura” refers to a painting from circa 1630 by Georges de La Tour that depicts a man speaking to a fortuneteller while a pickpocket slips her hand into his coat. Although the de La Tour painting, which hangs in the Metropolitan Museum in New York, is usually called The Fortune Teller, the literal translation is the more ironic, Oh Good Fortune! Through his distinctive tragicomic lens, Greene breathes new life into art historical narratives and compositions in order to comment with fresh wit on the social dynamics of our times.

94 Rue du Bac

An exhibition of paintings presented by Romain Dauriac & Franklin Melendez at 94 Rue du Bac, Paris, France October 19 – 23, 2017

Life Hack

 

Life Hack at Smart Objects, Los Angeles, January 26 – March 2, 2018
http://smartobjects.la/

Life hacks can be motivated by desperation or a deep desire for convenience. They can manifest as a set of social interactions, as altered appliances, or as tweaked channels of a system. They can serve as quick fixes to daily problems or reveal whole new ways of living.

A life hack always operates in relation to a larger power structure. But then: in hacking, do we subvert power structures, or are we just becoming better operators under their grip? Have we found ways to more efficiently oppress ourselves? Would life hacks even exist without the ubiquitous force of late capitalism?

In Justin John Greene’s paintings, the life hacks on display toy with power dynamics and point toward uneasy change. An outmoded cyborg undergoes analogue maintenance; an unknown force enters a dimensionless restaurant; an alternative energy source proves unstable.

In Expiration Date, a patriarchal scene looms. A frightened man with a passive woman clinging to his neck – sourced from an old movie poster—looks on as smoke rises from a smartphone plugged into a bunch of priapic bananas. Even if the absurd hack is working, clearly the system surrounding it isn’t.

Greene’s paintings combine elements of film noir, German expressionism, Dada, Baroque tavern scenes, and the dreamy qualities of Marc Chagall paintings, to create contemporary caricatures and curious social allegories. The scenes, rendered in his signature tragicomic approach, exude an air of anxiety and beg one to question the dynamics at play in this moment of shifting paradigms.

Drawings

Curatorial Projects

 

Actual Size Los Angeles

Actual Size Los Angeles is collaboratively run by Lee Foley, Corrie Siegel and Justin John Greene. The current Actual Size location is at 741 New High Street in Chinatown, Los Angeles. Opened in April 2010, Actual Size has hosted over thirty exhibitions/ curatorial interventions and has worked with over a hundered artists. Actual Size collaborates with established and emerging artists to encourage situations that activate the exhibition and engage the public. Projects curated by Actual Size have been profiled in the L.A Times, Art Fourm, Mousse Magazine, and Flash Art International.

For more information please visit actualsizela.com

Paintings

 

 

 

Contact

justin@justinjohngreene.com

    CV

    Justin John Greene
    Born 1984, Los Angeles, California
    Lives and works in Los Angeles

     

    Solo Exhibitions

    Dressed in Hollywood Tears,
    November 9, 2023–December 23, 2023
    The Breeder, Athens

    thebreedersystem.com

    The Castle
    Matthew Brown, Los Angeles, CA 
    September 9 – October 5, 2022
    matthewbrowngallery.com

    What Can Smoke Do To Iron?
    Collaborations by T. Asbæk, Copenhagen, DK
    May 6 – 30, 2020
    collaborations.dk

    Marnie Weber and Justin John Greene
    Simon Lee, New York, NY
    September 6 – November 2, 2019
    simonleegallery.com

    A Warmer World
    Carl Kostyál, London, UK
    March 1 – 31, 2019
    kostyal.com

    Welcome to Our Mess
    Simon Lee, London, UK
    September 2 – 28, 2018
    simonleegallery.com

    Life Hack
    Smart Objects, Los Angeles, CA
    January 26 – March 2, 2018
    smartobjects.la

    94 Rue du Bac
    Presented by Romain Dauriac & Franklin Melendez
    Paris, France
    October 19 – 23, 2017
    dm-office.com

    O Bouna Ventura!
    Jessica Silverman, Gallery 2, San Fransisco, CA
    June 2 – July 8, 2017
    jessicasilvermangallery.com

    Secret Slob
    Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Chicago IL
    October 29 – December 22, 2016
    andrewrafacz.com

    Moonlighting
    Loudhailer Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
    January 9 – February 20, 2016
    loudhailergallery.com

    Raw Deal
    DIANA, Los Angeles, CA
    April 17 – May 8, 2015

    A Dusk That Never Settles
    Solo Exhibition, Actual Size, Los Angeles, CA
    June 23 – July 19, 2014
    actualsizela.com

    You Oughta Be In Pictures
    Solo Exhibition, Actual Size, Los Angeles, CA
    June 25 – July 23, 2011
    actualsizela.com

     

    Group Exhibitions

    En Plein Air
    Simon Lee, London, UK
    July 19 – August 31, 2019
    simonleegallery.com

    Noise! Frans Hals, Otherwise
    Frans Hals Museum Haarlem, NL
    September 29, 2018 – January 27, 2019
    franshalsmuseum.nl

    Malmö Sessions
    Carl Kostyál, Malmö, SE
    May 18 – June 16, 2019
    kostyal.com

    L.A. Dreams 2
    CFHill, Stockholm, SE
    April 12 – May 12, 2019
    cfhill.com

    On Anxiety
    The Cleve Carney Art Gallery, Glen Ellyn, IL
    August 31 – October 13, 2018
    clevecarneygallery.org

    An Uncanny Likeness
    Simon Lee, New York, NY
    January 26 – March 4, 2017
    simonleegallery.com

    The Gildless Age
    The Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA 2012
    Curated by Denise Johnson, in conjunction with TAM curatorial
    September 3 – October 29, 2016
    torranceartmuseum.com

    Logic Frog
    Allen & Eldridge, New York, NY
    April 20 – May 16, 2016
    allenandeldridge.tumblr.com

    Surrreal
    König Galerie, Berlin, Germany
    March 12 – April 24, 2016
    koeniggalerie.com

    Tickles
    356 Mission, Los Angeles, CA
    November 28 – December 24, 2015
    356mission.tumblr.com

    Staging Los Angeles
    Group exhibition organized by the 2016 USC Roski School MA Art and Curatorial
    Practices in the Public Sphere Candidates
    Gayle and Ed Roski MFA Gallery, University of Southern California, Los Angeles
    November 7 – 22, 2015

    Goup Show
    Patrick Gomez 4 Sheriff, Los Angeles, CA
    May 1, 2015

    I Think I See…
    The Property Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
    March 21, 2015
    theproperty.gallery

    Buying Friends: The Kortman Colection
    Urban Institute of Contemporary Art
    Grand Rapids, MI
    November 15, 2014 – February 18, 2015

    Another Cats Show
    356 Mission, Los Angeles, CA 2014
    August 16 – September 14, 2014
    356mission.com

    Louie Louie: Tow Songs From An Opera
    Group Exhibition Curated by Sam Davis, Human Reseorces, Los Angeles, CA
    July 10, 2014
    humanresourcesla.com

    Dopps Bar, Colaboration with Calvin Marcus & Michael Dopp
    356 Mission, Los Angeles, CA
    June 4 – August 10, 2014

    Popular Panorama
    Secret Recipe, Los Angeles, CA 2014
    secret-recipe.org

    5790projects
    Beacon Arts Building and Artist Studios, Los Angeles, CA
    January 24, 2014

    The Oldest of Rainbows
    Group Exhibition Curated by Justin John Greene, Control Room, Los Angeles, CA
    February 2 – March 3, 2013

    The Subterraneans: The artists behind LA’s artist-run spaces
    The Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA
    September 22 – November 3, 2012

     

    Curatorial Projects

    Actual Size Los Angeles, Co-Director and Founder, Los Angeles, CA 2010-2016
    actualsizela.com

     

    Education

    BFA, School of the Art Institute of Chicago 2007

    Lorenzo de’ Medici, Florence, Italy 2005

    Secret Slob

     

    Secret Slob at Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Chicago IL, October 29 – December 22, 2016
    http://andrewrafacz.com

    Submitted for your approval
    By an author’s loyal ghost

    Endlessly toiling
    Through the night
    Staring at a screen
    Splayed across a mattress
    Where we lay our scene
    And when at last
    Its glass goes black
    The reflection shows
    The Slob

    Outside amongst the concrete
    A system rigged and mean
    Some try-hard leans against a hood
    Devising of a scheme

    Heavy baskets of deplorables
    And dishes in the sink
    He hasn’t time to give a shit
    He hasn’t space to think

    Ladies and germs
    The slob
    See his haggard stare
    When will he pay the mounting debts
    Against integrity

    Described in J.D. Salinger’s The Cather in the Rye, a ‘secret slob’ is someone who behaves as outwardly virtuous while hiding their sordid habits. Where his last exhibition, Moonlighting, 3 the incessant hustle that one participates in as a worker striving in a precarious economy, Justin John Greene’s newest body of work examines the dubious and dangerous consequences of that ongoing hustle. Forced to bluff, concede, and bend or mask one’s own being in order to get by, the characters in Greene’s paintings are engaged in a murky, complex narrative of contemporary survival.