LOS ANGELES — The contemporary art world often
seems to be on a super-sized trajectory, with the rise of mega-galleries and record-setting auction prices all the rage. Alongside this
bigger-is-better mindset, there is a competing approach that favors the humble,
the personal, and the DIY, from artist-run spaces, to backyard performance art,
to micro-galleries. One of the newest additions to this group is Del Vaz Projects, an
apartment gallery and residency project located in Los Angeles’ Little Osaka
neighborhood (it’s west of the 405, not to be confused with Little Tokyo). Over
cups of tea and plates of dates and almonds from a local Iranian kosher market,
we sat down with Del Vaz’s founder Jay Ezra Nayssan to get the lowdown on the
new space, why he started it, and his ideas about art.
Nayssan’s enthusiasm for contemporary art is
clear when speaking with him, but he originally came to the art world as an
outsider. A native Angeleno, he studied anthropology and business and now works
in his family’s construction and development firm by day. In 2012, he got his
first opportunity to organize an exhibition, co-curating Synesthesia,
a group show at LA’s M+B
with Daniele Balice of Paris’ Balice Hertling Gallery. Last winter he organized a
residency for French artists in LA and this past summer he offered French
artist Lucile Littot a cottage, which was slated for demolition,
to exhibit her work.
Jan Ezra Nayssan at Del Vaz Projects, in front of work by Benjamin Phelan and Spencer Longo
The decision to open a gallery in his apartment
was the result of a fortuitous setback. What became his inaugural show was
originally scheduled to open at a New York gallery this fall, but was
eventually postponed until early 2015. Unable to sit on the project for four
months, he decided to hold the exhibition in his new apartment and Del Vaz was
born. The name comes from the Farsi phrase dast-o-del vaz meaning
“open-handed and open-hearted,” and it speaks to the informal and collaborative
atmosphere that Nayssan hopes to foster. He intends to open the space up to
artists, writers, and curators to organize shows in the future.
Nayssan acknowledges the commercial aspect of the
gallery system, but envisions his space as somewhere visitors can find respite
from the heavy hand of the market. “Art in its true and honest sense is a place
for discussion, for feeling, for beauty, and there’s a kind of a nobility to it
still for me, even though some people don’t believe in that, but there’s still
a respect and a dignity for me in it. It’s a place where you can shed this
marketplace attitude, though that’s not always the case,” he says.
He cites an early experience in a souk with shaping
his vision for the space:
“I’m Persian, so for me a marketplace is like a
hot, stuffy crowded place, it’s really a visual that’s been with me all my
life, and I’m like, ‘I don’t wanna be in a souk,’ then I remember one time
being in a souk and my mom being curious about something and the proprietor
being like, ‘come to the back,’ and we ended up spending an hour there, sitting
down having tea, in the shade, having good discussion, hearing about the city,
his family, and so I was like, ‘OK, if I open up a space in my apartment, this
will be a little somewhere in the shade, out of the hustle and bustle of the
marketplace, to come down and have dates and good discussion.’ So that’s what
it was really. That’s how it kind of unfolded.”
This first show sprawls from Nayssan’s modest
living room, into a more modest second bedroom. (Most future shows will be
confined to the bedroom.) Titled Bathymetry – the study of undersea topography – the
group show deals with issues of the human body, hyper-consumerism, and
technological obsolescence, and envisions an open-ended future defined by
“Proto-” as opposed to “Post-.”
“I wanted to give the viewer the liberty and the
power to imagine a future and to kind of do a discovery on their own, taking
into consideration the ideas of the post-human body, post-consumerism — that’s
a substrate for the show — but it really was about an exercise on imagination
for the viewer, not daring to tell people how or what to think,” he says.
Max Hooper Schneider, “The Last Caucasian War” (2014), Acrylic tank, 1996 Toshiba Tecra 700CT, polymer resin, mud, leaf litter, gravel, found detritus, Ocypodid crabs
The works in the show give the impression of
being created, then abandoned by humans. Benjamin Phelan’s
extruded Styrofoam sculpture, Natalie Jones’ planters made from a casts of her
head and citrus fruits, and Spencer
Longo’s computer-etched loofahs have the washed-out look of beach fossils.
With her “Checkerboard Mountains,” Liz Craft creates a handmade tabula rasa,
and Max Hooper Schneider’s
“post-conflict tide pools” re-imagine outdated technology as landscapes for
crabs and scorpions.
Liz Craft, “Checkerboard Mountains” (2010/2013), ceramic, steel
Nayssan enlisted Brazilian architect Pedro Câmara
for the exhibition design, who ended up using cinder blocks to create
structures that emulate the different levels and textures of the ocean floor.
“We decided to create a parcours, like a runway and give people the freedom to
walk around and be in this atmosphere,” Nayssan says. “I didn’t have any
furniture, so he made these modular ones that move around, and anything with
foam, you can sit on.”
Bathymetry will run through November, followed by
a group painting show slated for mid-January. Nayssan doesn’t have specific
exhibition plans after that, but said that he would like to see LA artists use
the space to show their work before it leaves for an exhibition elsewhere. “I
went to Human Resources
and Joel Kyack had a one day painting party before he shipped all his paintings
off to Paris, so that people could see his work. That was so good … with all of
these different blogs, young artists today are hesitant to reshow the same
piece in another show because it’s already been seen all over the world. I’m
hoping with LA artists, before they have a show in Belgium or London or
whatever, that they come do a one night little thing, so we who live here with
them, in this city, get to see the work in person.”
The space is open by appointment only, so
visitors should email or call if they’re looking for a shady spot to see some
art, engage in discussion, and maybe share a cup of tea.
Del Vaz Projects is located at 1600 Westgate
Avenue, Little Osaka, Los Angeles. Bathymetry
runs through November 22.
Natalie Jones, “Untitled (Head Planter)” (2013), Plaster, wig, lacquer, rope, paint
by on September 15, 2014 for hyperallergic
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