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Detail of Simon Evans's Religious Building

 

SIMON EVANS™ 

Religious Building (detail)

 

Image of SIMON EVANS's Religious Building, 2016

 

SIMON EVANS™ 

Religious Building, 2016    

Mixed media

68 x 78 in.

172.7 x 198.1 cm

 

JCG8945

 

Image of SIMON EVANS's Eat yourself fitter, 2016-17

 

SIMON EVANS™

Eat yourself fitter, 2016-17     

Mixed media

83 x 24 in. 

210.8 x 61 cm

 

JCG8944

Detail of SIMON EVANS's  Eat yourself fitter

 

SIMON EVANS™

Eat yourself fitter (detail)

 

Image of SIMON EVANS's  Frozen Screen, 2016-17

 

SIMON EVANS™

Frozen Screen, 2016-17     

Mixed media

28 x 36 in. 

71.1 x 91.4 cm

 

JCG8943

 

Detail of SIMON EVANS's  Frozen Screen

 

SIMON EVANS™

Frozen Screen (detail)

 

Image of SIMON EVANS's  Rainbow, 2016

 

SIMON EVANS™

Rainbow, 2016

Mixed media on vinyl

15 3/4 x 30 in.

40 x 76.2 cm

 

JCG8895

Detail of SIMON EVANS's  Rainbow

 

SIMON EVANS™

Rainbow (detail)

 

Image of SIMON EVANS's Medal, 2016

 

SIMON EVANS™

Medal, 2016     

Silver

10 x 9 in. 

25.4 x 22.9 cm

 

JCG8948

Image of SIMON EVANS's  Another Selfish Prayer Rug, 2014-17

 

SIMON EVANS™

Another Selfish Prayer Rug, 2014-17     

Mixed media

44 x 53 in. 

111.8 x 134.6 cm

 

JCG8942

 

Detail of  SIMON EVANS's Another Selfish Prayer Rug

 

SIMON EVANS™

Another Selfish Prayer Rug (detail)

 

Image of  SIMON EVANS's  Outside, 2016

 

SIMON EVANS™

Outside, 2016

Mixed media on sock

6 1/8 x 16 3/4 in.

15.6 x 42.5 cm

 

JCG8914

Image of SIMON EVANS's How to Pretend Your Free, 2016

 

SIMON EVANS™

How to Pretend Your Free, 2016

Mixed media on cardboard

44 x 53 in.

111.8 x 134.6 cm

 

JCG8894

 

Image of SIMON EVANS's Some Game a Comfortable Web, 2016

 

SIMON EVANS™

Some Game a Comfortable Web, 2016

Mixed media on yoga mats

68 x 48 in.

172.7 x 121.9 cm

 

JCG8586

Detail of SIMON EVANS's How To Pretend Your Free

 

SIMON EVANS™

How To Pretend Your Free (detail)

 

Detail of SIMON EVANS's  Some Game a Comfortable Web

 

SIMON EVANS™

Some Game a Comfortable Web (detail)

 

Image of SIMON EVANS's Adderall, 2016-17

 

SIMON EVANS™

Adderall, 2016-17     

Mixed media

59 9/16 x 79 5/16 in. 

151.3 x 201.4 cm

 

JCG8946

 

Detail of SIMON EVANS's  Adderall

 

SIMON EVANS™

Adderall (detail)

 

 

Image of SIMON EVANS's  Yantra, 2017

 

SIMON EVANS™

Yantra, 2017     

Mixed media 

7 3/4 x 12 1/2 in. (diameter) 

19.7 x 31.8 cm (diameter)

 

JCG8951

 

Image of SIMON EVANS's  Yantra, 2017

 

SIMON EVANS™

Yantra, 2017     

Mixed media 

7 3/4 x 12 1/2 in. (diameter) 

19.7 x 31.8 cm (diameter)

 

JCG8951

Detail of SIMON EVANS's Yantra

 

SIMON EVANS™

Yantra (detail)

 

 

Press Release

Simon Evans™ - Soul Gym - Exhibitions - James Cohan

SIMON EVANS
How to Pretend Your Free
2016
Mixed media on cardboard
44 x 53 in. 

OPENING RECEPTION: FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 6-8 PM
 

James Cohan is pleased to present Soul Gym, the fourth solo exhibition of work by Simon Evans™ at the gallery. Featuring a selection of works in various media, the exhibition will open at the gallery’s Lower East Side location on Friday, January 27 with a reception from 6-8 PM and will be on view through Sunday, March 5.
 

Simon Evans™ is the artistic partnership between Simon Evans and Sarah Lannan. Their collaborative work is widely known for its text- based aesthetic. Simon Evans™ uses handwritten phrases and other texts to create dense collages saturated with short, poetic phrases, drawings, and images often created from the detritus of everyday life both inside and outside of the studio.
 

Soul Gym confronts our increasing societal obsession with exercise, self- improvement and embodying the message of lifestyle brands.  “There was a poster for a yoga studio - a schedule of classes - and it was super spiritual, language-wise, and it felt a bit blasphemous and maybe funny. And there’s a real obsession for self-improvement. But it’s just physical. The survival of the fittest and we were really interested in that,” says Simon Evans™. The artists expand on these concepts with a series of new works that pushed them to utilize a variety of mediums, such as sculptured letters, metal, plastic, fabric, and yoga mats.

 

How to Pretend Your Free (2016) features a single figure mid-stride in a black and white composition with the titled of the work emblazoned above his head reminiscent of a classic Nike advertisement. One of the handwritten phrases in Black Magic Capitalism (2016) exhorts the viewer repeatedly to “run fucking run,” in an ode to the kind of graffiti seen on a run around New York City. Some Game a Comfortable Web (2016) is composed of two conjoined yoga mats overlaid with a hand drawn maze. Although there is no clear path through the labyrinth, the rewards of this particular practice are found in the ritual. Similarly, Another Selfish Prayer Rug (2014-2017) functions as a place for collecting ideas and prayers through ritual movements like a layer of sediment slowly building over time.

 

The ritualizing of wellness is analogous to the obsessive, repetitive nature of many works by Simon Evans™. The Divine Comedy (2016) is a work of 3” x 5” index cards onto which Evans and Lannan have painstakingly copied the entirety of Dante’s 14th-century poem. Rainbow (2016) pleads forgiveness by repeating “SORRY” in various colored and sized sticker letters. Frozen Screen (2016), a copy of Henri Matisse’s famous Dance, merges themes of physicality, spirituality, and mechanical reproduction. The work of Simon Evans™ is ultimately concerned with the process of art-making, inviting viewers into a space filled with possibilities for revelation and continued searching.

 

Simon Evans™ was the subject of recent solo exhibitions at Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, OH; Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean (MUDAM), Luxembourg; Aspen Art Museum, CO; and White Columns, New York. Simon Evans™ was featured in the 12th International Istanbul Biennial in Turkey, the 27th São Paulo Biennial in Brazil.  Works by Simon Evans™ are included in the permanent collections of several prestigious institutions including the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO), Miami, FL; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark; Perez Art Museum Miami, FL; Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean (MUDAM), Luxembourg; Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA; Museum of Art Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA. Simon Evans and Sarah Lannan live and work in Brooklyn, NY.
 

For press inquiries, please contact Jeffrey Waldron at jwaldron@jamescohan.com or 212.714.9500.
 

Please contact Emily Ruotolo at eruotolo@jamescohan.com or 212.714.9500 for further inquiries regarding Simon Evans™.

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