Scott Hug / Jesse Bercowetz & Matt Bua

Three New York-based artists unhinge their mass media obsession at Locust Projects

It’s an all New York showcase at Locust Projects this Art Basel Miami Beach. Scott Hug, showing in the main space, presents 40 larger-than- life “Page 6 Head” portraits. In conjunction with the opening on November 11th, 7-11 pm, Hug will launch his renowned publication K48 and is constructing a platform on which New York band Mirror Mirror will play at the second opening during “Art Loves Design” on December 9th, 7-11pm. In addition, Hug’s work will be backed up in the project room by sculptures and wall works by Jesse Bercowetz and Matt Bua. Known for their sprawling site- specific installations, Bercowetz and Bua create a layered and even chaotic sensory experience. These artists will be on view November 11- December 28, 2006.

Scott Hug is known for working at the intersection of politics, pop culture, and media sensationalism, always employing the keen eye and clean lines of high end graphic designers and political propagandists. In drawings, collages wall treatments, and installations, he employs satire to engage American politics, global social events and the logic of celebrity culture. “A Current Affair” is in the main space at Locust Projects this November. Hug will present a series of portraits of “Page 6 Heads” including celebrities Woody Allen and Nick Lache underlined with footnotes “Bored by 9/11” and “Tight Leash” respectively. A mirrored stage will feature band Mirror Mirror, scheduled for a one- evening performance during the opening event on Saturday, December 9th. This will coincide with the first-ever Miami launch of Hug's zine K48, which has become as synonymous with the up-and-coming generation of artists- as Tom Lawson's Real Life magazine once was for the appropriationists of the mid-1980s.

In the Project room, Jesse Bercowetz and Matt Bua produce physically and psychologically sprawling objects out of anything and everything. Using simple means, from foam core and carpet to popsicle sticks and electronics, they create a complicated assemblage of paranoid and unhinged associations. Applying the anxious logic of conspiracy theory, their work reflects a world of unfathomable information overload and political deception. Bercowetz and Bua reassemble and entangle our once secure ideologies—what begins as a curious exploration of a sighting of the Virgin Mary in a grilled cheese sandwich ends as a posit for a new theory of human evolution that replaces simians with reptiles. In a world of uncontrollable media and high-speed data streaming, Bercowetz and Bua may be giving us the first objects that faithfully mirror our schizoid insides.

Both exhibitions are on view November 11- December 28, 2006 and will open with a preview opening for the Second Saturday, Wynwood gallery walk night on Saturday November 11, 2006 from 7-10pm, followed by the official “Art Loves Design” Art Basel opening on Saturday December 9, 7-11pm.

Scott Hug is exhibiting courtesy of John Connelly Presents, NY and Matt Bua and Jesse Bercowetz are exhibiting courtesy of Derek Eller, NYC, The Happy Lion, L.A. and Galerie Michael Janssen, Cologne.

43: Scott Hug, A Current Affair

Project Room: Jesse Bercowetz and Matt Bua