JEAN LOWE, ABRAHAM RAZO (RANCHOLO), AND KIM MACCONNEL
DOWN WITH THE HIERARCHY!
July 12 - August 16
OPENING RECEPTION WITH THE ARTISTS ON SATURDAY, JULY 12th 5 - 8pm
BEST PRACTICE is very excited to announce a collaborative exhibition of the work of Encinitas-based artist Jean Lowe and Mexicali-based graffiti artist Abraham Razo (Rancholo/DHEF) with a contribution from Kim MacConnel. Down with the Hierarchy! is an installation exploring the overlaps and connections between French period decoration, Persian carpet design, and street art. First presented at Steppling Gallery in Calexico, CA, the “salon” installed at Best Practice will feature a large graffiti painting on unstretched canvas from Razo, as well as smaller works on wood and mirror, a landscape painting based on Imperial Valley’s Seely Lake inspired by French scenic wallpaper, floor displayed “carpet” paintings, rococo inspired “furniture” and floral elements from Lowe, and a floral sculpture created from plastic beach trash as well as a furniture element from MacConnel.
The installation playfully engages in a conversation between these disparate vocabularies and intentionally blurs hierarchical art-world categories (decoration and graffiti) in these traditionally “lower-tiered” art forms. Depicting the grand entry space at Nymphemburg Palace outside of Munich, here overlaid with graffiti, Great Hall (Tagged), a work by Lowe and Razo queries the human desire to mark space. A dual thread through the installation is the depiction and abstraction of natural forms—rocaille forms found in rococo decoration, the pervasive use of floral imagery in Persian carpets, bouquets fashioned from real flowers, beach trash or sculpted from papier- mâché, and Razo’s signature curving graffiti forms suggestive of birds, turtles, clouds, and self-portraiture.
Jean Lowe received her MFA from the University of California, San Diego, and was a lecturer there until 2008. Her works have been exhibited at museums including Madison Center for the Arts; Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin; List Visual Arts Center, MIT, Cambridge; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas. She has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City; the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; and the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati. A survey of Lowe’s work, Your Place in the Multiverse, opened at the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Utah State University in 2021 and traveled to the Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, in March 2022. Lowe lives and works in Encinitas, CA.
She has received numerous awards and grants including a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant; a California Arts Council grant; the Alberta duPont Bonsal Foundation Purchase Award; and the CalArts/Alpert Ucross Residency Prize. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, La Jolla; the Palm Springs Art Museum; the San Diego Museum of Art; the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; and University of California, San Francisco.
Abraham Razo (Rancholo/DHEF) is a third generation street artist from Mexicali, MX. Starting in 2006 in the company of close friends, Razo’s career has taken him to many parts of Mexico and beyond. His work is mainly viewed in the urban landscape of the borderlands of Baja California painted on building exteriors and abandoned vehicles. In addition to making art, Razo works at a local prison as a criminologist where he lives with and works closely with the inmates.
UPCOMING
Ewa Slapa
September 13 - October 18
Celeste Hernández / Leslye Villaseñor (curated by Elizabeth Rooklidge)
November 8 - December 13
1955 Julian Avenue
San Diego, CA 92113
map
25th/Commercial on the Orange Line
Barrio Logan on the Blue Line
Gallery hours (during exhibitions):
Tuesday - Saturday
11am - 4pm