Paris London Hong Kong is pleased to present Joliet, a solo exhibition of new work by Los Angeles-based artist Michael Genovese (b.1976, Chicago, IL).

Joliet features a series of plasma-cut steel wall reliefs that explore the value of space, isolation, and stillness. The exhibition’s title references the Illinois city of Joliet, originally spelled Juliet, which is considered by many a small prison town. The connotations of the name (Shakespeare’s Juliet and the city’s reputation), raise a sense of longing and contemplation, and the tension of restraint. Genovese’s works resemble large cracks along the gallery walls, causing a consideration of the confined space and the perimeters, therein.

The weighted steel works are the culmination of historical fractures, political, and popular culture references, which Genovese traces and removes from their original context and repurposes for his practice. He employs a reduced material vocabulary as a means to quiet the mind and heal information overload. In doing so, he leaves the viewer in a contemplative confinement; left to confront their innermost thoughts, fears, and desires.

Genovese work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions at OHWOW Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; and the Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum in Miami, FL. He has exhibited in group exhibitions at the Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL; the Nathan Cummings Foundation, New York, NY; and the Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL. Recent Press includes The Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, L’Officiel Hommes, Harper’s Baazar and The Miami Herald. In 2013, OHWOW published Lines and Cracks and Zebras and Horses, a catalogue of recent work, featuring an essay by Shamim M. Momin.

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