Tallahassee Leo Gabin

Peres Projects is pleased to present Tallahassee, a new exhibition by Leo Gabin.

 

Tallahassee is centered around Leo Gabin's first feature film A Crackup At The Race Riots, based on the Harmony Korine novel of the same title. Composed entirely from appropriated, user generated found footage, there is no place for plot, linear narrative, character development, or scene setting in Leo Gabin’s video work. What we do see is a nearly 40 minutes long story made up of compelling, disparate images, uploaded online by unknown amateurs, joined together to form a portrait or time capsule of a place called Florida. The Sunshine State in southeastern USA still remains a paradise for some and the land of lost dreams for others, having been suffering hard from the economic collapse. For Leo Gabin, Florida represents both a person and a place, an idea and a dream.

 

A Crackup At The Race Riots has a hallucinatory quality, images are blurred to the point of becoming abstracted, yet remain familiar. The sound is haunting. Tuned to the absurd, to the hypocrisy and hilarity that comprise our obsessions with death, dirt, poverty, celebrity, religion, and gossip, Leo Gabin’s work captures the fragmented moments of a life observed through the demented lens of media, TV, and teen obsession.

 

Tallahassee also includes a group of new large-scale paintings related to A Crackup At The Race Riots and the unique slice of American culture Florida represents. A 192-page artist book entitled Tallahassee, designed by Leo Gabin and published by Peres Projects, will also accompany the exhibition. This new publication includes their paintings, panels, collages, sculptures, silk screen films, photocopies and video-stills, and is published in an edition of 500, with 5 different covers.

 

Leo Gabin is an artist collective consisting of Lieven Deconinck, Gaëtan Begerem and Robin De Vooght, and has worked as a trio since 2000. All three were born in Ghent, Belgium, where they continue to live and work. They received their BFA’s at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Ghent. Recently they participated in the group exhibition, PRIVAT, curated by Dr. Martina Weinhaert, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, and have also had solo shows at New Holland, St. Petersburg, Russia, The Cultural Centre Bruges, Belgium, the Elizabeth Dee Gallery, NYC, and the Kunstraum Muenchen, Munich. Tallahassee is Leo Gabin’s second solo show with the gallery.