Since opening in 2007, The Box’s mission has been to create a diverse art program surveying historical artists and their contemporaries. By exhibiting artists of multiple generations, the gallery has established a discursive critical voice in addressing and viewing varying perspectives of art within the larger context of contemporary artistic practices. Covering a time span of nearly five decades, our artists have dealt with the historical elements that have been integral to the development of art today. Whereas younger artists supply a fresh mode of thinking, artists belonging to past generations provide a historical basis in which to contextualize the expansive development of art today.
We are interested in working with artists who think in an unconventional way about the expansion of art’s definition through artists’ questioning of space and spatial boundaries, artist responsibility, and the movement of art out of the traditional gallery space. The Box showcases, as well as commissions emerging contemporary work with artists who work using variety of mediums including but not limited to painting, sculpture, dance, video, film, performance and musical performances. Working with and alongside living artists creates unique opportunities for both the gallery and the artists to explore new modes of curating.
We believe that by broadening the scope of art shown, viewers are encouraged to think about art more liberally, to explore their own boundaries.
Many of our represented artists have had limited formal recognition by mainstream art institutions. We believe that not only to these artists deserve to be shown, the viewers of Los Angeles deserve to see this work. Influential exhibitions include Wally Hedrick’s socio-political “War Room” (2008), the Los Angeles Poverty Department’s “Skid Row History Museum,” John Altoon’s “Drawings 1962-68” (2008) and Barbara T Smith’s “Field Piece” (2008). We are fortunate to have seen our artists such as Judith Bernstein, Simone Forti, John Altoon, and Barbara T Smith achieve greater visibility and critical success, both in the US and internationally, since exhibiting their work at the Box.
The Box’s programming creates a unique environment that encourages viewers to discuss the work they see. Events range from video and film screenings, panel discussions, open forum discussions, lectures and performances that are specific to the coinciding exhibition. In many cases these events create a casual social space where the viewer is welcomed in the artists’ investigative properties of process, matter, and procedure. The importance of such diverse programming lies in the assertion that what is important are not the answers given, but the questions asked.
Most importantly, the Box remain committed to the idea that the responsibility of the gallery is that of curator, editor, collaborator, cultural critic, and at times artwork co-producer, in creating a dynamic system to present and reinterpret artwork through its exhibitionary platform.