Artmill

Kim Abeles / 2005

Kim Abeles kept her door open to the studio all day, where students could pop in and get a costume re-designed, watch her draw, or see a video being edited on her computer. She surprised us with this lovely short video when she left.

About Kim Abeles

For art activist Kim Abeles, societal issues such as environmentalism, feminism, aging, and HIV/AIDS prevention have provided the impetus for the work she has created in the last two decades. Invoking atypical strategies for art making, Abeles incorporates data gathering, library research, and experimentation with unconventional materials into her mixed-media sculpture and performances.

Abeles received international attention for her 1990 Smog Collector series, made from particulate air pollution collected outside her downtown studio.

Following the notoriety of the series, she was invited by several organizations to create projects about air pollution, as well as serve on discussion panels for urban agencies, botanical gardens, and environmental conferences. Abeles has continued to utilize her unique methodology to reach non-art audiences.

In 1993, she was the subject of a mid- career survey, "Kim Abeles: Encyclopedia Persona", curated by Karen Moss and organized by the Santa Monica Museum of Art. Following its positive reception in several US venues, this exhibition traveled throughout South America under the auspices of the United States Information Agency.

Her work has been collected by the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and has been archived in the library collections at the Museum of Modern Art and the Cooper-Hewitt Publication Design Collection at the Smithsonian Institution.

Kim Abeles received her MFA from University of California, Irvine in 1980.

notes by Sarah Brock in the catalogue "Certain Traces, Dialogue Los Angeles-Prague, 2004".

Artwork labels

Give Us This Day (20 Days of Smog)
Our homes make us feel safe, protected from the polluted air. The installations present the smog images in the context of domestic settings. Here, the dinner-image on the tablecloth was created when the acid in the air darkened the silk.
1993

Legend for a ReAnimated Woman
I built a woman created from representative body parts of women in history whose accomplishments express individuality in activism, art and invention.
1999

Self Portrait with Files
Abeles photographed this self-portrait series while wrestling or levitating with articles and critiques about her work and exhibitions.
1995

Thomas Doughty's "Ideal Landscape" in Thirty Days of Smog
We remember these landscapes, and more importantly, we involuntarily call upon this type of image when we hear terms like "nature" or "landscape". By contrast, the Smog Collectors materialize the reality of the air we breathe.
2000

Zöe's Teeth
Zöe's Teeth is one of a series of leaves altered with small paintings or assembled parts. Abeles created the pieces for a book of poetry by Lewis MacAdams, The Family Trees (Blue Press).
2001

Links

→ Kim Abeles
→ Certain Traces Dialogue Los Angeles-Prague, 2004