R.Lord – Safeworld
28 May – 16 July 2016
The Composing Rooms is honoured to present the frst solo exhibition of R.Lord outside of L.A.
Safeworld, comprising several paintings from a new series of work of charcoal and gesso directly onto
unprimed canvas.
The large greyscale works, with titles such as: Quarantine: Earth and The Politician have been
constructed from R.Lord’s own sketches, without photo reference. This series, devoid of traditional
painting methods; of perspective, vanishing point, colour and texture, are to the artist, just as much
drawings as they are paintings.
Bearing minor resemblance to left-feld cartoon panels, the paintings in Safeworld draw on conspiracy
theories and symbolism of the occult, capturing an air of humour and relevance. The sketch-like quality,
render as basic explorations of belief and systems of belief, hypothesises for complex relationships
between, for example, elements of our solar system and human ideologies.
“I am attempting to paint the innumerable shades of grey between the poles of spiritual and scientifc
discourse, a grey area oft labeled “conspiracy”.”
– R.Lord
R. Lord (1986 Washington D.C, USA) lives in Los Angeles. R.Lord identifes as an american painter,
though is also recognised as performer; notably as a main character in many videos by Ryan Trecartin,
for whom she has also made paintings as props; in programs curated by curated by Hans Ulrich Obirst;
at Zabludowicz Collection, London and the performative painting series ‘Angry Bird Paintings’, 2012,
combining the hobby paintings of Bob Ross with the then-trending Angry Birds game characters. Her
work has been exhibited in group exhibitions in LA, New York, Berlin and Sydney, Australia, and was
included in the New Museum Triennial, ‘Surround Audience’ at the New Museum, NYC in 2015. This
is her frst solo exhibition outside of the USA, following her frst solo exhibition ‘Documental’ at Dem
Passwords, Los Angeles in 2014.