Juliana Halpert, Parker Ito: Au Jus
“Do you like Cole’s or Philippe’s better?”
“I don’t know what these are!”
“French Dip spots.”
“Ohhh yeah. I’ve been to Philippe’s only.”
This two-person exhibition at Bel Ami, Au Jus, is the result of conversations, images and texts exchanged between Juliana Halpert and Parker Ito. Spurred by several serendipitous crossovers in their work, the artists have fostered an artistic and intellectual kinship for the past several years. Both Halpert and Ito create, collect and adulterate images using (and abusing) a gamut of processes—new and old, primitive and esteemed alike—paying careful attention to the specificity of their chosen apparatuses and media, and their translation into the gallery space. Below are links to statements they wrote for the show:
Juliana Halpert (b. 1989, Montpelier, Vermont) is an artist and writer living in Los Angeles. She received her MFA from ArtCenter College of Design in 2020. Recent solo exhibitions include Civilization, Larder Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2023); everything, the Finley Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2021); Wake up sleepers!, No Moon LA, Los Angeles, CA (2021); Underappreciated Survivors, Artcenter College of Design, Pasadena, CA (2020). Group exhibitions include Muscle Memory, Fulcrum Press, Los Angeles, CA (2023); Plasma, Scherben, Berlin 2022; Glower, Larder Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2022); Animal, Gattopardo, Los Angeles, CA (2022); The Going-Away Present, Kristina Kite, Los Angeles, CA (2021); RenBen: Wildcard, Renaissance Society, Chicago, IL (2020). Her writing has appeared in Aperture, Artforum, Bookforum, Frieze, Art in America, and X-TRA, among other publications. Her website is: julianahalpert.com
Parker Ito (b. 1986, Ventura, CA) is an artist associated with Post Internet or Zombie Formalism, depending on who you ask. His website is: www.parker.sex