Regen Projects is pleased to present Abstract or Regular?, an exhibition of new video work and a painting by Alex Hubbard.

The show includes six larger than life animations projected onto wooden constructions cut to the shape of their subjects, ranging from cartoon characters to an electrocuted pickle. These works demonstrate Hubbard’s solution to the self-imposed challenge of presenting motion within a fixed object—a physical constraint he contests in works where animated movements push beyond the confines of the custom “screen.” Here Hubbard investigates the structures and systems of art and exhibition by stretching, bending, and expanding the perceived boundaries between painting, sculpture, film, and performance. With this body of work, Hubbard works against the ubiquitous glossy perfection of AI generated imagery and digital fabrication. These animations are sourced from the everyday, the found, and the hand-made.

Hubbard’s enduring experimentations with the figure-ground relationship and the boundary between representational form and abstraction is exemplified in a new painting. Both the painting and video works embody an idiosyncratic approach to incorporating three-dimensional and kinetic elements within traditionally non-sculptural mediums, drawing inspiration from art historical precedents that similarly extend the limits of genre and composition. As the artist has stated, “I see the materials and technologies I use in the same way. The idea is to always push it, to create something that hasn’t been done or seen. I like to present myself with a challenge or puzzle and try to solve it in a graceful and interesting way. I see people make the same painting for like ten years and I just have no idea how they can stand to do it. I would just feel like I was pantomiming myself. I love a good studio disaster, then trying to get out of it.”