The Order of Shadowboxing

About

Shadow boxing is the practice of sparring against an imaginary opponent. The body moves through a space with an opposition recognizing a mass behind absence. This act is to rejoice in self-occupance as movement, intention and impulse become dictated by the concoction of a phantom will. The subject casts a shadow upon itself

A push and pull between forces sometimes unknown, the politics of the everyday sustain a similar inertia. Bodies move and collide all while transporting an emotive energy that socializes generously. This energy has no bias and lacks distinction of light and darkness- good or evil.

What is laughable is when this space is perceived so selfishly- “I think therefore I am”. The shadow is an image, and what we shadow box needs no face. Before the mirror we can be anything and what we speak are someone else’s words. When we look the truth is flat. When we kiss our eyes are closed. 

Et Al. is pleased to present The Order of Shadowboxing, a two-person exhibition featuring Alex Ito and Greg Ito. 

Alex Ito’s work consists of a series of digitally printed portraits and a three-dimensional maquette. Each work displays an arid treatment that conceals the identities of each image. These non-identities of the figure and space suggest a malleability of an object and its potential to be manipulated by external force- continuing Ito’s investigation of corporately homogenized intimacy . 

Greg Ito’s paintings and sculpture display an arrangement of images extracted from the visual culture of romance. The scattered placement of bodily gestures, objects and emotional states use the visual vocabulary from popular culture to explore pathos within such universalized and massively distributed imagery. Both illustrative and chaotic, Ito’s paintings explore the seduction of the romantic narrative. 

Alex Ito (b.1991 Los Angeles, CA) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include SADE (Los Angeles), Springsteen (Baltimore), Rod Barton (London), Art in General (NY). He has recently participated in group exhibitions at Johannes Vogt Gallery (New York), Spreez (Munich), The Zabludowicz Collection (London), Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens (Deurle). Forthcoming projects include a solo exhibition at The Still House Group (Brooklyn) and group exhibitions at Franz Josefs Kai 3 (Vienna) and Galerie Jeanroch Dard (Brussels). 

Greg Ito (b.1987 Los Angeles) currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. Forthcoming exhibitions include City Limits, Los Angeles. Recent solo and two person exhibitions include AFTER GRUEN (w/ Alex Ito) at SADE, Los Angeles, Children (w/ Chris Lux) at Mission Comics, San Francisco, and Heavy Withdrawals (solo) at City Limits, Oakland. Recent group exhibitions include Time Flies Like a Banana at Johannes Vogt, New York, and Casual Friday at VACANCY, Los Angeles. Ito is a co-founder of SFAQ magazine, and Ever Gold Gallery, San Francisco, and co-curator at MOROSO PROJECTS, San Francisco.