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Artist Statement:
I am interested in examining
the miracle of everyday
existence. I have lead a very
unique life. Born in Los
Angeles and educated from an
early age at English boarding
schools, I have been exposed
to two different cultures.
This gives my work an American
energy with English
sensibilities. I ...
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Artist Exhibitions:
2012- Fukuoka, Japan. October
2012.
2012- Coohaus Gallery,
Chelsea, New York. February
25th-March 10th 2012.
2012- Poh Chang, Rattanakosin
University, Bangkok, Thailand.
February 14th-20th 2012.
2011- Rheeway Galerie, Group
Show. Through December 22nd,
2011
2011- Assiart Gallery, Group
Show. Through October 16th,
2011
2011- LAMAG, "An Exercise In
...
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Artist Galleries:
L.A. Artcore
120 Judge John Aiso St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
213-617-3274
http://laartcore.org/artistregi
stry/edem-elesh/
Gloria Delson Contemporary
Arts
323-969-0531
http://www.gloriadelsoncontempo
raryarts.com/Elesh/Elesh.html
Joanna Burke Art Consultants,
Inc.
685 Venice Blvd., Studio Three
Venice, CA 90291
Tel: 310-...
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Collections:
Harley and Karen Rinzler,
Topanga, CA USA
Walter and Suzanne Ali,
Tujunga, CA
Larry Baldoff, Santa Monica,
CA USA
Mitchell and Marla Greene,
Castaic, CA USA
Kincaid Jones, Los Angeles, CA
USA
Salme Siltanen, Pasadena, CA
USA
Mazin and Heather Sami, Los
Angeles, CA USA
Greg and Dana Ellis, Los ...
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Commissions:
Kincaid Jones, Los Angeles, CA
USA
David Doyle, Ampersand Media,
CA USA...
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Edem Elesh receives 1 of six awards presented in 500 artist L.A. Summer Group Show.
Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Barnsdall Park, Los Angeles.
"Selah"
Edem Elesh at L.A. Artcore Brewery Annex. April 2011
Selah: An Aural Tradition
The Music and Sculpture Installation of Edem Elesh
Edem Elesh, the multi-faceted artist behind behind Selah, is a traditionalist in the most modern ways of being. Drawing from an adventurous, international spirit, he is something of an explorer seeking after the fountain of youth. This fountain is not the peculiar prize of Pizarro, the quest for immortality. The youth Selah evokes is literally the beginning, the timeless, the elemental component that lies at the heart of human endeavor. It is perfectly fitting that he is an established visual artist in addition to his musical background, in fact it was a mentor at the Art Center that encouraged him to branch out in his investigation of this elusive spring.
The development of Selah grew like an ocean swell becoming wave – the elements of nature, the context of childhood experience in a different culture, the discovery of painting as a way to reach into his own observations and relate the symbols and ideas that drew ever closer to a meaningful center, and his involvement with the band Drowning Pool which knew a fair measure of success in Los Angeles during the 1980's. His group was an underground darling, an ensemble that performed with other avant garde groups such as the Cocteau Twins and The Fall. He performed at the most legendary venues in the city – the Anti Club, the Roxy and the Whiskey.
As Elesh explains, music is jealous of art, and as progress with his painting accelerated he found is subject expressed itself in color, gesture, and a coalesced sense of oneness. Increasingly he found himself locating, seeking after key source elements in consciousness, in perception, and mirrored in the natural world. Finding the world phantasmagoric, he contemplates it as a result of an inescapable flaw that can't be avoided – the subjectivity of human experience. He finds in the shade of the branches of human knowledge seeds which tie us together, that lead to a cohesion that is easy to miss when we view human work strictly from the perspective of achievement and competition. When we look at the seeds, the potential, and the forest – literally seeing the forest for the trees – we discover that human community, the sound of the collective, the rise and fall of spirit in response to need and changes in the times – are all evidence of a characteristic human gift that can be easily missed in a society that objectifies the successful and solitary risers.
Two elements combined to make the Selah project possible. One was the introduction of Logic recording software (and the relevant advances in technology) that suddenly enabled an artist who had grown accustomed via the visual arts to work on his own to revisit music with the same independence and tool set. Secondly an exhibit afforded the opportunity to create an installation. The two gave birth the Selah, an evolvement of his collective experiences and a sort of crystallization of his investigations to date. The installation involves a total environment with walls softened by canvas, a space to sit and introspect, and a light sculpture called Satori that provides a fixed object to stare at. He hopes that the sculpture will assist in helping to clear the mind by serving as a point of reference. The light installation is a flat, two-dimensional rendering of a three-dimensional cube. He find reflections of artist Robert Irwin, and also Japanese heraldry with an implicit statement that such geometric forms demonstrate that the experiential dimension is a spiritual element. Again, a revisitation of perception as a shaper of the whole, the subjective contributing to modify and change the collective, 'pure' nature of things.
The music is elemental, dreamy, and presented in a senses-stimulating 5.1 Surround Sound. It is woven and layered with samples, each crafted and arranged by the artist. It is a sound that can draw the spirit out of the body to drift for a time above the map of human language and idea, a soundtrack for contemplation and rest from the unconscious efforts we can place into structures that, ultimately, are more independent of ourselves than we even dream. From the statement for the project we learn that the name Selah is taken from ancient Hebrew, and occurs innumerable times in the Psalms to denote an interlude in singing voice when the instruments perform alone in order to reflect. He draws a connection to a very ancient traditional practice in India, where in an annual ceremony vocal sounds transmitted from person to person are recited. These sounds are considered pre-speech, the earliest form of human communication, more akin to birdsong and thus stemming from a place before ethnic, racial or religious base. We have in Selah the ongoing quest of an artist to pursue, deep in the wilds of human life, and perfectly in tune with the multifarious conditions of urban life in Los Angeles, his own vision of a fountain of youth from which hope springs eternal.
Robert Seitz
The Surfer's Journal. "Versus". Volume 13 <3: Summer 2004
A Beautiful 8 page spread in this Coffee Table Magazine.
http://www.surfersjournal.com
Versus
Paintings by Edem Elesh
"It's all predicated on a basic truism: surfers make
bitchin' stuff. We've been running surf art portfolios for well over
a decade, displaying a wide array of styles, schools and
media. From the representational to the abstract; from the
figurative to the conceptual; from sculpture to glass... they've all had a chance
to hang in our little 2-D gallery space. As a result, we receive about 85 art
submissions each year. Of those, we choose perhaps three to augment
the two we assign. Edem Elesh came in out of the blue, in person, and
blew us away with his evocative, narrative and powerfully
expressionistic work. The craft is crazy, the concepts are unique, and the
overall package utterly imaginative- no cliche or shtick to
be found."
"Eye On LA" Channel 7: "The Amazing Art of Edem Elesh"
http://edem-art.com/eye_on_la/eyeonla.htm
"A True Hollywood Story", Kevin Butler
West Hollywood Independent.
Wed. July 17, 2002
Highland Park Artist Feature. Channel 7. Friday, May 19 2006
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