Chris Larson

Depression Groove

Opening Reception - Friday, November 1st 6-8PM

Exhibition on view November 1st through 30th

Public welcome!

Depression Groove (2019), Chris Larson’s newest work and a continuation of his ongoing body of work titled Heavy Rotation (2011), reflects its own nominal description but also refers to the biographies of the musicians and performers, each of whom were born out of the Great Depression and looked to the music industry to emerge from poverty. In the music industry of the time from which these classic pieces of American country music arose, “heavy rotation” refers to the frequent radio airplay of a record album. Exuding both hope and longing, the repeated spinning of vinyl on a disc jockey’s turntable becomes a literal translation of exactly what these musicians were searching for: repeated airplay and the hope of a new future. Through Larson’s use of removal, repetition, and revolving mechanical gesture this new body of work continues his exploration of and research into mark-making by using his own personal archive of records collected since high school. 48 different artists spanning from 1958 to 1979 and 107 records comprise Depression Groove where subtraction and play contradict preservation and timelessness.

Chris Larson is a multi-media artist based in St. Paul, MN. He is an Associate Professor of Art at the University of Minnesota and the publisher of INREVIEW, a print publication presenting critical responses to art in the Twin Cities. Since receiving his MFA from Yale University in 1991, Larson has received numerous awards including a New Work Project Grant from The Harpo Foundation, a Louis Comfort Tiffany Award and most recently was awarded a 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship. Larson has had solo exhibitions at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, MN, Katonah Museum of Art in Katonah, NY and his work was included in the 2014 Whitney Biennial. In 2018, Larson’s work was included in the 11th Bienal do Mercosul in Porto Alegre, Brazil and a solo 10-year survey exhibition at the Contemporary Art Center in Cincinnati, OH.

Public collections include New National Gallery, Berlin, Germany; Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenberg, Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Germany; Collection Feilchenfeldt, Berlin, Germany; Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, Germany; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN; and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN.