"Welcome to Concrete Island: an overlooked city within a city, an entropical paradise where leisure is lean. Careen off the highway and into the cushion of your airbag to arrive at this bleak no man’s land, where you’ll be marooned in plain sight. No one will hear your cries against the tide of commuter traffic lapping at the shores of our deserted island, nestled between two lanes of howling interstate. This vestigial location is your vacation destination, boasting all the sights and specificities of any cultural petri dish. Come and brave this new world. This here and now – this moment – could last forever." Concrete Island, the first curatorial effort of Aaron Moulton, brings together over thirty mostly LA-based artists who have worked around the theme of JG Ballard's book Concrete Island (1974). Ballard’s tale reinterprets the contemporary city as a savage ecosystem where survival is an avant-garde condition. The protagonist is thrown from his urban reality to be marooned on a desert island in the middle of the city. The character is forced to endure a Robinson Crusoe-esque journey emulating humankind’s will to survive in the face of adversity. Concrete Island will be on view until May 13, 2017 at Venus Los Angeles. photographs by Oliver Maxwell Kupper