Matthew Hansel's "My Inner Demon Never Sleeps Alone" @ The Hole in Los Angeles

 
Matthew Hansel, Selfie, 2023. All images courtesy of The Hole and Matthew Hansel.

Matthew Hansel, Selfie, 2023. All images courtesy of The Hole and Matthew Hansel.

 

The Hole presents Matthew Hansel’s My Inner Demon Never Sleeps Alone, which is a body of work that has been developing over the course of the last three years.

The main gallery features a bestiary of demons, pixies, and nude men and women in all kinds of entanglements, poses and rituals. The human figures are painted from clippings of 1960s and ‘70s brochures for West Coast nudist colonies, while their demons, with scaly bodies, attenuated snouts and poulaine-toed feet, recall the morality paintings of Hieronymus Bosch. Hansel’s allegorical twist: instead of admonishing the viewer, he aims to enchant them, conjuring a universe in which, he says, “people are able to live beside and enjoy their demons in a way that they can’t in the real world.”

My Inner Demon Never Sleeps Alone is on view through June 24 at The Hole, 844 N La Brea Avenue Los Angeles

Ještěd Tower: Krista Papista with Isotta Acquati & Hakan Solak

photography by Isotta Acquati
concept by Krista Papista
styling by Hakan Solak
photography assistance by Maria Larrea
styling assistance by Aleix Llussà Lòpez
set design by Jillian Van Koutrik
light design by Ashley Young
hair by Dushan Petrovich
makeup by Lee Hyangsoon
produced by Grace Farson
location assistance by Tatiana Bastos
graded by Carlos Vasquez
starring Krista Papista, Débora Fernandes and Eliza Chojnacka

Débora is wearing blazer and shoes by Comme des Costumes, stockings by Falke, earrings by Uncommon Matters, and brooch by Hugo Kreit
gloves: stylist’s own

Krista is wearing dress by Lou de Bétoly, faux fur coat by Comme des Costumes, fishnet, stockings and socks by Falke.
shoes and necklace: Krista’s own

Eliza is wearing vintage Mugler by Nightboutique Berlin, heels by Comme des Costumes, rings and earrings by Alan Crocetti. gloves: stylist’s own

Krista is wearing dress by Lou de Bètoly, faux fur coat by Comme des Costumes, fishnet, stockings and socks by Falke.
shoes and necklace: Krista’s own

Krista is wearing dress by Jean Paul Gaultier x Lotta, Volkova by Nightboutique, coat by A Better Mistake, and shoes by Buffalo

headpiece by Bjoern van der Berg at Nightboutique Berlin

Krista is wearing dress by Jean Paul Gaultier x Lotta. Volkova by Nightboutique, and coat by A Better Mistake

Eliza is wearing tank top by Axel Arigato.
Krista is wearing net tights and socks by Falke.
jewelry: Krista’s own

 

What We Do Is Secret: Read Our Intimate Interview Of Controversial and Provocative Chinese Photographer Ren Hang →

Ren Hang’s photographs rake a dagger across the main artery of sociosexual norms and leave a glittering crime scene of bodies splayed across the frame in ecstatic and erotic forms. As a Chinese artist, this makes his work even more incendiary and provocative – even in the face of his home country’s strict censorship laws. We got a chance to interview Hang (pronounced ‘hung’) back in 2011, when his work was just gaining international recognition. Over the years, he has had solo exhibitions in almost every major city. With his current show on view now at MAMA gallery, he can put Los Angeles on that list. In a back office at the gallery, before the opening of his show, we were able to conduct a second interview and ask the controversial Beijing-based artist about his work, his explosive career and his place in the current photographic and artistic zeitgeist. Hang is notoriously media shy, because he wants the work to speak for itself. Work that is unplanned, unchoreographed and not scripted in any way. Click here to read more. 

Nude Man Forsblom & Jay Johnson @ Gagosian Opening For Richard Avedon In New York

New York’s spriteliest interior designer, Brock Forsblom, became so inspired at the opening of Richard Avedon: Murals & Portraits last Friday night, he stripped naked to pose in front of the Warhol gang. He in turn inspired hundreds of photographs taken by the mob-scene crowd, which included fellow interior designer Jay Johnson, twin brother to Warhol’s former partner Jed Johnson, and one of the original Avedon subjects. In these large-scale murals and the smaller, related portraits of the 1960s and 1970s, Avedon sought to depict the spirit of the times, a spirit that clearly lives on.

See the exhibition at Gagosian’s West 21st St. Gallery, New York. On view through July 27. photographs by Temo Callahan