Smart Objects

Lock & Key

SMART OBJECTS is pleased to present Lock & Key, a two person show featuring multi-disciplinary works by Philadelphia-based artist Michael Stasis and Los Angeles-based artist Greg Ito.

7.27 – 8.31

Lock & Key explores the common themes in both artists’ worlds and elucidates broader concerns around creative health, work, fantasy and dark obsession via collaborative installation elements.

Ito’s paintings present a near perfect world, a designed vision of utopian promise rings, keys to success and magical road trips. Though his refined symbolic vernacular alludes to pure bliss and a what-could-be romanticism, his sculptures hint at something more sinister. The good life is not easily won. A grittier Stasis reinforces this yearning for more beautiful inner worlds with a variety of drawn vocabularies and music. Through animation, tragicomic illustration and painstaking rendering, the artist employs additional methodologies for expressing a shared preoccupation with romance and beauty, however unrealistic. For Ito and Stasis, these works convey a tension between the pragmatic and the divine. Both artists seek to recast Western notions of the traditional work ethic into self-actualization through their practices.

Greg Ito, Keeper of the Keys, Acrylic on canvas, 32 x 25 inches, 2019

Greg Ito, Table For One, Wood stool, ceramic plates, wine glass, fork, spoon, faux ferns, acrylic, enamel, UV protective varnish. 36 x 14 x 30 inches, 2019

Michael Stasis, Rocks & Clouds, Ink on paper, framed 12 x 9 inches, 2018

Michael Stasis, Joy, Ink on paper, framed 11.5 x 8 inches, 2019

Michael Stasis, Monomaniac, Micron pen on paper, framed 32.5 x 24.5 inches, 2019

Greg Ito, Promised Land, Acrylic on canvas, 24 x 20 inches, 2019

Greg Ito, Light My Fire Wood, acrylic, UV protective varnish, brass candle stick, enamel, wax candle, faux ferns. 36 x 30 x 30 inches, 2019

Michael Stasis, Only The Living, Digital animation, Run time: 4:08, 2019

Michael Stasis, Friday Nite Gloves, Ink on paper, framed 11 x 8.5 inches, 2018

Michael Stasis, Studio Watcher, Ink on paper, framed 11 x 8.5 inches, 2018

Michael Stasis, Spiritual Cramp, Ink on paper, framed 11 x 8.5 inches, 2018

Michael Stasis, Stoop, Ink on paper, framed 11 x 8.5 inches, 2018

Michael Stasis, Tunnel, Ink on paper, framed 11 x 8.5 inches, 2018

Greg Ito, The Wishing Well, Mixed media installation: Wood, hardware, steel lock, acrylic, enamel, LED tube lighting fixture, MDF, faux ferns, fire retardant velvet curtain, and lighting gels. Dimensions variable, 2019

Greg Ito (1987) born Los Angeles, California, received his BFA from San Francisco Art Institute in 2008. Ito is a 4th generation Japanese American artist currently living and working in Los Angeles, CA. Current Exhibitions include Enchantment at Galerie Division (Montreal, QC), The Garden at Penske Projects (Los Angeles, CA), A Swamp Tale at No Place Gallery (Columbus, OH), The Drake Hotel (Toronto, ON), and Absolute Space at OCHI Gallery (Ketchum, ID). Upcoming exhibitions include Anat Ebgi (Los Angeles, CA) and Weiden+Kennedy (Portland, OR). Ito was awarded a residency at The Macedonia Institute (Hudson Valley, NY) for 2020. Recent solo-exhibitions include: Hallowed Ground at ArtCubed (Los Angeles, CA), Lullaby at Andrew Rafacz Gallery (Chicago, IL), Soothsayer at Steve Turner (Los Angeles, CA). Select group exhibitions include: Five Car Garage (Los Angeles, CA), Jeffrey Deitch (New York, NY), Shulamit Nazarian (Los Angeles, CA.), Romer Young (San Francisco, CA), 315 Gallery (Brooklyn, CA), and MON CHÉRI (Brussels).

Michael Stasis (1986) born Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, received his BFA in 2009 from The Cooper Union in New York City. Recent exhibitions and performances include Thin Places at SMART OBJECTS Landers (Landers, CA), Only The Living at Booth Gallery (Philadelphia, PA), Gentle Cycle at Zebulon, (Los Angeles, CA), Unhide at SMART OBJECTS (Los Angeles, CA), and RIP III at The Roxy (Hollywood, CA). In addition to his visual practice Stasis has produced numerous albums of music and poetry. He lives and works in Philadelphia.