Compound Yellow is pleased to present the exhibition entitled "Manet/Degas", consisting of works by LA artist Gary Cannone, and opening Saturday, March 23 from 3-6pm. 

Image: Gallery/Museum Bench #2, upholstery foam, 72 x 18 x 18 in., 2022

“Few artists are as well-equipped to meditate on the relationship between wheelchairs and doormats as Gary Cannone.” — overheard

Gary Cannone employs substitution, parody, props, and slapstick to create an art that embraces physical and conceptual deflection. Cannone, born in 1964, grew up in an immigrant household on Chicago’s northwest side in the 1970s and was fixated on comedy: Candid Camera, Norm Crosby, Mad Magazine, Tom & Jerry, Carol Burnett, and Andy Kauffman. The first fine art objects which interested him — such as Dada, Eva Hesse’s Hang Up, or Rauschenberg’s Erased De Kooning — had a structural playfulness similar to the comedy he loved. 

Cannone’s early work included customer surveys, subliminal messaging, how-to books, libraries within libraries, conversion charts, and phone trees. In 2013, Cannone was diagnosed with a neurological illness which affects his cognitive function, manual dexterity, and ability to walk. His counterintuitive response has been to convert this into a boon to his art practice, crafting a methodology inspired by the phenomenological experience of his disability and converting his daily stumbling blocks into a generative force. His embroideries, doormats, furniture, and overhead objects focus our attention on obstacles in communication and movement, not as a source of frustration but as space for a kind of poetry.