For Immediate Release JEFFREY VALLANCE: OTHER ANIMALS January 12, 2019 – March 16, 2019 OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, January 12 (6-8 PM) Jeffrey Vallance, Wildman, 2016, Mixed media on paper, 10 ¾ x 8 ¼ in. (Los Angeles) Edward Cella Art & Architecture is proud to present, Jeffrey Vallance: Other Animals, a survey exhibition of animal paintings and drawings made over the past 40 years. This exhibition compliments his celebrated Blinky the Friendly Hen project which is celebrating its 40th Anniversary with a retrospective at Cal State Northridge Gallery and opens on February 2. Deploying an array of techniques, the works presented in Other Animals direct attention to the wide range of animals Vallance has investigated. In many of the works, there is aggressive mark making which he makes by attacking the surface like “possessed cat,” scratching the surface with pure emotion. Other works are more carefully articulated, showing off his meticulous draftsmanship with a rendered image that is entirely his own. In Vallance’s work, we are asked to question the social and personal significance that shape their meaning. Known for his critical and humorous eye, Vallance ‘s drawings, performances, sculptures and installations often reference his childhood in California, voyages to the Polynesian Islands, Iceland, residences in Texas, Las Vegas, the Arctic, and travels to the Vatican. In his legendary Blinky the Friendly Hen project from 1978, he held a funeral service for a frozen supermarket hen at Los Angeles Pet Memorial Park. The artist’s examination of these experiences combines a pseudo-anthropological approach with an art historically informed practice, and addresses themes of faith, myth, ritual and popular culture, along with the geopolitical landscapes of the past and present. ABOUT JEFFREY VALLANCE: Jeffrey Vallance was born in 1955 in Redondo Beach, California and lives and works in Canoga Park CA. He received his MFA from Otis College. Vallance has exhibited at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; and Centre d’édition contemporaine, Genève. His works are held in such public collections as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Moderna Museet, Sweden; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Vatican Museum, The Vatican, Rome; and The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Vallance’s work blurs the lines between object making, installation, performance, painting, writing and curating. Critics have described his work as an indefinable cross-pollination of many disciplines. Often his intervention/infiltration projects are site-specific, including burying a frozen chicken at a pet cemetery; traveling to Polynesia to research the myth of Tiki; having audiences with the king of Tonga, the queen and president of Palau and the presidents of Iceland; creating a Richard Nixon Museum; traveling to the Vatican to study Christian relics; and installing an exhibit aboard a tugboat For Immediate Release and at a Christian Dinosaur museum in Sweden. In Las Vegas Vallance curated shows in the fabulous Vegas Strip museums, such as the Liberace, Cranberry, Magic and Clown Museum. In Lapland, Vallance constructed a shamanic “magic drum.” In Orange County, Mr. Vallance curated the only art- world exhibition of the Painter of Light™ entitled “Thomas Kinkade: Heaven on Earth.” In 1983, he was host of MTV’s The Cutting Edge and appeared on NBC’s Late Night with David Letterman. In 2004, Vallance received the prestigious John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation award. In addition to exhibiting his artwork, Mr. Vallance has written for such publications and journals as Art issues, Artforum, L.A. Weekly, Juxtapoz, Frieze and Fortean Times. He has published over 10 books including: Blinky the Friendly Hen, The World of Jeffrey Vallance: Collected Writings 1978-1994, Christian Dinosaur, Art on the Rocks, Preserving America’s Cultural Heritage, Thomas Kinkade: Heaven on Earth, My Life with Dick, Relics and Reliquaries, and The Vallance Bible. ABOUT EDWARD CELLA ART & ARCHITECTURE Edward Cella Art & Architecture is committed to supporting and representing significant established, mid-career and emerging artists, architects, and designers. The gallery has an ongoing relationship with photography, painting, sculpture, architectural drawings, models, and design objects that critically re-present ideas, archives, and collective materials. Building on his background as an architectural historian, with a decade of experience in art advisory and collection management, a passion for collecting architectural drawings and ephemera, and contemporary art and erotica, Edward Cella founded Edward Cella Art & Architecture in 2006. The gallery sustains a curatorial emphasis on discourses surrounding issues of cultural and conceptual significance, and has represented historical and under-recognized estates and collections. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: David De Boer | [email protected] | 323.525.0053 ### .