Joe Sola

He is known for his satirical video works, most notably Studio Visit (2005) and Saint Henry Composition (2001), unique exhibition installations such as A Painted Horse by Joe Sola (with Matthew Chambers, Sayre Gomez, Rudy K. Slobeck, and others), (2015) and Portraits: an exhibition in Tif Sigfrids’ ear (2013), as well as his collaborative performances with composer Michael Webster.

[2] Using himself, other artists, non-artists, high school football players, professional actors, bodybuilders and models, Sola muddles the boundaries between conceptual art, Hollywood film, performance and social experiment.

In 2014, he turned his art gallery into a collectors dining room and hung abstract paintings by contemporary artists on the walls.

[5] Measuring 4/64 - 5/64 inches, the paintings were installed within a miniature white box gallery, which the gallerist then displayed within her ear for the duration of the exhibition.

Turning the entire gallery into a fictional art collector's dining room, the exhibition included works by artists Matthew Chambers, Sayre Gomez, Rudy K. Slobeck as well as a miniature horse, Riba, which Sola painted in abstract shapes with pink, purple and yellow vegetable dye.

[11] They have been presented at art venues such as the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, as well as within self-enclosed installation that invited visitors to put their heads into peep-holes in order to see the show (Shakey’s Mining Adventure, 2007).

Dressed as vaudevillian restaurant servers, Sola danced, drew, sculpted, made a sandwich, threw a knife, then a hatchet, then an axe, started and extinguished a fire, culminating in Sola and Webster putting the entire show, including a large Laura Owens painting, through a 1000-pound woodchipper on stage.