Join us for a discussion with artists T. Kelly Mason, Fay Ray, and Monique Van Genderen. All have worked as assistants to other artists represented in the exhibition This Brush for Hire: Norm Laich & Many Other Artists, including Mike Kelley, John Baldessari, and Norm Laich himself. Part-storytelling and part-analysis, this discussion will explore the questions that arise when one artist supports the vision of another.

Join us early, from 6pm-7:30pm to see the exhibition prior to the panel discussion and enjoy a Happy Hour with Frieze and Tequila Casa Dragones.

This event is presented in partnership with Frieze Magazine, and with generous support from Tequila Casa Dragones

Fay Ray explores the fetishization of objects and the construction of female identity through high-contrast, monochrome photomontages and metallic sculpture. For her three-dimensional works, Fay Ray compiles cast aluminum objects, bored volcanic rocks, wire, chain, and natural materials into suspended sculptural masses. Conflating worlds of worship and desire, the works across mediums borrow from the symbolism and composition of traditional religious relics and the visual language of the occult. Ray’s sculptures and collages hint at the presence of a rematerialized body through a mysterious yet systematic organization of abstract form.

Fay Ray received her BFA from Otis College of Art and Design in 2002, and her MFA from Columbia University in 2005. She has exhibited at galleries within the US and internationally, including Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles (2016 & 2018); Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris (2016); Louis B James Gallery, New York (2016); JOAN, Los Angeles (2015); Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles (2012); and Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills (2011) and New York (2007), among others.

T. Kelly Mason is a image-maker, sculptor, and sound artist from Los Angeles. His work presents and re-locates the representational and constructed aspects of social space.

T. Kelly Mason’s work has been included in exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; Hammer Museum; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Pinakothek der Moderne; Whitney Museum of American Art; Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; Kunsthalle Dortmund; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Kunsthalle Basel; Suermondt Ludwig Museum; Aachen Kunsthalle; Salzburg Kunstverien; and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.

Monique van Genderen’s paintings engage with the language of abstraction and an interest in architecture to create works that collaborate with the space in which they are hung. She makes large scale paintings that are inherently spectacular and emphasize the vertical and horizontal elements of the architectural environments in which they are displayed. Shifting between abstraction and the acknowledgement of recognizable shapes, van Genderen’s works are decidedly flat and seek to manipulate vantage points and reorient our relationship between the wall, the floor, and the canvas.

Monique van Genderen was born in Vancouver and lives and works in Los Angeles. She has had solo exhibitions at the UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Kunstverein Heilbronn, Germany; and Chinati Foundation, Marfa, TX. Her work has also been included in exhibitions at Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland; New Museum, NY; and the 48th Corcoran Biennial, Washington, D.C. Upcoming exhibitions include “ Being Here With You/ Estando aquí contigo: 42 Artists from San Diego and Tijuana,” at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. Her works are in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, Institut Valencia d’Art Modern in Valencia, Spain among others.

Moderator: Evan Moffitt is a writer and critic based in New York, where he serves as the Associate Editor of frieze. Prior to joining frieze, he was the Associate Editor of Contemporary Art Review Los Angeles and PARIS, LA Magazine, and Assistant Editor of the Los Angeles Review of Books. His writing has also appeared in Aperture, Apollo, Art in America, BOMB, Flash Art, GARAGE, PIN-UP and The White Review.