How can an art exhibition function as a stand-in for the artists and their studios? How can a gallery project provide greater insight into an artist's practice, the way the formality of a slide lecture or the intimacy of a studio visit can? How can the back-story of the work on display be understood, without being solely reliant on a curatorial statement, catalogue essay or press release? This exhibition allows art to be understood as an ongoing and slippery practice, and less the finite, linear and object-oriented one assumed by the standard exhibition format.

For “Annotations,” Sara Greenberger constructs a portable stand-up comedy club, complete with a backstage dressing room. Behind the scenes, the work engages an archive of auditory and photographic comedy, channeling the constructed humor and unfortunate pathos of a historic comedy venue. Adam Putnam exhibits an installation in the gallery's stairwell wherein domestic wallpaper becomes a palatable background for a series of framed cyanotype “portraits” of sexualized ruins and landscapes. A looping slideshow provides further insight into the artist's own library of vertiginous vistas. Putnam has also installed a survey of past self-publications; most are ephemera from lecture series he routinely organizes. Alex Robbins uses outdated methods of photographic manipulation to intervene in found images from medical textbooks and books on hospital architecture. In addition to both large- and small-scale retouched photographs, Alex gives viewers access to a selection of his books and the actual instruments and materials he uses to "doctor" his images. Halsey Rodman has made three sculptures for the front porch of Champion Fine Art, identical except for overall dimensions. As viewers circumambulate the objects, they are able to make out the words, "I am turning into mist," revealing Rodman's interest in materials shifting states. Inside the gallery, Rodman shares an archive of digital photographs and an experimental video clock combining performance, the sun's arc across the sky, and a tennis court.

Public-Holiday Projects asked these four emerging artists to actively assemble and/or re-create the research, memorabilia, and other information (visual, aural, literal) that led up to the work included in "Annotations." From news clippings and underlined sentences in books to specific songs that were played on repeat in the studio, the artists have constructed a temporary archive with which a viewer can engage. This archive is exhibited utilizing the gallery's built-in residential-style cabinetry. The assembled materials function as visual and informational footnotes to the primary work on view. Gallery visitors are encouraged to take research away from the exhibition, and Public-Holiday Projects has provided a photocopier and note-taking materials to facilitate such activity.

Public-Holiday Projects (PHP) is three visual artists, Rachel Foullon (New York), Matt Keegan (New York) and Laura Kleger (Los Angeles). PHP programs exhibitions in which artists play an active role in the exhibition of their work. By eliminating the mediating presence of a curator or gallerist and asking emerging artists to exhibit in their own voice, Public-Holiday Projects enables those artists to simultaneously tell and show their work.

A catalogue will be available at the gallery, desktop published by Champion Fine Art. The catalogue will include an insert assembled by PHP, a compilation of selected bibliographies contributed by each of the four artists.

Champion Fine Art is located at 6073 Comey Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90034. For more information about Champion, visit www.championfineart.org.

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