Locust Projects presents Ruben Ochoa “CORES and CUTOUTS

nov 12 – jan 28

Ruben Ochoa

CORES and CUTOUTS

November 12, 2011 – January 28, 2012

Conversation with the artist: November 12, 6pm

Moderated by Rene Morales, Associate Curator, Miami Art Museum

Opening reception: November 12, 7-10pm

Reception: Thursday, December 1, 7-10pm

Hours during Art Basel: November 29 – December 3, 9am – 4pm

Locust Projects is pleased to announce CORES and CUTOUTS, Ruben Ochoa’s first solo exhibition in Miami. Known for using gritty, vernacular building materials such as concrete, dirt, and steel, the artist will create a new site-specific installation using the building’s substructure as source material. Ochoa will cut through the concrete floor to expose subterranean cross-sections of the gallery’s foundation, revealing the space where earth and architecture intersect. Cored segments of the poured concrete floor will totter on columns of substrate above their normal resting place.

Ochoa’s installations address an architectural disjuncture, conflating the gallery and the art object. With a nod to both archeology and earthworks, his work at Locust Projects further explores the materials and politics of infrastructure in the social fabric. Contemplating the materiality of the built environment, Ochoa’s work encourages viewers to have a deeper experience with their surroundings as they step out of the gallery and confront those same materials on the street.

About the artist:

Born in 1974 in Oceanside, California, Ruben Ochoa currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. Recent exhibitions include a two person show at the San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA, 2011; and group exhibitions in the FGAP @ Venice, Collateral Event of the 54th International Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, Palazzo Papadopoli, Venice, Italy, 2011; and The Artist’s Museum: Los Angeles Artists 1980-2010, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, 2010. Ochoa has had solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA, 2010; Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, LA, 2010; Charles H. Scott Gallery at Emily Carr University, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 2009; and Site Santa Fe, NM, 2009. Ochoa was included in the 2008 Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY and the 2004 California Biennial at the Orange County Museum of Art, CA. He has been awarded the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, 2008 and a Creative Capital Foundation Grant, 2005. Following his exhibition at Locust Projects, Ruben Ochoa will be preparing for his first solo exhibition at James Cohan Gallery, NY in the spring of 2012.

About Locust Projects:
Locust Projects is a not-for-profit exhibition space founded by three Miami artists in 1998 in order to provide contemporary visual artists the freedom to experiment with new ideas and methods without the limitations of conventional exhibition spaces. Artists are encouraged to create site-specific installations as an extension of their representative work, and Locust Projects offers them a vibrant Miami experience to develop their ideas. Locust Projects is committed to offering an approachable and inviting venue for the Miami and international art community to experience the work and meet the artists. http://www.locustprojects.org/