UBS 12x12: Caleb J. Lyons

Caleb J. Lyons' exhibition Abstraction in the Twenty-First Century features a series of paintings and ceramics, as well as a new video work. Lyons explores major artistic genres -- abstraction, landscape, and still life -- to address issues of museum display and exhibition making, and to examine how his work, and that of his contemporaries, interacts with art history.

Lyons's video, The Artist Is the Model: Do It Yourself, Still Life, Amateur Hour, Idiot Box (2010), is a one-hour video of the artist lying nude on a platform facing the camera. The work references the theme of a model in the artist's studio, but instead of a naked woman depicted lying on her side, Lyons is the model, and the painting is instead a video. In select paintings on display from his series Real Pirates (2009), Lyons plays off the idea of piracy and "steals" or appropriates the style of contemporary abstract painters. The ceramics in the exhibition are a grouping titled Landscaping (Canyons) (2010). The pipe-like objects are made from self-hardening clay, spray-painted and planted with cacti and succulents.

UBS 12 x 12: New Artists/New Work
Caleb J. Lyons