Johansson Projects presents Humming Summit featuring Alex Case + Dan Grayber January 20, 2011

Dan Grayber isolates machinery from its usual role of fulfilling human needs through placing it in an eternal mode of self-perpetuation. His safety-orange powder coated objects endlessly assure their survival through completing the simple and essential task of holding oneself up. These sculptures, which create problems as they solve them, exude a sovereign elegance, the dignity of not having to justify themselves to an outside source. Alex Case uses asphalt as a medium in his mountainscapes, channeling the crude radiance of the oil refineries of his hometown and exploring the difference between exploiting a material and giving it life. The mix of untouched natural form and artificial asphalt speaks to the conglomerate landscape of the modern age. The lack of a human subject in both artists’ work allows for the emergence of an ethic by machines for machines, as well as an inherently formidable aesthetic.