Exhibits,

Spencer Lai A smile forms into a grimace mid-slumber as the earth spins— it’s funny, such is the sound of laughter — it is like god’s hands on the shoulders of a troubled world

Opening (Second Iteration):
Friday 9 November, 6 - 8pm

Film Screening: Thursday 22 November, 6.30 - 8.30pm

*** Due to limited capacity attendance will be on a first come first serve basis.

Catalogue:
“Fucky, With Compliments”
Text by Audrey Schmidt

Reading List:
Spencer Lai

‘A smile forms into a grimace mid-slumber as the earth spins— it’s funny, such is the sound of laughter — it is like god’s hands on the shoulders of a troubled world’ by Spencer Lai forms part of Bus Projects’ ongoing ‘With Compliments’ series of exhibitions exploring the relationship between artists and their influences across generations and international borders and how these influences can remain a vital force throughout an artists career.

For the exhibition at Bus Projects, Spencer will present new and re-visited sculptural and installation-based works, alongside a video work by Paul McCarthy (with Mike Kelley) and a series of sculptural compositions by Lou Hubbard.

The second iteration of the exhibition introduces additional works by Hana Earles, Elizabeth Newman, Christopher LG Hill & Joshua Petherick, Kate Meakin and Samraing Chea. Works will be exhibited on partitions within the exhibition space. In addition to this, there will be an evening screening of screen-based works selected by the artist. Including works by Jordan Wolfson, Beth Caird, and Matthew Linde, with Harry Hughes and Giovanna Flores. Due to limited capacity attendance for this event will be on a first come first serve basis.

The exhibition includes a catalogue text by Audrey Schmidt.

Spencer Lai (b. 1991, Malaysia) is Melbourne based artist, curator and writer. They graduated with a BFA (with Honors) from The Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne in 2014. They are represented by Fort Delta and are the co-founder of Monica’s Gallery. Spencer Lai’s practice navigates the visual lexicon of design, fashion, and window display, with specific interest in subcultural identities and aesthetic cultures. Their process involves the collation and editing of found/personal materials, objects and clothing to reflect and disseminate narratives surrounding consumer cultural consciousness. Spencer Lai is represented by Fort Delta, Melbourne.

Lou Hubbard has exhibited widely throughout Australia and internationally, with recent exhibitions including Neverwhere, Gaia Gallery, Istanbul (2015); Dead Still Standing, West Space, Melbourne (2015); Melbourne Now, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, (2013-14); FX, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, (2013); The Knock Off Show, Slopes, Melbourne, (2013); Antic Measures, Galerija Gregor Podnar, Berlin, (2011–12); NEW10, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, (2010); Change, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, (2010); Making It New: Focus on Contemporary Australian Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, (2009). In 2015 Hubbard won the Art Gallery of Ballarat Guirguis New Art Prize. She completed a Master of Fine Art at RMIT University in 2001 and is currently Head of Photography at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne.

Paul McCarthy is widely considered to be one of the most influential and groundbreaking contemporary American artists. Born in 1945, and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, he first established a multi-faceted artistic practice, which sought to break the limitations of painting by using unorthodox materials such as bodily fluids and food. He has since become known for visceral, often hauntingly humorous work in a variety of mediums – from performance, photography, film and video, to sculpture, drawing and painting.

Mike Kelley is widely considered one of the most influential artists of our time. Originally from a suburb outside of Detroit, Kelley attended the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, before moving to Southern California in 1976 to study at California Institute of the Arts from which he received an MFA in 1978. The city of Los Angeles became his adopted home and the site of his prolific art practice. In much of his work, Kelley drew from a wide spectrum of high and low culture, and was known to scour flea markets for America’s cast-offs and leftovers. Mining the banal objects of everyday life, Kelley elevated these materials to question and dismantle Western conceptions of contemporary art and culture.

The ‘With Compliments’ program is part of a legacy of curatorial enquiries that have taken place throughout the last century, into how Australian artists locate their work within an international dialogue. Previous iterations include ‘Paper Empire’ by Daniel McKewen (AUS), Paul Pfeiffer (USA) and Tracey Moffat (AUS), ‘SILVER SHADOW’, Lydia Wegner (AUS) and Barbara Kasten (USA), ‘Country Home Ideas’, Sean Peoples (AUS) and Jacky Connolly (USA), ‘Your work in my dreams’, Noriko Nakamura (AUS) and Gilad Ratman (IL), ‘Coffee in the morgue’, Saskia Doherty (AUS) with Stanya Kahn (USA) and Louise Bourgeois (FRA/USA), and ‘A Moveable Priest’, David Egan (AUS) with Claudia Lemke (GER).

Spencer Lai’s work appears courtesy the artist and Fort Delta

Lou Hubbard’s work appears courtesy the artist and Sarah Scout

Paul McCarthy’s work appears courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Mike Kelley’s work appears courtesy of the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts

Elizabeth Newman’s work appears courtesy the artist and Neon Parc

Joshua Petherick’s work appears courtesy the artist and Station Gallery

Samraing Chea’s work appears courtesy the artist and Arts Project