Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Keith Rocka Knittel: Prosperity Gospel

Anthony Greaney x Samsøn x DAN GRAHAM @ Cottage Home
January 14 - February 20, 2011.  Opening reception Friday, January 14, 6-9PM.
410 Cottage Home St
Los Angeles (Chinatown), CA 90012

featuring:
Craig Drennen
Liz Glynn
Greg Hayes
Ian Jeffrey
Keith Rocka Knittel
Nick Kramer
Calvin Lee
Annette Lemieux
Todd Pavlisko
Matthew Rich

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Keith Rocka Knittel
Prosperity Gospel

Prosperity Gospel is a sculptural installation with concepts arising from a Pentecostal theology Knittel links, through these pieces, to the recent housing bubble and its subsequent burst in America’s Sun-Belt states.  Knittel toys with the idea of gospel as a counterpart to the achievement of the American dream through the creation of objects that represent this idea that faith will reap financial reward.

Fabricated from ready-made, artificially opulent construction materials accessed in home renovation super-stores, the central pieces in Prosperity Gospel are symbolic of miraculous financial gifts from the Heavens.  Two large architectural elements book-end the installation and emblematically re-construct an existing space- the project space Dan Graham- within Cottage Home, while also functioning as altars or lecterns that tower over the viewer.

Keith Rocka Knittel received an MFA from CalArts, Valencia, California, and a BFA from the Maryland Institute, College of Art, Baltimore, Maryland.  He currently lives and works in San Pedro, California.