Be Woke
by Miles Regis
Exhibition and residency at the IAO
Dates: July 17 – August 18, 2017
July 27, 7-9pm – Opening Reception
The IAO hosted Los Angeles-based artist Miles Regis in a month-long residency that culminated in a scent-enlivened exhibition at IAO Gallery, as well as workshops and public talks.
Miles Regis is a member of a small group of contemporary artists exploring the sensorial and conceptual impact that scent can bring to their work. Regis’ practice is unique within the context of his peers in that it is truly heterogeneous: Devoted to traditional artistic forms such as painting and sculpture, Regis’ work also incorporates creative mediums such as fashion, music, virtual reality and installation. It is with his wide-ranging and affective practice in mind that the IAO has committed to supporting his explorations into working with scent.
ABOUT MILES REGIS
In the life and studio of LA-based, Trinidad-born artist Miles Regis, every action is an opportunity for creative self-expression. Prolific in both fine art and fashion design, Regis freely swaps the materials and languages of each to enrich the other. His large-scale mixed media paintings on canvas and linen incorporate dimensional collage elements of denim, buttons, sequins, and patches of eclectically sourced found textiles along with his dextrous, gestural, richly hued abstract and figurative painting techniques. Aggressively hopeful and humanistic, Regis embraces a storytelling stance in his stylized renditions of fundamental scenes of love, loss, freedom, survival, activism, and living history.
Tapping into the emotional experiences of exotic cultures around the world and presenting them in ways that are relevant to today’s modernized societies, Regis favors the simplicity of black and white structure, starkly juxtaposed with the complex dimensions of color; recurring motifs include his use of eyes, encouraging the viewer to look deeper. His paintings are often layered with vibrant colors, powerful imagery, text, abstract brush strokes, and purposeful objects — the same eye-catching iconography and palette which also appear in his original wearable art series. Hand-painted by the artist, each fabric highlights a delicately detailed working of both surface and narrative, in the same process that expresses the personal and collective mythologies enshrined in his art works.
Regis’ work is in the permanent collection of Intel Corporation, California African American Museum, and Senegal’s La Musee Borindar; and has appeared in association with CNN, Art Basel Miami, The Coachella Music and Art Festival, CCH Pounder, Million Dollar Listing, The Marley Family, Josh Flagg, American Rag Cie, Art For Amnesty, Campaign for Black Male Achievement, Manifest Justice, Adobe, and Tonny Sorenson. Regis has exhibited at Art Basel Miami and The Coachella Arts And Music Festival and has been featured on CNN, the Huffington Post, Extra TV, Zagg Industries, and the United Nations.
Learn more at milesregis.com
Follow Miles Regis on Instagram