POOR / FANCY

Curated by Victoria Tao

Research suggests that contextual standards, such as an imitator, can serve as a frame of reference for judging a target.  Simply knowing a counterfeit product is available leads consumers to compare the counterfeit to the genuine brand.
Taking this mindset to a more philosophical view on class, what can be said of those who strive for the upper echelon and those who, by whatever standard is enforced, are already part of it?  Baudrillard’s ideas of simulacrum and simulation decreed that according to current-day society, there is no such thing as the original or ‘true’ form, due to the abstraction that results when multiple copies become the new reality.  There is no “inherent value” in an exclusive car because a lookalike expresses the owner’s aspiration equally well.
  Though lines are blurred, the opposite may also be true as well: that desire for class distinction further emphasizes archaic notions of patina and value. Poor Fancy will explore the psychology of imitation and aspiration, and the resulting clash between true and perceived status.
 This exhibition features drawings, paintings, and sculptures by Michael Haight, Dion Cuevas, Brian Rochefort, Mihyang Kim, Yoshie Sakai, Alejandro Sanchez, Christina Pierson, Nuttaphol Ma, Steve Kim, Jane Lee and Michael Alvarez.