____________________________       Last Laugh Curated by Summer Guthery Opening Reception September 15, 7-9PM Lucas Blalock Paul Branca Devon Costello Harald Thys and Jos de Gruyter Sanya Kantarovsky David Robbins Anat Ebgi/The Company is pleased to announce Last Laugh, curated by Summer Guthery. The exhibition opens September 15 and runs thru October 27th. Opening reception Saturday, September 15, from 7-9PM.   Last Laugh. A joke is all about the timing. Carol Burnett described comedy as Tragedy plus Time. Simon Critchley traced humor out to the tune of melancholia with dark results. They turned it into an equation, middle larded with silence. I am interested in comic timing and gestures stretched out like taffy. a flabby, bulbous pause. William Carlos Williams called it the variable foot. Victor Borge called this simply the extended beat. Mary Douglas thought the joke played on form, bringing together disparate elements as a way to reveal anew. Henri Bergson thought that humor was the mechanical encrusted on something living - slowly pulling it down and a laugh was horror at this incongruity - a last ditch effort to distance ourself. Bertolt Brecht thought you had not yet heard the bad news. Over-theorizing humor threatens to squash what it can do and a nice long gulp of air may help. I am interested in how stopping just short and stretching out the delay can be a strategy for a visual artist. The group of works in Last Laugh are not exactly funny, except in the most awkward sense. The works you see in the room do a lot of things, one of which is to get at that 'wait, wait' via gestures, theatrical tropes and a bit of dry camp. Image: Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, The Frigate, 2008. 19 min. single channel HD video, mono sound Artist News ___________________________________________________________ Jen DeNike is included in the mystical exhibition The Alphabet of the Magi, Mendes Wood, Sao Paulo Brazil, opening September 3. >> Her work is also included in Estate, curated by Lucie Fontaine at Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York. Her second solo exhibtion, The Star Card, will open at the gallery in November. Jesse Fleming The Snail and Razor will be screened at LANDMARKS Public Art Program at the University of Texas at Austin. >> His video, Apart/Together will be projected on the Manhattan Bridge as a part of Codex Dynamic, curated by Leo Kuelbs + John Ensor Parker, during the Dumbo Arts Festival September 28-30.     Alexa Gerrity Half-Sick of Shadows was selected for Optic Nerve film and video showcase at The Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami on September 14.   Jay Stuckey will be featured at the 2013 Art Platform — Los Angeles, September 28-30. See a preview in LA Confidential article. >> Jay is also included in Curatorial Exchange curated by Chris Pate at Irvine Fine Art Center, September 8-October 20.   Lisi Raskin is included in Estate - A project by Lucie Fontaine at Marianne Boesky Gallery, September 15 - October 15. >> Lisi Raskin and Kimberly Kay continue their on-going project, Motorpark at the ICA at the Maine College of Art, Portland through October 6, 2012. >> Lisi will be creating a site-specific installation in response to contemporary Indian Painting in Radical Terrain at the Rubin Museum of Art, New York, November 9, 2012 - April 29, 2013. >> Congratultions to Lisi on being awarded a Creative Time Global Residency for 2012/2013! Sigrid Sandstrom will open her solo exhibition at Galleri Gunnar Olsson, Stockholm, October 4 - November 11. Jesse Fleming Apart/Together, 2009 3-channel video, color, sound.   Jay Stuckey Ginger Galore, 2012 Oil and collage on canvas 33" x 45" ANAT EBGI/The Company 955 Chung King Road Los Angeles, CA 90012 Tel: 213.290.0122 Email: info@thecompanyart.com Gallery Hours: Wednesday - Saturday, 11-5pm or by appointment. Click the following links to find us online: ANAT EBGI/The Company  Facebook      The Company