Subliminal Projects is pleased to present Class Acts, an exhibition featuring work by Albert Reyes, Andrea Joyce Heimer, Benjamin Murphy, Jen Ray, and Sean Morris. Class Acts features five artists whose graphic works depict raunchy, explicit, and confrontational subject matter. Each artist takes liberty to create characters within environments where the subjects and spaces engender a sense of sexual defiance, curiosity, trouble, or indifference. Reyes and Heimer explore reclusion and rebellion within the suburban landscape while Murphy, Ray, and Morris deconstruct societal ideals of acceptable female beauty. Collectively, these artists salute a philosophy that suggests both women and men can embrace their sexuality without worrying about societal norms.

Each artist approaches his or her specific medium with humor, irony, and irreverence. By challenging popular conventions and depicting crude and obscene behavior, the art confronts the boundaries between obedience and subversion. For artist Albert Reyes, the city of Los Angeles is his canvas and its trash is his material. Reyes finds unconventional ways to utilize the materials around him, whether it’s beer, water, found trash, or even saliva. Through observation and exploration of his local suburb, the artist responds to the world we live in and the materials we use as a culture and as a community.

Andrea Joyce Heimer creates monoscenic narrative paintings that explore the suburban landscape and the suburban experience. She is influenced by mythology, both personal and shared. Adopted as an infant, the artist struggled with feelings of disconnect from her family and community. After years of observation, Heimer uses painting as a way to piece together neighborhood stories of hysteria, conspiracy and love, often substituting her own theories to fill in missing pieces. The fragments of these tales make up her imaginative paintings

Benjamin Murphy has mastered the craft of turning black electrical tape into a highly desirable material. His drawings are something out of a graphic novel, each image depicting a dark yet poetic narrative. His work is simple in form but complex in meaning.

Jen Ray’s drawings depict Amazonian women inhabiting decayed, semi-surrealist and strangely beautiful wastelands. These female warriors are often seen charging with bellicose flags, warring off apocalyptically upturned vehicles, crystalized flames, and illusive architecture. Sean Morris’ work leaves viewers torn between curiosity and the desire to avert their eyes and look away. With no formal education in drawing or illustration, his graphic style matured over time, from more realistic figures to now non- traditional characters. His strange, yet seductive characters are curious studies of trash culture, a common trope throughout his work.