Hashimoto Contemporary is pleased to present Common Place, our debut solo exhibitions with Austin-based Gabe Langholtz and Brooklyn-based artist Karen Lederer. Both artists celebrate the everyday in their work, reframing the familiar through their varied explorations of color, cropping, pattern and unfinished storytelling. Utilizing the gallery as a common place to explore overlapping concepts, the artists observe and embrace the commonplace, honoring the simple moments that may ultimately prove to be the most memorable.

In the tradition of folk art, Gabe Langholtz routinely depicts mundane objects and activities to establish a contemporary narrative, drawing on humor, parody and pastiche as tools for social commentary. Langholtz aims to dismantle preconceived notions around the concept of repetition, consciously embracing the inherent beauty and psychological comfort of patterns and recurring motifs. Langholtz' works carry a sense of anticipation, evoking curiosity for the un-known next scene. The self-taught artist has exhibited nationwide, including at BravinLee programs and The Painting Center in NYC, and Good Mother Gallery in Oakland. The artist was also featured in New American Paintings Issue No. 144.

Karen Lederer emphasizes the role of curation, artistic influence, consumerism, point-of-view, still-life and aesthetics in our daily life in her work. Her paintings are full of contradictions, being abstract and representational, grounded yet placeless, mundane yet surreal. The artist focuses on color exploration in her practice, playing with the inherent qualities of ink and paint, incorporating printmaking techniques to create a collaged effect on the singular, continuous surface. Calling attention to the act of looking and our relationship to the images, Lederer creates environments that are simultaneously constructed and artificial, both private and personal. The artist has exhibited extensively, including at Tennis Elbow, Morgan Lehman, and Field Projects in NYC. Lederer was also an artist-in-residence at Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, Lower East Side Printshop, and the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program.