Massimo De Carlo gallery is proud to present Limited Exposure, a new exhibition by American artist Aaron Young. Young’s second show with the gallery in London introduces three new bodies of work, strongly intertwined by the radical approach of the artist. With Limited Exposure, Aaron Young constructs a narrative in which every element of the exhibition is either taken from the metropolis and brought to the gallery, or from the gallery expands into the metropolis: Limited Exposure is an aggressive and at the same time subtle new street novel.

On the ground floor Aaron Young presents a number of fragments from magazines including Animal House official poster, videogames screenshots, hurricane Sandy over New York, bank receipts, bananas and more. These images wrap over steel panels that have been ripped out, cut and folded as an origami usually used for delivery purposes, and they proliferate onto platforms evoking invincibility of youth, paranoia, security and insecurity, loss, random social networking, and other compulsive states of mind. These works bring together the addictions and the glamour adrenalin momentum of our world.

Quoting art history masters and mixing it with pop culture becomes the common ground that connects all the works in the exhibition. The so called Blowtorch Paintings are realized by burning the canvases with a direct flame and controlling this action with water. In one of the rooms the fire even embraces the whole space creating a sense of discomfort, as if the gallery was the site of an urban riot. Titled after some of the most violent urban revolts, these paintings force the viewer to meditate on the aggressiveness of today. Expanding the field of Action Painting and evolving from Young’s Burn Outs, these paintings seem to escape their complete abstraction as images of skulls, Gods, landscapes, and flowers emerge from their surfaces. Aaron Young uses performative and dangerous actions as a procreative forceful energy.

Also in the lower floor of the gallery is a new series of wall sculptures in which a number of spoilers from classic American muscle cars have been nickel plated and tinted with transparent custom colors. These sculptures originate by an unprecedented dialogue between minimal art and Fast & Furious: “the spoilers have a macho aspect to them; they’re phallic in a way. But they also strongly refer to minimalism with a relationship to the work of Donald Judd. It’s minimalism on steroids.” (Aaron Young).

Aaron Young was born in 1972 in San Francisco, he lives and works in New York City. His work has been exhibited internationally in many exhibitions including MACRO Museum, Rome (2010), Pan Museum, Naples (2009), Park Avenue Armory, New York (2008), the 2nd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, (2007), the Serpentine Gallery, London (2006), the Whitney Biennial, New York (2006), and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York (2005).

All images Courtesy Massimo De Carlo, London - Milan. Photography Todd White.