Leslie Sacks Contemporary is pleased to present Tip of the Iceberg, an exhibition of unique mixed media works on paper and editions by renowned Los Angeles based Conceptual artist Joe Goode. The exhibition features five series: Photo Clouds (1969), Torn Sky (1975), Shotgun (1981-82), House Tornado (2007) and Studies of the Past (2008-09).

Tip of the Iceberg examines Joe Goode’s practice by way of a five select bodies of work. Though seemingly all disparate, the common thread demonstrated is Goode’s objective to conceiving and executing an idea through a variety of media disciplines. He is focused on achieving a composition through any process available, be it lithography, archival digital print, tearing, shooting or painting and in many cases a combination thereof. In his 1969 Photo Cloud series he takes his Polaroid photographs of clouds and photographs them amid colored lighting and other in studio visual effects. In this pre-Photoshop era construct, Goode successfully captures extraordinary physical and ideological dimension among the free-floating weightlessness of Polaroid’s in flight in a non-descript space.  

The Torn Sky series from 1975 comprises lithograph over which delicate, torn tissue paper is assembled. These relate to Goode’s Torn Sky paintings of the same period. In the Torn Sky lithographs, Goode confronts the uniform surface of the print medium, slicing through the picture plane to expose the layers of colored paper beneath. He is compelled by this same principle in his 1980s Shotgun series, again violating the printed surface by using a shotgun to shoot the paper matrix with the subsequent bullet holes exposing the underlying element. 

Goode’s 2007 House Tornado series revisits the recurring theme and juxtaposition of natural destruction and the object in a composition of tornado vs. house. Both subjects are underscored throughout his decades long career and presented in this series in uniquely hand painted lithographs. This series composites photo-lithographic imagery of an ominous black tornado looming over a picture perfect suburban home, over which Goode splashes acrylic paint further adding to the chaos of the foreboding scene.

Joe Goode was first recognized for his now iconic milk bottle paintings, when he was included in the 1962 exhibition New Painting of Common Objects, curated by Walter Hopps at the Pasadena Art Museum (now the Norton Simon Museum). This historic exhibition was the first Pop Art museum exhibition in the United States. In Goode’s 1960s Milk Bottle paintings he posed a glass milk bottle in front of a large monochrome canvas. In the 2008-09 Studies of the Past, Goode revisits this theme in archival prints of clear milk bottles each uniquely hand painted with a spectrum of acrylic paint. This series also bears painted over images of houses, which are a nod to Goode’s House paintings of the early 1960s. 

Over the past fifty years, Joe Goode’s work has been exhibited in hundreds of gallery and museum exhibitions worldwide. His work is held in esteemed institutions, public and private collections. He is held in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, The Menil Collection, The Smithsonian Institution, the Whitney Museum of America Art, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York just to name a few. In January 2015 a major survey Joe Goode’s work was exhibited at the Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis. Joe Goode currently lives and works in Santa Monica, California.

Leslie Sacks Contemporary is located in the Bergamot Station Arts Center in Santa Monica (2525 Michigan Avenue, B6).

Gallery hours are Tues-Fri 10-6, Sat 11-6. The gallery is online at lesliesacks.com. Email gallery@lesliesacks.com or call 310 264 0640.

Hi resolution jpeg’s available upon request