The Balmoral is pleased to present a show of new works by emerging Los Angeles-based multimedia artist Aaron Garber-Maikovska. This is Garber-Maikovska's first exhibition with the gallery and will include both paintings and video-documented performance pieces.

Born in Petaluma, CA in 1978, Garber-Maikovska studied at the San Francisco Art Institute and UCLA before receiving his BFA in 2006. His work has appeared in galleries and institutions including Liz Oliveira, Angstrom, and Kantor/Fuer in Los Angeles, Rental Gallery in New York, and Karma International in Zurich, Switzerland.

A consummate shape shifter, Garber-Maikovska appropriates and inhabits personas, references and found elements. Alternate identities, including the ominously named German Frat Boy, appear. Homage to the family circle also has its place in the artist's world; surprise visits from Kiva (his sister) and Poodle (a reference to his family's dog of choice) occur, seemingly at random. In addition to honoring the mysteries of the domestic, Garber-Maikovska's pieces, (both material and performance based) thrive on the rules-or non-rules-of improvisation. Rhythms arise, occasionally discover their own crescendos, and are broken, in very much the same way they would in blues music. The governing ethic in Garber-Maikovska's work is something he himself refers to as "Atmo", or Authentic Movement. Though there is a theatricality in these pieces, it is organically rooted, reliant on its own natural energy and timing.

Raw, exuberant, and unnerving, Garber-Maikovska's paintings combine elements of impulsive gesture, hot color, found images and text, to create a cumulative wallop of energy. In one piece, a grimacing, high-domed head in cadmium red peers out from what seems to be a grid of aquamarine bars. Floating above this apparition are the words (scrawled in white, with all the half-cocked desperation of a threat written on a bathroom mirror), "I NEVER DID LIKE BILLY THE KID MUCH." Faintly perceptible under this frenetic action are the words (in black) "KIVA VS. MOM". Never has the rebellion of subtext been so explicit or as entertaining. In another piece, atop dreamily frantic swirls of scarlet, teal and black, sits the affirmative declaration, "OLDER WOMEN MAKE BEAUTIFUL LOVERS." The left side of the picture ground is dominated by a series of short horizontal lines; for all we know, this heady proclamation might have been composed and then torn (either in triumph or despair) from a high school spiral-ring notebook.

In Garber-Maikovska's video works, the artist draws upon his inspiration by conceptual and performance artists of the 70's, (in particular Dennis Oppenheim), as well as 19th century composer Richard Wagner. These documented performances work to activate pre-existing physical, emotional, and mental landscapes through the use of the artist's body; in these situations, the body becomes a conduit, a site to challenge the self by exploring, transforming, and communicating through ritualistic actions and interactions.  Referencing Wagner's idea of Gesamtkunstwerk ("total artwork"), Garber-Maikovska builds his stage/sets to dominate the space, flooding the audience with various sensory experiences and impressions. In one recent video, the artist seats himself, cross-legged, on a mat printed with concentric numbered circles. In front of him rests a "shrine" comprised of two lanterns and a pair of upturned tennis shoes. He then begins a process of folding and unfolding his legs, rocking back and forth, allowing his arms to thrust inward and out, his hands to float through space, all the while identifying the "shrine" as the core of the piece. Chanting and humming, as well as the occasional rhythmic slap, dominates the soundtrack of the piece.  It is a work marked by an energy both supple and sensual, playful and engrossing; it is a tribute to possibility. This last statement, in fact, can be applied to Garber-Maikovska's body of work as a whole: work that harnesses a rough and natural energy to stir up emotion, provoke thought and instill a sense of unusual but intoxicating optimism.