With three enormous mouths he gapes; and straight,

With hunger press'd, devours the pleasing bait.

                              -Virgil, Aeneid trans. John Dryden (1687)

Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guards the underworld, is a 'monstrous hybrid.' Or, as Plato put it, "one of those natures...that are told of many forms grown together in one." It is the ultimate figure of transition, literally marking the boundary between life and death, and is also, as Boccaccio noted in his commentary on Dante 600 years ago, the symbol of unsatisfiable consumption. This mythological beast connects conceptual threads throughout the work of Jarrett Earnest, Leigha Mason, and Whitney Vangrin, as they form another curious hybrid-a three-person exhibition presented at Meridian Gallery. Meridian Gallery is an interdisciplinary, non-profit art center in its twenty-fifth year in San Francisco. In different and deep ways each of these artists are concerned with the physical experience of the human body in a social and political context.

This exhibition marks a Bay Area return of sorts, these three first met and collaborated when they were sixteen at summer classes at CCA. After reconnecting in New York City, together with Alex Sloane, they founded 1:1 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. 1:1 was a project space where every aspect of exhibiting and discussing art was self-consciously subject to aesthetic decisions. As Artforum (March 2013) described it "1:1 [was] building toward jailbreak, toward escaping the status quo." In addition to individual works by all three, there will be an installation of 1:1's archive-including photographs, video, and documents.

OPENING RECEPTION SATURDAY, MAY 18, 2013 6:00 -9:00PM

PERFORMANCE & DISCUSSION SUNDAY, MAY 19, 2013 7:00-9:00PM

See the video of Whitney Vangrin's SAND AND TAR, performed at Meridian Gallery on May 19, 2013, by clicking here.

Meridian is on Facebook and Twitter! Look there for updates and invitations.

Support Meridian Gallery and pick up one of our many amazing publications we've produced over the years.