For Immediate Release

Press Contact: Aimee Le Duc, Gallery Manager
e: aimee.leduc@sfgov.org, t:415-554-6080
Photos available upon request

The San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery presents
Ajit Chauhan: A site-specific installation

July 23 – September 19, 2009

Location: SFAC Gallery window installation site at 155 Grove Street, San Francisco

Hours: This installation is viewable from the street 24/7. The Grove Street space cannot be entered.

Opening Reception: Thursday, July 23, 7-9 p.m.
SFAC Gallery, 401 Van Ness Avenue (at McAllister), San Francisco, CA 94102
Note: This is a joint reception for Ajit Chauhan and the SFAC Gallery exhibition, Conversations 5.

The San Francisco Arts Commission is thrilled to present a newly commissioned site-specific installation by San Francisco-based artist Ajit Chauhan, in the 155 Grove Street window installation space. Drawing inspiration from artists like Robert Gober and Maurizio Cattelan, Chauhan uses his work to both dismantle and remake the worlds in which he navigates. From the drawings on the rickshaws he rode in during his trips to India, to attempting to make sense of his growing list of friends on Facebook, Chauhan uses drawing, sculpture, sound and video to discover sites of reflection amid the clanging bells of our current zeitgeist.

Chauhan states, “I enjoy work that kind of cuts through the noise. There is work on the street that is just noise, there is stuff in galleries that just adds to the noise and then there are moments, objects and movements that just stop the noise. They can be small, simple modest gestures or they can be loud expressive things. It’s just the cutting through – that’s what I’m attracted to.”

When considering the direction of the installation at the SFAC Gallery 155 Grove Street space, Chauhan decided on creating one simple, subverted gesture. He will construct a frozen moment in time, an installation that binds his experiences to his imagined worlds, with the viewer lingering, watching curiously and moving between these fictional spaces, these lived memories and whatever else lies between them.

Ajit Chauhan, born in Kansas in 1981, lives and works in San Francisco and currently has a solo exhibition at the Jack Hanley Gallery in New York (June 20 – July 31, 2009), and has exhibited at local venues including The Lab, Berkeley Art Museum, Adobe Books & The Backroom Gallery, Electric Works Gallery, Southern Exposure and the Headlands Center for the Arts.

About San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery

###