Palm Hoop #1 is Hewson’s contribution to the inaugural exhibition of Post-American Fine Arts, the current iteration of gallery birthed by LA-native Bobby Jesus. This work is the first of an iterative series of unique permanent sculptures. The exhibition is hosted by Hewson and friends in their brickyard and studio complex in Alexandria, Sydney.

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PRESS RELEASE, 5 Feb 2021 (ADAPTED)

Post-American Fine Arts, the brainchild of Bobby Jesus, a Los Angeles native whose passionate advocacy for conceptually challenging art is the result of an unconventional tutelage with a wide array of arts critically acclaimed practitioners.

We are honoured to present our inaugural exhibition Nostalgia For Lost Futures by Micah Grasse, Mike Hewson and Frances Stark. The exhibition is based from a shipping container, stacked in the corner of a brick yard in Sydney, Australia. A ready-to-view transportable cube with solar-panels on the roof hot and ready to light up. Grasse, Hewson, and Stark are Bobby’s close comrades and they have contributed personal work for this special exhibition.

Frances Stark Fed-Ex’d two incredible fabric pieces. The first Homegrown Street Rescue depicting the artist’s cat, Muammar, sniffing marijuana plants in front of her recent painting from the Unamerican Pavilion series. The second tapestry is a direct reproduction from an earlier painting of a pioneer’s wagon ablaze.

Mike Hewson built Palm Hoop #1 where a NBA regulation net, hoop and backboard are clamped to an up-rooted, auto-irrigated and fertilised cabbage palm (Livistona Australis). The tree’s compact root is casually wrapped in plastic and tensioned down with heavy-duty strapping to a concrete slab underneath. The 60-year-old native palm curves inward toward the court as if pulled down by the weight of the mass-produced imported basketball hoop. The tree mostly fazed by the physical labour being demanded of it.

Micah Grasse DHL’d paintings that are layers of embroidery with Doost, a highly reflective, brightly colored glass dust paint (a Grasse invention from 2006). The show centre-piece is a unique neon produced in Sydney by local flame workers. Mini-disco ball sculptures using Croatian crystals known in Hawaii as “Paradise Ice” hang from the ceiling, a non-functional handbag sits at the entrance, and several assemblage objects “Yotropicolis” constructed of Icelandic yogurt and Roman concrete are dotted throughout the show.

At Post-American Fine Arts we embrace forward thinking artists that have authentic ideas and raw energy. Nostalgia For Lost Futures is a concept not just for post-2020 life, but for a new art world on the precipice.