November 2022 / Belly of the Beast

Belly of the Beast

Mike Chattem
Jackson Hunt
Debbi Kenote

November 03 - 26, 2022
Opening Reception / Thursday, November 03, 5–8pm

Winter/Covid-19 Gallery Hours:
Friday–Sunday, 11am–4pm

Belly of the Beast is a three-person exhibition of works by Mike Chattem, Jackson Hunt and Debbi Kenote. The exhibition features nine medium to large scale pieces. All three artists are deeply committed to the medium of painting. However, they all simultaneously reject and expand on aspects of the weighted genre. 

If the historical act of painting is a beast, its belly could be a vast and exciting place. Imagine the cavernous organ of this beast, overshadowed by tradition but ripe for expansion and exploration. Committing to this analogy, all three artists push the technical boundaries of traditional painting in their work.

Chattem’s paintings carve away foam core and other materials while also encompassing painting and drawing over their uniquely made surfaces. Hunt combines photography and painting through the process of collage and the use of a HPLV sprayer. Kenote’s interlocking, multi-surface works create a bridge between the formats of painting and installation.

In total, the grouping of work by Chattem, Hunt and Kenote showcases a fresh and exciting variety of work that represent a new moment in contemporary painting.

ARTIST BIOS /

Mike Chattem (b. 1988, Queens, NY) is a Los Angeles based artist. He holds a BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art and has shown in spaces throughout the US including Ortega Y Gasset in Brooklyn, NY; La Luz De Jesus Gallery in Los Angeles, CA; Santa Josefina in Los Angeles, CA; Adelphi University in Garden City, NY; the SPRING/BREAK Art Show in New York, NY and Permanent Storage Projects in Los Angles, CA. His curatorial projects include Galaxy Brain at St. J in Los Angeles, CA in 2019 and Hot Spring at the SPRING/BREAK Art Show in Los Angeles, CA 2022. His work is featured in the most recent Pacific Coast issue of New American Paintings and the Summer 2022 publication of ArtsinSquare.

I make paintings that freely alternate between the boundaries of wall work and sculpture. Working with a combo of industrial materials and traditional media, I build chunky composites of maquette style landscapes and dimensional painting gestures. The work explores the phenomenological potential of painting through hyper tactility and sometimes kinetic elements. Having lived in the East Coast, Midwest and West Coast, I feel a broad sentiment to the American condition. My practice is sort of like a subversive celebration of a new Americana. Regional tropes, polished consumerism and material exploration are frequent themes; all approached with a playful freedom and humor, regardless of how mundane or terrifying.

Jackson Hunt received his MFA from UC Irvine in 2020 and currently lives and works in Los Angeles.

I grew up in Portland, Oregon raised around my Mother’s side of the family. We are descendants of Klamath Modoc and Cherokee. As a child I always had aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents nearby.

I make paintings that utilize a personal archive of images to engage with slippage of memory and image construction as a material process. I combine collage, paint and a sculptural mixed media to examine family histories and representation through an autoethnographic framework. Images are often fragmented and embedded in the work. I am interested in how a painting can contain history with or without legibility.

Many of my paintings begin with a single photograph as its source. Through layered repetition and distortion the works take on a new visual experience. Tears reveal hidden moments and create new gestures on their own, weaving throughout and collapsing the space. I explore mutations of narrative, representation, access, authorship, and the abstractions that occur through translation.

Debbi Kenote, (b. 1991) is a New York based artist who received her BFA from Western Washington University and her MFA from Brooklyn College. She has exhibited at galleries internationally, including shows at Duran|Mashaal Gallery, Cob Gallery, Fir Gallery, SOIL Gallery, Page Bond Gallery, Peep Space, SPRING/BREAK Art Show, and the Peekskill Project. Kenote’s work has been published through the Innovate Grant, Elle Magazine, The Hopper Prize, Art of Choice, Page Bond Gallery, What’s Hot Magazine and Otra Vox. Her work is collected world wide and has been placed in several collections, including the Capital One corporate collection. Kenote has been an artist in residence at the Saltonstall Foundation, Cob x PLOP Residency, Vermont Studio Center, DNA Residency, Nes Artist Residency, and CAI Projects. In 2022 she was a finalist for the Innovate Grant and in 2021 she was shortlisted for the Hopper Prize. She has curated exhibitions at Open House and the 2018, 2019 and 2021 SPRING/BREAK Art Shows.

Colorful and playful shapes recall memories of growing up outside of a rural town on the West Coast. My paintings are abstract, but they also reference landscapes. Living in this geographical area was as serene as it was isolating. It wasn’t until the age of 18 that I visited my first art museum. Unaware of the categories of “art” and “craft,” I eagerly absorbed multiple mediums, including painting, wood carving, quilting, ceramics and architecture. Within these various art forms lie elements of design, and today I utilize these early design lessons in my work. I have received degrees in painting, installation and sculpture, and I am interested in the convergence of these mediums. I study how design and rhythm work to direct the eye through everyday life. I’m also interested in body language, the things that we don’t say verbally, but that the positioning of our body reveals for us. When I’m working on a composition, I think about how the shapes talk to each other, how they relate and what the space between them reveals. I’m curious how the mind puts together symbols and creates stories. My handmade stretchers serve as a structure to support these ideas, providing a stage for paint to act out dramas and share allegories.