Galerie XII Presents Scarlett Hooft Graafland's First Los Angeles Exhibition

Galerie XII Los Angeles (www.galeriexii.com) is pleased to present a solo exhibition for Scarlett Hooft Graafland (b. 1973, Dutch). Showing for the first time in Los Angeles, the exhibit covers over fifteen years of work and spans six different countries. Traveling to the most isolated corners on earth, these austere surroundings become live actors in the highly choreographed performances that Graafland stages there. Whether it is the salt desert of Bolivia, the Canadian arctic, Madagascar, Yemen, Vanuatu or her home country the Netherlands, Scarlett merges with the surroundings and its local culture.

Using childlike color palettes dominated by blue, her photographs offer familiar sights in some of the most isolated locations in the world. Her juxtaposition of everyday objects with the sparse, expansive landscape merges the surrealist approach of Rene Magritte with echoes of Robert Smithson's land art. There is a humorous and playful quality to her work which masks the harsh difficulties in working in such remote terrains. While seemingly spontaneous, Hooft Graafland's work is highly meditative and intentional, sometimes taking months to come to fruition. Working together with the local people, her works are a highly collaborative endeavor mainly given that she works in areas that are so removed from civilization and thus at such a mercy to the elements.

Hooft Graafland's ideas emerge from close study of the local mythology that originates in these otherworldly environments. Says Hooft Graafland, "I often want to capture an essential aspect of the local community and set it off against the surrounding natural environment. That way, by showing isolated, culturally meaningful objects in the context of an untamable, ever changing natural world, I try to relate to the essential experience of being." Most of the images in the exhibit are from Bolivia, which Hooft Graafland finds herself travelling to again and again, always uncovering a new perspective within the salt flats.

Born in the Netherlands in 1973, Hooft Graafland is currently based in Amsterdam. She has studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, The Hague, Bezalel Academy, Jerusalem and Parsons School of Design, New York and has travelled to Iceland, Israel, Canada and the United States for her work. Her work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions all over Europe and as part of group shows at the Metropolitan Museum, New York, and the Musée D'Orsay, Paris amongst others.

Galerie XII Los Angeles is open Wednesday - Saturday from 11am - 6pm and by appointment.