Now:
Gene's Presents Modern Language Association at Ditch Projects with Matthew Dickman, Marcus Fischer, Noah Greene, Ido Radon, Morgan Ritter, and Justin Cole Smith
Opens October 17-November 15, 2026
CV
One way to think about my work is as an attempt to contend with the unrepresentability of the abstractions that shape contemporary life. Of course these same abstractions overdetermine individual expression, and thus I have to understand what I'm doing as an absurd attempt to make material, and thus thinkable, the forces of history. I have long thought about the aesthetics and ethics of engineering: the ways humans shape technologies and the built environment and the ways engineering shapes society.
Recently much of my research has focused on cultural inflection points or historical forks in 20th century California. My home state captures the constellation of my concerns as generalized social imaginary, locus of subcultural and technological innovation, laboratory for “new thought” and experiments in living, refuge for Frankfurt School theorists, engine of the cultural fantasy machine (from Hollywood to social media platforms), and ground zero of the techno-dystopian aspects of our present moment.
Hovering over the things I make is an interest in historical moments of what can be reductively called failed utopian impulse or experiments in living. And perhaps more evident in the forms of the work is an interest in structures (literally, historically, and metaphorically) and infrastructure (hard and soft).
Solo exhibitions include those at Air de Paris (Paris), Afternoon Projects (Vancouver, BC), Artspeak (Vancouver, BC), Ditch Projects (Springfield, OR), Et al. (San Francisco), ILY2 (Portland), Jupiter Woods (London), Pied-à-terre (San Francisco), Romance (Pittsburgh), and Veronica (Seattle). Group exhibitions include those at Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Belkin Art Gallery, and the Henry Art Gallery.
With family and friends, I make SOCIETY.