Jed Ochmanek · Gatefolds · Compact Residency

JED OCHMANEK • GATEFOLDS

Opening reception June 29, 2024 | 6–10 pm
On view by appointment through July 28, 2024

Compound is pleased to present Gatefolds, an exhibition of prints and video by Jed Ochmanek. An opening reception will be held from 6 to 10pm on Saturday, June 29th, and the exhibition will be open by appointment through July 28th.

In 2018, Ochmanek collaborated with musicians Merz and Laraaji on A Monastic Gig, a concert-ceremony held at Dampfzentrale Bern, Switzerland. For the event, Ochmanek filled the former power plant’s voluminous hall with a video work made by filming his painting process, consisting of chromatically shifting, layered shots of slowly cascading paint and solvent. Merz and Laraaji composed a set in response to these hypnotic washes of particulate motion, prominently featuring zithers (a class of thin, flat-bodied string instruments) from various musical traditions.  The following year, Dampfzentrale released the resulting recording as a gatefold double LP, Dreams of Sleep and Wakes of Sound. Adapting the video process to still photography, Ochmanek emulated the set’s spindly verticals of zither and the horizontal sweeps of tonality for the LP’s artwork.

Following the LP’s release, Ochmanek continued to work with the files from the LP artwork, reconfiguring and “remastering” them into large-format prints. The title Gatefolds alludes to their origin as album artwork and reinforces their 1:2 aspect ratio, highlighting the tension central to Ochmanek’s work between exacting proportion and sinuous, organic flow. Accompanying the prints, both A Monastic Gig, 2018 and its “remix”, Dropping A Pin in Time, made for the 2019 concert series of Merz’s 25th anniversary tour, will be shown on loop in Compound’s front window 24 hours a day throughout the duration of the exhibition. This public-facing gesture emphasizes the generously experiential nature of the work, illuminating the desert’s summer nights for gallery attendees and chance passersby alike.

About Compact Residency

In summer 2024, Compound is introducing its Compact Residency — a way to give local artists a shorter-format, less intensive, more experimental way to share their work during months we've historically been closed.