Beauty (A Picture To Look At, A Song To Listen To) exhibition at Young Art

Harsh Patel is a graphic designer-turned-artist-turned-archivist best known for his visually austere printed matter. Patel prefers to work in serial. He creates provisional publishing imprints—3DX, Zulu, Zulu Demon City, Sister—and distributes fanzines, postcards, tote bags, textiles, and other objects exclusively by subscription. Drawing from the artist’s personal experience, the objects in each collection sit between history and memory, documenting Patel’s fandom as much as any subculture. Patel’s recent exhibition at Young Art “Beauty: A Picture to Look At, A Song to Listen To” was similarly historiographic. It featured Untitled (2013), an amateurish line drawing of a dog prostrate with an outsized bar of Toblerone chocolate on its back. The dog is Patel’s, the chocolate a gift from his father. Laugh (2013) was a subtle nod to collector culture. Like a prized sports jersey, four vinyl records from the defunct Austin, Texas-based indie label Trance Syndicate were framed to highlight the mythic seven-headed cobra that adorns the center label. Exploder (2013) was a two-color, embroidered Union Jack flag that communes with the Brit pop bands featured in the books displayed in Selections from 3DX (2013). Patel creates meaning through accumulation. Though his projects vary in form, they are clearly intended to be understood collectively. In a rigorous study of cultural memory and political power, Harsh Patel elegantly takes control of the archive. (Martine Syms, Kaleidoscope Magazine, 8/30/13)

Locating Harsh Patel can be a challenging endeavor. Born in Nairobi, Kenya and raised in Texas, Patel, currently living in a nondescript neighborhood of west Los Angeles, is connected to a number of global communities at varying degrees through his deep interests in music, design and communities. Considering these interests, or rather, near obsessions we might begin to unravel the dialectic ensemble which comprises Patel’s sparse and concise exhibition “Beauty: A Picture To Look At, A Song To Listen To”. Wading through the combination of type face and band worship referent, we can attempt to locate Patel somewhere amidst the constructed artifacts: fanzine like ephemera, matted record labels, and also the recurring union jack flag and Toblerone icons which appear in earlier works. The visual language constructed by this collection of bold, red, blue, black, re-presented type and iconography, at first pass, reads as cryptic map, or rather field guide to Harsh Patel, a mysterious figure in his own right, appearing at the occasional opening, or friendly gathering, dressed in black, sporting a west side suede fan club tote bag. Harsh is everywhere. Though seldom seen, his presence is noted both online and in-real-life communities, invested in the gathering and dissemination of information often pertaining to music, icons and re examining that which has become obscured, or altered by time. Patel’s project has much to do with history. His product serves as document of his own various histories, personally lived and the on going manifestation and fetishization of his acute interests; the lives of others, the life of a record label or band, and the life of an image. (Alberto Cuadros, SFAQ, 6/22/13)