GEORGE RAGGETT / “The white shining city on the hill and other annoyingly human manifestations of nature”

The Happy Lion is pleased to announce the first solo presentation of Los Angeles based artist George Raggett. Using everyday materials such as cardboard, glass bottles, carpeting and candles, Raggett makes sculpture that evoke social experience and natural phenomena. He manipulates recognizable objects in such a way that the banal or mundane becomes extraordinary.

For this exhibition, Raggett follows an interest in man made environments. According to the artist, these particular works “revolve around the seemingly harmless world of leisure…yet out of these constructed and sometimes deconstructed forms emerge another world; a microcosm of larger movements of the natural.” Through his use of 6 and 12 pack beer forms, Raggett has made a series of tableaus that evoke the aftermath of casual gatherings. However, within the seemingly tranquil locales, hints of larger natural disasters emerge. Uneven ground, murky liquids and colored lights suggest volcanic movement, earthquakes or other uncontrolled natural occurrences. This juxtaposition forces the viewer to consider the reciprocal relationship between humanity and the natural world.

George Raggett was born in 1972 in Las Vegas, Nevada. He graduated from University of California, Santa Barbara in 1996. He has participated in numerous group exhibitions, including shows at White Columns and Triple Candy in New York, and at Acme and Cirrus galleries in Los Angeles. In 2004, the UCLA Hammer Museum presented a solo exhibition of his work entitled “Gazebo!” Raggett lives and works in Los Angeles.