PREVIEW & INTERVIEW: LA Street Artist CHASE Premieres “Into Light And Space” at Castelli Art Space – Opening March 31st

CHASE’s street art has added life and color to walls across the entire city Los Angeles for over two decades. CHASE’s iconic street art, best known for his emblematic “Chase Eye” can be found in murals all over Los Angeles, as well as more than 350 walls worldwide. On Saturdday March 31st, he’s premiering a new solo show at Castelli Art Space. CHASE is bringing his work indoors for a rare gallery exhibit, and for the first time ever, lighting it up! CHASE will be focusing on large-scale pieces inspired by the SoCal light and space movement. He’ll be incorporating materials like glass, neon, fluorescent lights, resin and acrylic. CHASE’s new exhibition will boast a number of mediums of expressions to entertain and enthrall in the expansive space of Castelli Art.

CHASE is a Los Angeles based artist originally haling from Belgium. CHASE has been thoroughly imbedded in LA for 2 decades. It can actually be difficult to go out  and about without coming across one of his murals of his emblematic “Chase Eye”. The Chase Eye can be found on walls in nearly every neighborhood throughout LA. CHASE has worked with CBS, UBER, Pepsi, Vans, Google, Ray-Ban, Snapchat, Katy Perry, KIK, Twitter, Evite, CB2, TOMS Shoes, Flip Skateboards, Dickies among many others. He’s just finished his latest project for the city of West Hollywood at New “Pattern Park” by The Art of Chase on WeHo’s Sunset Strip near the old Tower Record’s building. CHASE and I set aside a few minutes to discuss his work with its new direction and expansion with this interview revolving around his Castelli Art Space show “Into Light And Space”.

Cartwheel Art: What is the most ambitious project you have been involved with; when, where and what concept drove it and the resulting work?

CHASE: It was most definitely Pattern Park for the city of West Hollywood on the Sunset Strip. The idea was to ‘dip’ a block’s worth of sidewalk into a painted pattern, using a happy color palette that would brighten the viewer’s day a little. I’m so used to painting walls and working on the vertical plane, and I certainly didn’t anticipate what a physical challenge painting on the floor for 3 weeks was. I’d have to stop every 45mins and just go sit in my car for a bit to relax my back. Luckily it rained here and day so I could take some days off. It was very tiring.

Cartwheel Art: Will there be more “Pattern Park” like projects here in LA or internationally?

CHASE: There’s talk of doing a few more locations on Sunset Blvd for the City of West Hollywood and I’ll be painting 4 crosswalks for the Lancaster Museum of Art and History at the end of the summer.

Cartwheel Art: How is the “Into Light And Space” exhibition different from your street work?

CHASE: It’s totally different as far as materials and technique is concerned, but you’ll feel my style and DNA in the work of course. In the street I only use spray paint and almost never work with assistants, the work I made for this show required fabrication and many vendors so it was an exercise in management, delegation and quality control. I also feel this body of work shows off a bit more of my design sensibilities, something that’s not necessarily always felt in my work in the street.

Cartwheel Art: What mediums do you explore in your “Into Light And Space” exhibition?

CHASE: Each new piece highlights the perceptual phenomena of light, volume and scale, and incorporates materials I’ve never used before, like glass, neon, fluorescent lights, resin and acrylic.

Cartwheel Art: What initiated Eugene Rome’s input to your work and will this lead to expanding your work in new mediums in the future?

CHASE: Eugene’s firm settled a case for me after which he visited my studio. We got to talking and he sort of challenged me to think bigger and to step outside of my comfort zone. We looked a lot at art from the Light and Space movement and got excited about the use of light and various finishes. He kept talking about how interesting my take on that movement would be, to sort of take inspiration while still staying true to my stuff without ending up being too minimalist. I started designing things over a period of 3 months and we’d meet about it, refining things along the way. Eugene has a great sensibility so he’s been a part of the fabrication process quite naturally. We’d discuss every piece together and his input has been great.  I’m so happy about the work in the show and it feels like such a natural direction for me to keep going in, so yeah this is just the beginning.

Exhibition: 
“Into Light and Space” by CHASE
March 31 – April 9

Opening Reception:
March 31
6pm – 10pm

Address: 
5428 W. Washington Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90016