Come check out Private Investigation at Mastodon Mesa on Wednesday, September 15th!

Celebrating the participatory mystery of found photography, Private Investigation brings together the work of 25 amazing artists inspired by found photos, alongside thousands of forgotten snapshots from Mark Kologi’s immense collection. Join us in sorting through decades of anonymous memories– it’s up to you to decode their multifarious mysteries!

Featuring: Ben Aqua, Beastburn, Derrick Beckles (TV Carnage), Jordan Crane, Stephanie Davidson, Kirk Demarais, Steven Andrew Garcia, Adan de la Garza, Desiree Holman, Michael C. Hsiung, Parker Ito, Nathan Jones, Mike Kitchell, Sage Keeler, Mark Kologi, Roz Leibowitz, Suki-Rose Otter, Paul Pescador, The Perlorian Brothers, Christian Ramirez, Benjy Russell, Tanner America, Brad Troemel, Richard Vergez, Adam Villacin and Melissa Wallen.

Read the full statement for Private Investigation below.

As the sands of time begin to bury all physical media, the increased rarity of found photo prints makes their mysteries more urgent than ever. Both aesthetically and tangibly, they embody a past that’s quickly slipping away—but beyond base nostalgia, each anonymous snapshot begs the viewer to answer a bevy of intimately personal and broadly social questions, quietly embedded within their fading emulsion. We glean what we can from these fragments of faces and places, fit them like awkward puzzle pieces into a mental approximation of society, and our imaginations are trusted to fill in the gaps. What primordial instinct instills within us such curiosity for the Other, only exacerbated by the inherent inscrutability of these benign microscopic cases? In Private Investigation we are inviting artists to turn the underlying emotions of found photography outward in their work, inviting viewers to participate in the mystery-solving process and delve into their own tendencies to project narratives onto these artifacts.

While printed photography rapidly vanishes, digital photography’s presence grows exponentially. Found photos, once relegated to the shoeboxes of scattered private collectors, then shared through the limited mass media of curated zines and art books, today proliferatewithout restriction in cyberspace. Context-free photos from all time periods are distributed through blogs, image searches, and social systems like Tumblr, FFFFOUND! and dump.fm. Individuals and niches are democratically determining the natural lifespan of found .JPGs. In the process, found images fuse with the personal identities of the “finders” and stand in as a form of communication. How does this technological and social shift effect the aura of these photographs, and what does it mean for the future of photography?

Found photos will serve as the inspiration and springboard for a broad spectrum of multi-disciplinary artists in Private Investigation. Under the crushing weight of a million memories divorced from the minds of their rememberers, this tactile and experiential show is an invitation to explore the mysteries of voyeurism, collection, appropriation, and anonymity.

Over the course of putting together Never Dies the Dream, Albert Reyes produced a series of stunning fine art editions aptly titled Elegant, Classic Shit. Printed at venerated serigraph studio Modern Multiples, the set of four 18″ x 24″ poster-sized images were inspired by pop culture juggernauts Elvira, Superman, Woody Allen and Ronald McDonald.

Since unforseen circumstances forced us to shut down the show one day after the opening, you’re in luck– we’ve decided to make the remaining sets available exclusively through MastodonMesa.com for the month of June! Elegant, Classic Shit is an extremely limited edition collector’s item– only a handful of these prints will ever be produced. Act fast on this opportunity to scoop up a set of all 4 signed prints for $350!

Albert would like to keep these sets packaged together for the most part, but if you want only one of the four prints, send us an email and we’ll sell you the print of your choosing for $150.

Shephard Fairey giving his seal of approval

Steven Andrew Garcia shot this video at the opening for Albert Reyes: Never Dies the Dream, capturing the crowds, the art, the maze– and the mayhem caused by Albert’s brother Ryan, who (ever so politely) terrorized people in a wolfman costume.

LA Weekly‘s Liz Ohanesian wrote a rad piece with fantastic photos by Shannon Cottrell!

Michael C. Hsiung covered the opening for Fecal Face!

Beautiful/Decay‘s Fei Liu posted some preview pictures the day before the show!

Dave White at Queersighted said Albert deserves to “blow up big like Damien Hirst!”

LA Times’ Brand X printed a featured recommendation that helped spread the word:

Just two weeks until the opening of Albert Reyes: Never Dies The Dream. The opening is going to have amazing performances by Icy Lytes, Nathaniel Eras, and Octavius. Don’t miss it!

Graphic artist Albert Reyes is tearing apart his maze. Half of it had already come down before this video was shot. He’s been building this epic beast– completely from found materials– in his El Sereno backyard over the course of four years, and now he’s uprooting each bracket from each pallet and taking on the massive task of rebuilding it within the mirrored walls of our gallery.

Check out the completed installation at Mastodon Mesa on May 20th at the Pacific Design Center!

More to come.

This classy video of Impropriety Show was shot by one of our favorite young filmmakers, Steven Andrew Garcia. Thank you kindly, sir. And thanks to everyone who made Impropriety Show happen, from the performers to the patrons, to the people at Pabst. You’re all simply rad!

Marvelous! More images from the scintillating Impropriety Show, a night of seven wild performances merged into one ecstatic cacophony. A storm of distorted voices, skin-tight fetish costumes, gleeful debris, nightmarish cartoon masks and neurobiological glossolalia raged within the walls of Mastodon Mesa last Thursday, like some kind of pulsating jellyfish.

Passerbys were at turns confused, delighted, disgusted and dumbfounded by the divine dreamscapes created by Suki Etter-Rose, the New Jedi Order, Dorian Wood, Bitch Swamp, PetSexRex, Lola Loshkey and Luke McGowan.

There’s an awesome spread on Impropriety Show in this week’s edition of The Los Angeles Times‘, Brand X, shot by fantastic photographer Robyn Von Swank! Even more pictures from that crazy night on the LA Times site!.

Watch this space in the next few days for a full recap of the evening’s festivities, plus own photos and glorious HD video coverage shot by wunderkind Steven Andrew Garcia.