101/EXHIBIT proudly presents Ash and Oil, a comprehensive solo show by gallery artist Ian Ingram. This exhibition marks the inaugural launch of the gallery’s new West Hollywood space. The opening will be held from 7-9pm on Saturday, January 16th at 668 N La Peer Drive, located on the southeast corner of the Santa Monica Blvd and N La Peer Drive intersection. A full color 42-page catalog with essay by A. Moret and process notes by the artist will accompany the exhibition.

Featuring 12 works across three distinct series ranging from 2012-16, this is the most in depth exhibition of the artist’s work to date. Bodies of work included are:

- Evidence, new oil on panel works, 2014 – 2016
- Lost on the Pulpit, charcoal on paper works, 2013
- Ignoring, charcoal on paper works, 2012

Since 2009, the parameter of Ian Ingram’s artistic practice has been large-scale self-portraits. As a nod to the classical systems of art making, the self-portrait has provided the foundation for a focus that has lasted nearly seven years. Up until 2014, Ingram worked exclusively in charcoal and graphite on paper, hence the show title’s reference to 'ash'. This era of production was synonymous with the artist’s previous representation by Barry Friedman, Ltd. of New York City. In 2014, Mr. Friedman retired and closed his eponymous gallery.

To honor the tides of change and his newly formed relationship with 101/EXHIBIT, Ingram turned exclusively to painting for the first time since his collegiate years, hence the title’s 'oil'. With this update in his process, he also embraced an unprecedented level of experimentation. We now see not only oil on board, but surface treatments including pokerwork, wire lacing, wood carving, gold leaf, traditional Huichol beadwork, unconventional pigment techniques, and torching, all seamlessly incorporated into the surfaces.

Ingram’s works are particularly insightful when considering his phenomenologically informed theories of self-observation. Via the direct experience of approaching his likeness as an object of deep study, there is an inherently confrontational nature to his pieces. Through magnified observation, Ingram is uncovering evidence of origin. Having spent some 20,000 plus hours in front of curved mirrors, the viewer must concede an authority of expertise to the artist for being able to recognize the recurring patterns found within our skin. These patterns in turn echo the architecture of our existence, from the Fibonacci Sequence to the DNA spiral, thus becoming the formidable root of content and composition for a highly accomplished draftsman and painter.

To put it in another way, Ian Ingram makes large-scale self-portraits that are honest and beautiful, and if you sit in front of them for a moment, you will be given the evidence that humans are all connected - that it is beauty, rhythm, and love that binds us - and that good art is a human birthright. Or, as Wayne Allen Brenner of the Austin Chronicle has said, "...for all the worthwhile and varied creations, we are struggling. We are doing our best right now to resist grabbing you by your jacket's lapels (or T-shirt's collar) and shouting: 'Nevermind any of that! Ian Ingram, dude. Ian fucking Ingram!' "

Ian Ingram was born in 1974 in Atlanta, Georgia. His is a graduate of the University of Georgia, Athens, GA. His work is included in numerous private collections, as well as the permanent collections of the De Young Museum, San Francisco, CA, the Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, NY, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, and the Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR. His work has been reviewed by numerous periodicals including Hi-Fructose, American Art Collector, Arte Al Limite, and ARTnews.