NADA Curated by Micky Schubert

Gary LaPointe Jr is an artist based in Chicago. His practice grapples with the material constructs embedded in the shifting frameworks of our built and naturally produced environments and within facets of identity construction. He produces works that mine the material systems around us and question the relationships, and rituals within them. In his sculptural work, LaPointe collects and transforms material objects based on their construction, utility, and the social and political foundations they represent to produce new forms and narratives. His work does not adhere to a linear path but rather sheds light on diverse themes encompassing our changing environments, queerness and desire, and the construction and slippage of language, form, and materiality.

“(Carharrt hat arch)” consists of two Carhartt hats cast into concrete and dried in tension to one another. These two hats support each other’s weight by the tip of the brim, creating a completed arch. This intimate embrace of a contemporary “rugged” clothing brand conveys a queer moment of touch and a concrete form that is dependent on one another; producing a hyper-masculine leaning loop of form and material, foiled by care, tenderness, and sexual desire.