Artist Statement
In my practice I am interested in the reconstruction of personal relationships and daily interactions. I produce abstract narratives that incorporate my own personal experiences: ranging from banal conversations and quarrels to more serious trauma and injury. These stories are retold using colorful cheap objects from the 99-Cent Store and patterned fabrics and backdrops. Short personal dramas are heightened in recording as they take the form of animated videos, live performances, and still photography.
In my performance work I use my own body and the narrative of “self” to reconstruct my memories in front of an audience. Objects, fabrics and other goods become surrogates as these materials are shuffled throughout the space while fragments of narrated animations are projected in the background. Through this live act of reproducing memory, the past and present become aligned. The documentation of these performance and animations are later re-purposed and edited into experimental films. The process of recycling confuses the narrative further; linear storytelling is replaced by visual juxtapositions that become about the relationship of the personal experience to representation in an artwork.
The objects themselves can be slippery; a sponge can function like a character in one film, a prop in a performance and a still life in several photographs. Repetition and seriality are generative to an overall body of work. The practice as a whole functions like an ongoing soap opera, in which shapes and materials appear, switch roles, die off and resurrect themselves again.
CV
Education
2012
Master of Fine Arts–Studio Art, Claire Trevor School of the Arts , University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA
2005
Bachelor of Arts, School of Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA,
Solo Exhibition
2014
Color/d Vol. I-III, Park View Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2013
6,7 or 9, Anthony Greaney, Boston, MA
The Year After, Light and Wire, Online Gallery
2012
3, 4, 5, and 8, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA
2011
1, 1 ó, 2, Human Resources at Cottage Home, Los Angeles, CA
Group Exhibitions (Selected)
2015
Bloody Red Sun of Fantastic L.A, Organized by Praz-Delavallade, PIASA, Paris, France
Tomb Raider, Curated by Tyler Park, Arturo Bandini Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2013
Folding Time Rhymes, Curated by Rob Greene, Greene Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA
2012
Lick It Into Shape, Curated by Marcus Herse, Guggenheim Gallery, Chapman University
2011
Circulate, Exchange: Nugget and Gravy, UCLA Invitational, Curated by Matthew Greenfield & Christine
Wang, Wight Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Rearwindow, Night Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2010
Performing Public Space, Curated by Janet Owens Driggs, Casa de Tunnel, Tijuana, Mexico
Film Screenings (Selected)
2015
Soft Whites, PDA, Los Angeles, CA
Crushes: Section A, New Works Salon, Echo Park Film Center, Los Angeles, CA
Color/d, Durham Studio Theater, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
2014
6,7 or 9, Flip of the Wrist, Machine Projects, Los Angeles, CA
2013
1-9, CineFamily (In collaboration with Human Resources, LA), Los Angeles, CA
2012
3, 4, 5, and 8,Vista Theater (In collaboration with Human Resources, LA), Los Angeles, CA.
Performances (Selected)
2015
Crushes, Highways, Santa Monica, CA
Duets, Colony, Performa 2015, New York, NY
Tortilla or Split Pea, Planet Queer at Akbar, Los Angeles, CA
Baby Blue, PAM Residency, Los Angeles, CA
2014
Malady and Making, Declaration of Instigation, LAXART, Los Angeles, CA
Orange, KCHUNG at Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Yellow and Turquoise, Studio Winter 2014, REDCAT, Los Angeles, CA
Red, Green and Black, Human Resources, Los Angeles, CA
2013
Yellow and Turquoise, Greene Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA
2012
Situating, ForYourArt, Los Angeles, CA
2011
My body lies over the ocean, Los Angeles Contemporary Art Fair, Santa Monica, CA
2010
Perform Now, Chinatown, Los Angeles, CA
Publications (Selected)
2015
Forging Queer Identity with Abstraction, Abe Ahn, HyperAllergic
Del Vaz Projects and Park View/ Los Angeles, Patrick Steffen, Flash Art
Los Angeles Review of Books Cover 2015
2014
Paul Pescador’s layered images riff on consumer overload, Sharon Mizota, LA Times: December 12,2014
Interview with John Tain, Insert/Blanc Press, (forthcoming monograph)
Paul Pescador: Black and Blue or the Solitude of Lovers, Gladys Hernando (forthcoming monograph)
Playing with Objects: On the Photographic Work of Paul Pescador, Ryan Linkof (forthcoming monograph)
Try it Again, Paul Pescador, and Things to Do, Sarah Bay Williams, Anthonygreaney.com
2013
First Look: Paul Pescador, William Smith, Art in America, November 2013
Paul Pescador and the Dark Side of Intimacy, Nikki Darling, KCET Art Bound
Interview with Paul Soto, 1-9, Publication for Screening
Interview with Dilcia Barrera, 1-9, Publication for Screening
What’s up in the Boston Galleries,Cate McQuaid, The Boston Globe
2012
Why I Go To The Movies Alone: For Paul Pescador, Cole Akers, 3, 4, 5 and 8, Publication for Screening
Interview with Elizabeth Cline, 3, 4, 5, and 8, Publication for Screening
At the present moment: In anticipation of Paul Pescador’s Situating, Melinda Guillen, ForYourArt.com
Fraction of the whole: Locating myself within Paul Pescador’s Situating, Melinda Guillen, ForYourArt.com
Intuitional Collections
2015
Photography Department, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)
2013
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Visual Art Center
Awards
2015
California Community Foundation Grant Recipient: Emerging Category
PAM Residency: February 2015
2013
Joan Mitchell Fellow