A hot-tub installation by Zack Davis & Aaron Howe. Viewers are invited to participate. Swanky bathing attire is recommended.
	Title: Swimsuits Recommended Artist: Aaron Howe & Zack Davis Dates: Saturday, February 17 – Sunday, March 18 Opening: Saturday, February 17, 7–9pm Location: 487 Driggs Ave, bet N. 9 and N. 10 Directions: Click here Hours:  Thurs–Mon, 12–6pm Contact:  don@JackthePelicanPresents.com or 646-644-6756

Smug, like smog, is everywhere. Hot tub as social
critique? Yes! as Howe & Davis see it, there’s a war
going on, not to mention plague upon plague of other
social, economic and political evils. Odysseus fled
the danger of oblivion and loss of individuality on
Calypso’s alluring aisle. We cannot. So best enjoy it!

Howe & Davis dream “Joseph Beuys” utopian dreams. They
present a traditional spa forum with live nudity, or
partial nudity, promoting a democratic atmosphere of
vulnerability. The scenario would seem to allow for
honest discussion. However, as the audience splits
into onlookers armored in passivity and participants
stripped to their skivvies, it rises to pure
spectacle.

On both sides of the line, self-consciousness swells.
Soul-searching, critical judgment evolves into performance.
To reinforce this dynamic, the artists divide into performer
and voyeur. At the opening reception, and on other occasions,
Davis will relax in the spa and Howe will take
photographs. The flamboyant and charismatic Davis will
barker others into joining him in the tub.

The installation also includes a display of hot-tub
paraphernalia. The items are coated in what the
artists call IBO, International Brilliant Orange, a
buoyant and friendly color reminiscent of bright
safety orange. The coating renders them unusable as
functional objects. They are elevated to transcendent
souvenirs of the spectacle.

Howe and Davis have developed their BRILLIANT concept
to brand their collaborative endeavors. BRILLIANT is
not to be confused with a style; it is a trademark or
psychology.

Recent California transplant Zack Davis, after failing
to achieve his dream of playing water polo in the
Olympics, took aim at the art world. He received his
MFA in Sculpture from Claremont Graduate University in
Los Angeles in 2003. Since then, his performance,
installation and sculpture have been exhibited at L.A.
venues such as the White Gallery at UCLA, Henry
Duarte, The Pasadena Armory Center for the Arts, the
Lollapalooza Music Festival and LincArt. His work has
also appeared at contemporary fairs in Los Angeles,
San Francisco, New York and Berlin.

Aaron Howe lives in Santa Monica and is an art
director for an adagency in Los Angeles. Aaron has
done designs and art direction forRolling Stone,
Snapple, Honda, Bud Light, Activision, the Hard Rock
Café and many more. He received his MFA in sculpture
from Claremont Graduate School. Aaron continues to
show mostly photography at various galleries
coast-to-coast. His photography has been likened to
those awkward calm moments between scenes on the set
of a porn movie. This is not at all due to the fact
that he and Zack Davis collaborate a lot on his
photography.