Commonwealth & Council presents new work by Akina Cox. Concurrent with her second solo exhibition with the space, Cox curates “Holy Trinity” with Krista Buecking, Gracie DeVito, and Ariane Vielmetter. “Akina Cox and the Holy Trinity” inaugurates CW&C’s biannual program of artist presents+curates exhibitions. 

Akina Cox plays with the impulse to interpret. Creating a being that is both duck and swan, egg and hatchling, and figurative and abstract, Cox stymies the viewers’ ability to define and classify phenomena, suggesting that some mysteries are best left raveled. If stories are told to send messages about cultural norms, “Ugly Duck” could be understood as an exercise in suspended judgment. Less of a nod to the Christian riddle of the Holy Trinity itself, “Akina Cox and the Holy Trinity” also refers to the Unificationist practice of organizing new converts into groups of three, called “trinities.” Following this tradition, Cox curates three former classmates together and playfully gives them the nickname, “Holy Trinity.” 

Krista Buecking, Gracie DeVito, and Ariane Vielmetter explore “whole-y” or “hole-y” forms of support systems. For Buecking, this takes shape in the form of self-help narratives produced by consumer culture—completeness and acceptance redeemed through product purchase and subscribed regimen. Vielmetter explores the rituals used by her grandmother, mother, and sister to navigate their roles in society through the tools of their trade. DeVito tackles the balance between objects—a collision of disparate beings brought together to engage the audience in a highly charged dance. For the opening reception, DeVito will perform “If I don’t go through a wall I’ll always wonder what it would have been like” influenced by the artist Wolfgang Stoerchle. 

Akina Cox graduated from CalArts with an MFA in 2012. Her work has been included in exhibitions at Workspace, Monte Vista Projects, Dan Graham, LACE, and Marine Contemporary. She has been involved with many collectives including lyeberry and the Eternal Telethon, which has staged events at the X-Initiative, Pomona College Museum of Art, Barf Space, and RedCat. Her videos have been screened at various venues in Berlin, Amsterdam, New York, and Los Angeles. Her artist books have been published by New Byzantium Press and Golden Spike Press, and can be purchased at Skylight Books, Ooga Booga, and the MOCA Bookstore in Los Angeles, Art Metropole in Toronto, and Printed Matter in New York City. She lives and works in Los Angeles.