Oscar Tuazon, Leisure, 2014, 55 gallon steel drum, office chair, 23 x 34.5 x 48″ (photo DR; image courtesy Richard Telles Fine Art)

“The Motorman” opened this past weekend at Richard Telles Fine Art in Los Angeles, and is on view until July 5th. The title of this group exhibition refers to David Ohle’s sci-fi novel The Motorman published in 1972. In the book, the main character inhabits “a world similar to our own, but with stark physical differences.” In the exhibition, familiar objects take on new and peculiar identities. Oscar Tuazon’s Leisure, for example, is a rocking chair assembled out of an oil drum and an office chair. It is both comical and disturbing. Mathieu Malouf’s photographs “stemming from a nascent film script about two males and their drunken, ill-fated departure from a gay bar” show familiar scenes gone awry – a car with skeleton passengers, a plate with a bloody heart. Alex Hubbard has constructed a functional bar inside of a shipping container. It is a bar big enough for only one person, who must play both bartender and drinker in front of a mirror. The exhibition also features Emily Sundblad’s drawings and a painting by Jon Pestoni.

Mathieu Malouf, Do You Want To Party?, 2014, unique inkjet print from film, 12 x 20″ (photo DR; image courtesy Richard Telles Fine Art)

Mathieu Malouf, Hybrid, 2014, unique inkjet print from film, 12 x 20″ (photo DR; image courtesy Richard Telles Fine Art)

Alex Hubbard, Montecore’s, 2013, multi-media assemblage with museum crate, 91.5 x 69 x 41″ (image courtesy Richard Telles Fine Art)

Emily Sundblad, Living Currency, 2013, YSL eyeliner on club stationary, each drawing 5 7/16 x 4 1/4″ (photo DR; image courtesy Richard Telles Fine Art)

Jon Pestoni, Deal Breaker, 2014, oil and mixed media on canvas, 78 x 68 x 1.5″ (photo DR; image courtesy Richard Telles Fine Art)