Renée Petropoulos
January 3 – February 14, 2026
as-is is pleased to present, “Renée Petropoulos,” a focused exhibition by this veteran Los Angeles artist of a single artwork executed in 2020 and shown here publicly for the first time. “Renée Petropoulos” is presented in conjunction with “Ron Griffin.”
The floor hugging artwork on view is as enigmatic as it is elegant. Thus, it may be the artist’s own words which provide the best and most helpful interpretive context:
During the reign of Mussolini, carved words indicating property distinctions were made describing public and private areas in seemingly public walkways. Often these areas of distinction are not understood or known to the people of the city.
Various cites had these markers. I came across them in both Naples and Rome. This particular work references one in Naples in the neighborhood of the Vomero. The work is one to one scale and is based on a photograph I took at the time of my visit. The work is part of a series of woven works that I have made since 2007, based on walking in cities. The photograph contains the perspective of viewing which is then included in the woven artwork. The works are one to one in scale. They are positioned flat on the floor as they would be seen while walking and from the pov of the photograph.
Other works of mine such as ’seen while driving’ beginning in 1996, precede this ongoing project. They are the forerunners of this project , which both allow for finding my location in a city. “Seen While Driving” depicts mass produced elements within architecture that are ‘individualized’ by the ‘owner’ of the property/building. They are found not by searching, but enroute on my daily drives in my daily life. The ‘walking’ projects follows a similar system of encounter. A public work "LAKE@WALNUT” is a permanent work based on the woven works, in particular this work, "Proprieta Privata".
The finds are not searched for, they are encountered shall we say, by accident. The project is intentional, the ‘find’ is not determined. The perameters for the projects are known and followed; a photograph is taken, it is then enlarged via drawing to a one to one scale with the referent and then reinterpreted into wool. Keeping the original perspective of the walker.
—Renée Petropoulos