PØST

PØST is an artist-run organization in Los Angeles that fosters experimentation as well as collaboration among local and international artists. Founded in 1995 by artist and curator, HK Zamani (Habib Kheradyar), POST (original spelling) was imagined as a departure from the conventional gallery-collector paradigm, as a space where artists could not only exhibit their work, but also curate accompanying shows and realize experimental projects. "POSTscript: End of an Era for a Downtown Space" by Annie Buckley, Zamani says the objective of POST was not to sell art, rather it was about "strategies to curate and to share.” After a brief hiatus between 2005 and 2008, Zamani changed the name from POST to PØST as an illustration of the nature of an experimental, creative space; that is, PØST is a dynamic project that should (and continues to) perpetually evolve.
== 1995-2005 ==
POST began as a small gallery space shared with HK Zamani's studio on 7th Place, a derelict alley in what is now the Los Angeles Arts District, but at that time lacked an artistic community. In September 1995, POST debuted with Bumpy, a group show presenting an assortment of tactile interpretations of painting (including a piece by Zamani which the artist scraped dried paint from canvas and crumpled it into a three dimensional object Kugelman, Kerry, "Bumpy and Painting Beyond the Idea," Art Issues, November / December 1995.). POST's inaugural show was critically lauded in several Los Angeles arts publications, including the Los Angeles TimesKandel, Susan, "Art Reviews: Bumps and More Bumps (Bumpy with David Lloyd, Anders Lansing, Michelle Fierro, Habib Kheradyar, Leonard Bravo)", The Los Angeles Times, Friday October 6, 1995., ArtweekNolan, Timothy, "Bumpy and Leonard Bravo at POST...," Artweek, October 1995., and the LA ReaderGreene, David S.,"Painting the Town (Bumpy)," LA Reader, September 29, 1995. . Numerous critics reported the show was wryly defiant of the apathy towards painting in the late twentieth century. In his review of Bumpy, titled "Painting the Town, David Greene of the LA Reader vividly described the show as “the missing adjectival link that draws together a slew of hard-to-classify recent painting.” Throughout the 1990s, POST continued to exhibit both emerging and established artists who were local to Los Angeles as well as international. According to Doug Harvey in his article, "POST-Mortem, Popping Corn," published in LA Weekly, the organization contributed to launching the careers of Ingrid Calame, Martin Durazo, Jason Rogenes, Charles LaBelle, and Linda Besemer.Harvey, Doug, "POST-Mortem," LA Weekly, September 2-8, 2005.
As an unconventional gallery, POST also required a re-imagining of income, such as an annual fundraiser, the $100 Show, which split proceeds between the artists exhibited and the gallery. In 1998, Zamani briefly opened Post Wilshire, a satellite gallery on Wilshire Boulevard. However, Post Wilshire closed in the spring of 2000, as the organization’s experimental identity did not gel with the competitive, commercial environment. 
A combination of factors--including escalating rent in downtown Los Angeles, as well as HK Zamani’s desire to invest more time in his own art-- contributed to POST’s temporary closure in September of 2005.
== PØST ==
In 2008, POST re-emerged with a radical exhibition by HK Zamani titled, Erasing POST. The project entailed spraying artists' works with white paint, thus "erasing" the organization's past in order to clear a path for future endeavors. Zamani furthermore renamed the organization as PØST, symbolizing its rebirth. 
Artists erased in the project included Roland Reiss, Doug Harvey, Brad Spence, Sherin Guirguis, and Ruby Osorio.
== Kamikazes ==
After Erasing POST, Kamikazes became an annual event at PØST, consisting of 31 exhibitions in the month of July. (Although the first Kamikaze month was September 2009, it has since become a July tradition). Each day of the month has a designated artist(s)/curatorial team who collaborate on a show as well as install/de-install the exhibition at PØST over their 24-hour period. By compressing each show to a 24-hour window, Kamikazes transform the labor of the install/de-install process into an exhibition in itself. The objective of a Kamikaze show is not perfection, rather it is the lighthearted exposure and accentuation of the theater involved in art installation. Such participants have included Micol Hebron (2009), Salomon Huerta (2010/13), Coleen Sterritt (2011), Sandeep Mukherjee (2011/12), Jody Zellen (2012), Joshua Aster (2013), Margaret Honda (2014), Luciano Perna (2014), Liz Young (2017), Annetta Kapon (2018), and Virginia Katz (2019)
== 2016-present ==
PØST continued hosting artist-curated exhibitions at the 7th Place location through 2015. In early 2016, Zamani relocated his non-profit to the historic Bendix building in the Fashion District. PØST opened at Bendix in February of 2016 with a solo show of Kim Abeles about biography and self-portraiture.
== References ==
== External Links ==
*PØST official website
*PØST on Facebook
*PØST on Twitter
Category:Organizations
Category:Arts organizations
Category:Arts organizations based in California
Category:Organizations based in Los Angeles
Category:Organizations established in 1995