Los Angeles-based artist Emmanuel Crespo transforms everyday materials into sometimes humorous, occasionally poignant artworks that convey a sense of deliberate purposelessness. Crespo's stock of materials includes cardboard boxes, duct tape, staple removers, and most recently, plastic water bottles; objects and materials that all perform some kind of function. He uses these materials not to create something else, but to deliberately alter the material so that it remains recognizable, but with its function thwarted.

Water bottles are meant, of course, to store liquid, and to make that liquid easy to dispense. Crespo's bottles look ordinary enough, but take on sculptural and playful qualities that may cause us to think twice next when we toss a container in the recycling bin. Can objects mass-produced by a machine take on the organic quality of a genetic mutation?

Crespo is currently pursuing his M.F.A. at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. An artist's reception will be held on Thursday, April 12 from 5 to 7pm.