This week has been a lot of trying to get ahead on my work, because on Saturday evening I’m headed to New York City for the night. I’ll be checking out Flash at the Wooster Street Social Club. Here’s some stuff I missed covering over the last few days:
Bast has a show opening this weekend at Lazarides’ Newcastle location. Most of the work is in a completely (almost unrecognizably) new style.
The next show at Shepard and Amanda Fairey’s Subliminal Projects promises to be one of my personal favorites there. Curated by Peter Frank and Lisa Kahane, Art, Access & Decay: New York 1975 – 1985 looks at one of my favorite periods of street art, one that I think is consistently underrated in favor of the graffiti from that time (or else solely represented by Haring and Basquiat, like representing today’s street art solely with Shepard Fairey and Banksy). The show draws heavily from CoLab, Fashion Moda and the East Village artists of the time.
Artists include: John Ahearn, Liza Bear, Andrea Callard, Thom Corn, CRASH, Jody Culkin, DAZE, Jane Dickson, Stefan Eins, Coleen Fitzgibbon, Mike Glier, Robert Goldman, Ilona Granet, Keith Haring, Julie Harrison, Jenny Holzer, GH Hovagimyan, Becky Howland, Lisa Kahane, Christof Kohlhofer, KOOR, Joe Lewis, Michael McClard, Ann Messner, Richard Miller, Joseph Nechvatal, Tom Otterness, Cara Perlman, Virge Piersol, Walter Robinson, Judy Ross, Christy Rupp, Teri Slotkin, David Wojnarowicz and Martin Wong. I don’t know everyone on that list, but it seems to me to be pretty comprehensive and catch most of the major names (minus Basquiat, John Fekner, Don Leicht and Richard Hambleton). Especially cool is the inclusion of Wojnarowicz. Most people don’t realize that he did street art. And I guess the same could probably be said of Jenny Holzer.
I’m excited to see that someone has put this show together, especially at a space like Subliminal Projects. Street art history does not go: Haring to Blek to Beautiful Losers to Banksy, and this early period is well worth a closer look.
And of course, the timing for this show is very intentional. Art, Access & Decay opens on April 2nd and runs through the end of the month. That mean that LA MOCA’s street art show will open dead smack in the middle of Art, Access & Decay‘s run. I will definitely be making my way over to Subliminal while I’m in town for MOCA’s exhibition.
With the riots and protests in Egypt, I thought the above sticker is a worthwhile thing to consider this week. I’m a bit late on this week’s link-o-rama.
A TWIST bus stop from 1995. And intense Barry McGee fans may appreciate this video, but it’s kind of lost on me.
Seems really interesting that this piece has text in English even though it’s placed in Iran. As if they intended for a good number people to see it online in the Western world and placed as much importance on that as on people seeing it in person.
Subliminal Projects‘ upcoming group show, SUBject/subJECT, is an all-female artist show and will benefit LA Downtown Women’s Shelter. Out of the 13 artists involved in this show, Swoon is definitely the best-known, but I’m also very much looking forward to seeing what Monica Canilao will be showing.
Press release:
Subliminal Projects is pleased to present SUBject/subJECT, a group exhibition opening April 10, featuring works from over a dozen female artists handpicked by the gallery and co-curator Deedee Cheriel.
SUBject/subJECT examines women’s use of public platforms in mass media, inviting both artists and viewers into a dialogue about role models, self-image and the messages women project in both the mainstream and alternative media. Says Cheriel, “Now that women have ‘equal rights,’ what are we trying to say? What’s our subject? Since female artists remain underrepresented in galleries and museums, we created this show as a platform for emerging women artists to represent!”
Among the show’s artists are Swoon, whose gritty yet delicate paper cutout portraits and large-scale flotillas of otherworldly art boats have landed her on the cover of this month’s ARTnews; Elizabeth McGrath, who breathes beauty and life into the macabre through her creature sculptures and theater-of-the-mind dioramas; and Jen Stark, whose colorful paper sculptures, drawings and animations have been described by Wired as “coldly mathematical yet exuberantly organic.” Other artists include Cheriel, Monica Canilao, Kime Buzzelli, Mona Superhero, Meryl Smith, Mel Kadel, Jessica Hess, Marissa Textor, Jesse Spears and Nikki McClure.
Ten percent of proceeds from all SUBject/subJECT art sales will go to the Los Angeles Downtown Women’s Center, dedicated to providing permanent, supportive housing and a safe and healthy community for homeless women.
And speaking of Swoon on the cover of ARTnews, that article can be read online. It’s a very complimentary article, and it’s nice to see Swoon being compared to serious n0n-street artists. At once point in the article, Swoon is called a “young artist.” Sometimes I forget that Callie is still so early in her career. No doubt she’ll continue to innovate and mature artistically for many more years.
I can’t believe it’s already been a week since WK Interact‘s latest solo exhibit, How To Blow Yourself Up, opened here in LA. For anyone Cali-based who missed the reception, you can still check out the work and installation at Subliminal Projects until December 5th. And for everybody else, here are a few pics from the night! It was definitely one of the most fun events over this way in a while.
Aside from the excited buzz in the air and line out the door of people waiting to get photographed and fingerprinted for WK’s awesome mug shot wall, the work itself did not disappoint. The gallery was decked out with a fantastic range of three-dimensional mixed media pieces (from wood panels, skate decks and boxes to a custom-built bike and a series of doors you have to see to believe) and there was even one of his mind-blowing Motion Portraits (my personal favorite).
Hype aside (and he’s underrated, in my opinion), WK is simply one of the most important street artists in the world and those who have the opportunity to see or own his work are just plain lucky.
Pictures generously supplied by the lovely Lord Jim.
