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CONTENTS

Winter 2018
ISSUE 10 42
Editor's Letter Influences
204 Floating in Space with

14 Mike Lee

Studio Time
46
Sarah Sitkin’s Silicone
Vale in Southern Travel Insider 86 118
California The Center Holds in A Tribute to Daniel Rich
Mexico City Greg Escalante
18
The Report 50
Urban Nation’s Grand In Session
Opening in Berlin All Hands on Deck
at Otis College of

22 Art and Design

Product
94 126
Reviews 54 Luke Pelletier
Sakura Pens, Liquitex Profile Smithe
134
Paint, adidas Velvet Laugh Now, But One
Kicks Day We’ll Be In Charge
Events
24 60 MCA Denver, MoMA,
Joshua Liner Gallery,
Picture Book Book Reviews Thinkspace, Athen B.
Cheryl Dunn Is Philip Guston, James Gallery
Everybody Street Stanford, Standards
Manual’s New York City 102 136
32 Transit Authority
Kip Omolade
Sieben on Life
Design
The Gorgeously 64 The Dotted Line

Beautiful Bits
138
Grotesque World of
Sarah Sitkin The Next Generation of
Virtual Reality in Art Pop Life
36 Sacramento, New York
City, Los Angeles and
Fashion
Hide and Seek 110 San Francisco

with the Eyewear of

Gustav Klimt
Kerin Rose Gold 142
Perspective
The Legacy of Pictures

78 on Walls

Anja Salonen

6 WINTER 2018 Right: Kerry James Marshall, Untitled (Curtain Girl), Acrylic on PVC panel, 24” x 30”, 2016
66
Kerry James
Marshall
STAFF

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INTERN
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Juxtapoz ISSN #1077-8411 Winter 2018 Volume 25, Number 01

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8 WINTER 2018 Cover art: Kerry James Marshall, Our Town (detail), Acrylic and collage on canvas, 143” x 101”, 1995. Courtesy of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas
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EDITOR’S LETTER
Issue NO 204
“ ... but you know what? That's the way it's supposed to
be. It's supposed to get harder, and that's not really a
problem. You're supposed to be more sophisticated and
much more self-conscious...” —Kerry James Marshall
There was a conversation in our office as we
refined the Winter 2018 issue that struck me as a
good starting point for this letter. Thinking about
Metacritic or Rotten Tomatoes, we started talking
about the idea behind aggregate review sites,
on which we base so much of our TV and movie
watching habits. What made us laugh, as we went
to print, was that Thor: Ragnarok had the same
aggregate review “rating” as Moonlight.
I didn’t see Thor, and perhaps Chris Hemsworth
puts on a performance for the ages, but if you think
about historically important fi lms, groundbreaking
pieces of art that will define generations, Moonlight
is probably going to hold a tad more weight than
Thor: Ragnarok. And that’s just part of our point;
the appreciation of art means so much to so many
different people, and genres and styles all have
their separate identities that make up the whole
picture. In a world increasingly reliant on virality,
sometimes the “aggregationalism” of our times is
killing our love of nuance. Cue your “get off my
lawn” commentary now.
10 WINTER 2018
In its 24 years, Juxtapoz has never been about
reviews in the traditional sense. Yes, we tell you
about our favorite art shows, break down the top
book releases, and feature who we consider to be
artists of the moment. Robert Williams founded
the magazine with an outsider’s mentality. Juxtapoz
would act as a community of thoughts, ideas and
heritage that would create its own art history.
Artists could share their painting practices,
and writers would open doors to the art world’s
previously overlooked. Pop-surrealists, graffiti
and tattoo cultures, comic-book artists and the
occasional hot rodder building their own language
free of the critical lexicon of reviews—Juxtapoz was,
and still is, for artists, by artists.
In the spirit of those founding years, and as
Juxtapoz has expanded with a readership that is
not only artists but an international audience of
creative thinkers and those who keep up with the
latest contemporary trends in art and culture,
our return to the quarterly format reinforces
the magazine’s mission. The Winter 2018 issue
covers a wide-breadth of genres, generations and
genius (Kerry James Marshall is the cover story,
after all) and examines just how important legacy
and engagement are to the art world. Emerging
artists like David Molesky and Kip Omolade are in
Above: Untitled (studio), Acrylic on PUC Panels, 83” x 119”, 2014. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY. Purchase, The Jacques and Natasha Gelman
Foundation Gift, Acquisitions Fund and The Metropolitan Museum of Art Multicultural Audience Development Initiative Gift, 2015
conversation alongside pioneers like Kerry James
Marshall and Ron English. Underground heroes like
Beautiful Losers stalwart Cheryl Dunn appears with
the likes of Sarah Sitkin, Luke Pelletier and Anja
Salonen, who are just beginning their exhibition
careers. You have a twentieth-century symbolist
master like Gustav Klimt sharing space with
contemporary painter Daniel Rich, whose work
examines the political and social uprises of the past
century that shaped how we live in our cities.
It’s not so much a pass of the baton to the next era of
artists, but emphasizing the idea that conversations
matter so much in art. When I think of aggregate
culture, I feel like we miss this dialogue, this
lifeblood of art. And I hope, in some ways, Juxtapoz
is part of a positive examination of art and culture
for the times in which we live. Banksy’s iconic
statement fits, “Laugh now, but one day we’ll be in
charge.” For the first issue of the new year, here’s to
owning our art history and sharing nuanced ideas
of inclusion and positivity.
Welcome to winter, 2018.
DEPARTMENT

108 WINTER 2018

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STUDIO TIME
Sarah Sitkin
A Silicone Vale in Southern California
Los Angeles has so much influence on my work,
both culturally and geographically. The materials
I use require a specific climate: warm and dry. The
nature of my materials also dictates the layout of my
space: separate areas for silicone and latex; a large
open area for the roto-casting machine; large mobile
tables to move pieces in and out of the bay door. It
is important to me that I have all of my materials
organized and at arm’s reach before I begin a new
project. I use hundreds of tools while working, from
scalpels to pneumatic silicone dispensing machines,
nail files to electric turkey carving knives. I love
tools. I also love making my own tools when the
situation calls for it.
I have moved my studio several times in my life,
and my current space is the largest I’ve occupied.
14 WINTER 2018
The building used to be a meat storage facility, so
the walls have thick foam insulation beneath the
concrete. My landlord is extremely laid back and
gives me plenty of privacy to do my own thing.
I share the unit with my boyfriend who is a
musician and has a recording studio nestled in the
corner. We have a great synergy when we are both
focused on our respective projects. I feel a certain
duty to uphold a good work ethic, so that neither of
us are tempted to find a distraction.
Silicone is definitely the heart of my process at
the moment, though I use dozens of different raw
materials. I have hundreds of bins, each filled with
different hairs, pigments, tubes, clays, paints, pins,
tape, etc. However, silicone is really the foundation
material, and I sometimes mix my own custom
formulations to achieve the look and feel I’m
aiming for.
A portion of the studio is taken up by finished
pieces, curiosities, art and found objects. This is a
comfortable area to sit and get perspective on the
work in progress, where I can take a break or even
research something for hours. I keep a kitchen,
shower and other amenities close by. Sometimes
I will work on things for days or weeks straight.
I find it’s really important to get into a state of mind
that allows me to hold my focus, otherwise the
project never comes to fruition. —Sarah Sitkin
Sarah Sitkin’s solo show at Superchief Gallery in
downtown Los Angeles opens on December 17, 2017.
Read her interview on page 32.
Above: Photo by the artist
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REPORT
Preservation And
Perseverance in Berlin
Urban Nation Opens Wide
Graffiti and street art culture, for all the global
popularity and international appeal, has traveled
a complicated route in presenting its history. In
essence, these art movements do exist outside of
institutional curation, literally on the streets that
surround museums. They have a peculiar and
unnatural position when placed, one that is more
nuanced. When a culture exists for almost 50
years on its own terms, with icons and evolutions
that have thrived without a major organizational
structure like most 20th century art movements,
confining this history to a particular space and
place is a controversial prospect. Many in the
culture are hesitant to accept the institutional
conditions when learning that an organization
wants to take on the challenge of putting street art
and graffiti into the framework of a museum.
18 WINTER 2018
Yasha Young, director of Urban Nation in Berlin,
the much-anticipated, and at times, controversial
museum of urban art that finally opened its doors
to the public in September 2017, not only took on
the risk of heading the project, but withstood over
five years of international curiosity as curated
pop-up shows and major mural programs began
to take shape. There was a part of this scene that
wanted it perhaps, to fail, and others, like myself,
who had high expectations but wondered aloud
how authentic Urban Nation could be. Yet, when
the Godmother of graffiti and street art, Martha
Cooper, was on board, dedicating her own personal
book collection for the Martha Cooper Library
within the museum, and when other pivotal voices
began creating projects in and around UN, some of
the skepticism began to wane.
All photography: Nika Kramer Above: Aerial view of Urban Nation and Art Mile,Berlin, Germany
Then, something unexpected happened. Urban
Nation opened with a group show that covered
much of the ground that had engendered suspicion:
there was Cost, Kenny Scharf, Futura, Aiko, Vhils,
Ron English, JR, Miss Van, Crash, Swoon and
Banksy. It had past, present and future implications,
both in art and the possibilities of what the
space could be in continued curations. For all the
prolonged dispute about what Urban Nation was
going to be, its first exhibition was substantial in
cultural merit.
We sat down with our friend Yasha Young to talk
about how difficult it was to do this culture proud,
and how building an institution with governmental
support formed a strong foundation and propelled
the next era of Urban Nation.

Evan Pricco: When you launched Urban Nation,
we knew it was going to eventually be an actual
physical museum in Berlin, but there was a big
build-up. When you got the funding to do UN, you
set up this structure of pop-up shows beforehand,
curated by all sorts of international figures in
this culture, and I was happy to be included
with Juxtapoz. I think that was a brilliant move
because it really got everybody excited and built
momentum for this actual opening. Did that
heighten the expectation?
Yasha Young: I wanted everybody to feel a part of
it from the very get-go. I didn't want to come to
the point where I was, "Oh, I built this and now I'm
filling it." I wanted it to be a journey for everyone
in order to get attached to the idea, rather than
just the UN being a museum. For me, this is all
about an idea. It's about an idea of change in
institutions around the world, ones focused on art
history or contemporary work. Because, you know
me, I'm very fast, I'm very quick. I know how to
make decisions, but all of a sudden, you have ten
other entities that need to be able to go with your
Above (clockwise from left): Invader unveiling, Installations on the Urban Nation Art Mile, Interior view of Urban Nation Museum
speed. Perhaps that was a challenge, but it kept the
museum as a living, breathing entity even before
the house opened.
Not only do you have a board at the museum,
a group of historians like Carlo McCormick
and Martha Cooper, but also gallerists from
Thinkspace and Jonathan LeVine. Why was that
important to how you constructed programs for
the museum?
I think you have to remember that I started my
journey in the art world about 20, 25 years ago.
This idea for Urban Nation is 10 years old to begin
with, and all those people I knew before UN. I'm
very familiar with Andrew Hosner since he opened
Thinkspace. At that point, I already had my gallery,
and I was already living with Liz McGrath in
downtown LA, way back when I was meeting people
in the culture and reading Juxtapoz. So when the
museum was founded, I was very familiar with all
of these people and was trying to bring them back
together with each of their unique qualities and
curatorial eyes.
REPORT
It was not just a matter of bringing in friends,
but watching who has moved stuff over the years
and who has a great reputation and is capable of
sustaining a relationship for longer than a minute
and a half. I've watched them work. I've see their
shows. They have educated me. I spoke with
organizers like Martyn Reed at Nuart Festival.
There's been a lot of research for the past five
years. It came about by me trying to bring in
everything I’ve seen over the years into one spot so
that it had integrity.
Martha Cooper made a great comment when
we filmed her for our short documentary on
Urban Nation. She said she had no expectations
for street art and graffiti to become this global
movement, this ever-popular art form that was
going to last well into almost decades now.
The longevity of this culture and the museum
is tied to both explaining the history but also
integrating new artists into the lexicon, so there’s
pressure. The culture has expectations of how it
is presented, so I assume UN is going to continue
JUXTAPOZ .COM 19
REPORT

to program both historical and contemporary

parts of the story?
Even more so, my idea is to challenge and rethink
the idea of the art institution in general. In order
to have a living, breathing institution, and the
word museum doesn't even really describe what
we are, I wanted to be in the now and catch the
current movement and ideas in this culture,
and I want to be able to look into the future.
That's why we will have retrospectives, as well as
curated shows by young up-and-coming curators
and other great institutions. There seems to be
an unwritten law that institutions can't curate
and leaders of institutions can't curate. That is
ridiculous and I don't agree with it. I want that
curatorial element.

Also, we are rethinking how the house is

occupied. That is why I'm really thinking about
the residencies we will have on the top floors of
the building. This is the next part of the building
we are working on. I want do this quickly because
I think once the residencies are installed inside
the house, and the project space across the street
is still running, we will have the proper museum,
the proper research facility, and an in-house
residency program that launches and helps make
even more connections between artists, curators
and the public.
Why do you think it works in Berlin?
I think that, in the beginning, I was actually
thinking it belonged in Berlin, but I wasn't sure
whether it was going to work in Berlin. I could've
had it a lot easier. I could've made it in other
cities with a lot less bureaucratic paperwork files,
forms and whatnot, for sure. I think the upside
is that once it is done, once we are established
within this framework with actual backing from
the government itself, it creates a very strong
foundation. Everything has been researched,
tested, and proven. It’s not spontaneous, it’s part of
the framework of the city now.
I think to do something like this in a city that
is very difficult is a lot better than do it in the
city that just says, "Yeah, okay. Here’s the space,
do it." In order to change cultural history and
challenge certain systems, you need to be able to
have that as a backbone. I've accomplished this
in the most unlikely of situations. It is founded
solidly within the city. If we would have done it
with private funding, we know how the urban art
community would have responded to the BMW-
sponsored street art museum, and that would've
been a different story. We'd probably have more
money, but it would not have been a state-funded,
non-profit, state-acknowledged institution, which
is what will help us, hopefully, remain relevant
for history.
Now that you are this free museum, how have the
bureaucrats responded to everything you have
done, and now that it’s open, are they convinced
this was the right thing to do?
Did it take convincing? I think convincing, smiling
and explaining has become my middle name. I have
the experience of 20 years in this culture, but I had
to put it into a 10-minute presentation in front of
the ministers of culture and leaders of the district
to explain to them the importance of street art and
graffiti. I think everyone was interested in what
this could do for Berlin, and perhaps are craving
somethings that's new.
Because everyone wants to know what’s next with
UN, when will the residences kick off?
That is when we enter in the next phase of building
and that's why I'm so hesitant to start it because
I just got out of building this thing for five years!
But the residencies will be the top two floors, ten
residencies in all. Artists have to apply to the
residencies, but hopefully, those will coincide with
a major show downstairs, and we can have open
studios at the same time.
Will the mural projects continue around the city?
Yes, of course, because 70% of our work is not in
the museum, remember that. That's so important.
About 70% of the work will be outside, and
my goal is to continue our special projects and
collaborations with people all over the world,
other institutions, and also in the city of Berlin.
That's part of who we are, although we don't want
to be confined in just that space.
Through all the controversy, through all the
naysaying, this place opened. And as much as our
culture has dissenting opinions about how best
to present this street art and graffiti history, most
importantly, people coming to the museum will
have a special experience. That is important, and
I think I even have to just dip outside of myself
and realize how hard that is to accomplish.
I don't like buses filled with tourists. I like the
self-determined and dedicated tourist who sees
something on Instagram and says, "I really, really
wanna go see it." That's the kind of tourism
I like. You know that confidence of, “I can do this
myself. I can explore on my own.” It's an even nicer
compliment for me when I get all these schools
to come here now, and all the neighbors who live
in this area who have been through this building
process with us. I have people come in and say,
"I’ve seen you do this for three years, and I didn't
like it, and I didn't know what it was, but now
I see it, and I'm so happy.” I have actually given,
I think, 20 tours so far for schools and kids in this
neighborhood. It's just really nice; it's one of my
favorite things.
Urban Nation is a free museum in the Schöneberg
neighborhood in Berlin.

20 WINTER 2018 Above: Herakut installation, Urban Nation Art Mile

 RON ENGLISH
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PICTURE BOOK

24 WINTER 2018

Cheryl Dunn
Rolls With The Punches
“I live in NYC where the streets tell you stories the seminal film, Everybody Street, about New York
if you are willing to watch,” Cheryl Dunn reports, as street photographers. As with all of her projects,
someone who reads the streets deftly, capturing a both commercial and independent, she captures
genuine essence by reacting quickly, much like the the heart of her subjects, grasping that fleeting
boxing champs she once documented in-depth for glimpse of a person’s true soul. With the unique
years. Dunn has embedded herself in many cultures ability to capture that exact moment on film, she
and subcultures, contributing significantly to both has a knack for nailing it, opening the door for
street photography and documentary filmmaking. emotional connection between subject and viewer.
Rare is the artist whose purpose is to shine a light The subtly sensational Cheryl Dunn shared a few of
on her contemporaries and community, applying her knockouts, explaining her lifelong focus: “These
that breadth of knowledge to document her own images reflect consistent themes: “aggression,
field. Through her filmic portraits of artists, Dunn freedom, protest, humor, resilience, the streets.”
tells the stories that will become legacies, including —Kristin Farr
PICTURE BOOK
Head in Crotch
Cheryl Dunn: This is one of my old boxing pics.
I documented boxing in New York and New Jersey
for about eight years back in the day and used it as
a documentary subject to hone my skills, shoot fast,
anticipate action, and fight for my territory.
CrustyPunkDog
This is classic East Village. His eyes are sad, it’s very
cold, he sleeps on the street.
JUXTAPOZ .COM 25
PICTURE BOOK
Bronx Paddy Cake
When my stepson was 10, he got into a fight at school.
The hippy teachers thought he might be a flight risk if he
was allowed to come on the class trip to the Bronx Zoo.
That, of course, was ridiculous, so I offered to chaperone.
All these little kids and parents took the train to the
Bronx from the sleepy Berkshires in Massachusetts. He,
of course, did not run away, and it was an aggressive
day at the zoo. The kids got to see a polar bear eat a
duck, a snake swallow a rabbit, and a mother beating
her little son as she dragged him down 183rd street.
Afterwards, I walked around to shoot, and happened
upon this scene: kids playing and a little girl running
around with a plastic bag over her face. Da Bronx
26 WINTER 2018
Costa Rica Dreaming
My good friends built a treehouse on the Osa peninsula.
We talked a few people into paying us to do photo
shoots here over the years.
Free Food
This was a few days after Hurricane Sandy. This boat
washed up on the highway and someone spray painted
“ free food” on it. A woman walking her dog told me
a guy with a food truck came out here to give people
free food and water because they were cut off from
everything for weeks and he just wanted to help.
PICTURE BOOK

JUXTAPOZ .COM 27
PICTURE BOOK

28 WINTER 2018

Woman’s March, D.C.
I love her sign and her strong, confident eyes. She gives
me hope for the future.
Dash at the HOLE
Now closed, it was a gay bar that was filled with all the
derels wilding out. One night, when I was there, Dash
ran in and said, “Cheryl, someone just punched me in
the face. Take my picture.” So, here it is...
PICTURE BOOK
Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop, the ultimate reflection of the energy of this @cheryldunn
town. This shot was taken at ATP at an old borscht @everybodystreet
belt hotel in upstate NY. The likes of Sinatra and the
Rat Pack played here in the ornate and now crumbling
ballrooms… the whole place was filled with friends
sleeping for the weekend in the soggy rooms next to a
geese shit pond. It was epic.
JUXTAPOZ .COM 29
 Tieken

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Artist Reception
Los Angeles, CA 90012 Paradise Valley, AZ 85253 acrylic on canvas • 24” x 24”
310-425-5367 480-707-1285 © 2017 Tieken The Studio & Gallery LLC
 IS WHERE
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lcad.edu
DESIGN
We See A Darkness
Hobbies and Horror’s Cabinet of Curiosities
It almost feels like a crime to call Sarah Sitkin a
“designer.” Her sculptural work combines so many
elements of fine art, set and costume design, not
to mention just plain old “Oh my God, how did she
do that?” art that doesn’t succumb to labels. From
solo shows at Superchief Gallery in Los Angeles,
where we first caught her work in person, to new
sculptural works for the SyFy channel’s excellent
series, Channel Zero, Sitkin is redefining that narrow
margin between fine art design, traditional special
effects and production design. A childhood growing
up around her family’s hobby store in the heart of
the film industry has led Sarah to create her own
cinematic vision, where explorations into silicone,
clay, plaster, resin and latex have made her current
body of work one of the most fascinating in Los
Angeles today.
32 WINTER 2018
Evan Pricco: I guess you would consider yourself a
sculpturist, but it goes so much beyond that with
elements of set design in your recent works. What,
at this point in your career, do you call yourself?
Sarah Sitkin: I have always had a hard time describing
my work in general terms. It does incorporate set
design, also costuming and sculpture. I would just
call myself an artist. I try not to limit my creative
ideas to one field or title.
It seems that, especially in Los Angeles, the
role of the costume or set designer leads one
to Hollywood, and in that, perhaps a lot of
training and schooling to get there. Did you
have formal training?
I never even got a high school diploma. I was a classic
bad kid, in and out of different school programs until
I was old enough to permanently ditch class forever.
Above left: Self-portrait with Untitled piece, Silicone, hair and resin, 2016 Above right: Untitled, Silicone and resin, 2015
Everything I wanted to know, I could just search on
the internet instantly, from anywhere in the world,
for free. I tried taking some community college art
courses, but didn’t last more than a few weeks before
I was over it. I worked all through my teens and
early twenties at my family’s hobby shop. Kit Kraft
introduced me to everything. The shop was located
in a magic place in time—right in the heart of the Los
Angeles special effects industry in the late 1990s and
early ’00s. The shop carried all kinds of specialty items
to cater to the talented sculptors, painters, and model
builders and the studios they worked for.
I was making crude castings with dental alginate in
my bedroom in my teens, and pouring polyester resin
in the garage. My parents let me turn my room into a
giant installation piece where I would staple fabrics to
the ceiling, glue found objects to the walls, and weave

wires and cords between the bars of my bed frame. My
dad would bring me home the damaged merchandise
from the shop and I would build costumes and
sculptures with half-dried clay, broken model kits and
exploded tubes of acrylic paint.
I started getting portrait photography work around
the time I was 23, and was able to get just enough
commission work to support myself in a tiny
apartment in downtown LA. From there, I was
able to gradually move into a studio space where
I would started constructing sets for my portrait
photographs. I wanted to incorporate what I learned
while working at the hobby shop (making molds,
sculpting, model building, painting) into my
photography, so I started taking molds of the portrait
subjects and building those elements into the
pictures. The work naturally evolved into sculpture
from the heavy costuming and set building I was
doing for my photographs.
Above: Untitled, Silicone, plaster, food and trash, 2014
Did you consider that work to be more set design
or fine art?
My lack of academic credentials and reluctance to
follow the standard art world protocol has me feeling
like an art-world outsider. I get so much love and
support from the general public, however, that I feel
my work has value and importance regardless of
being accepted in elite circles.
Do you think the lack of formal, classical art
training has allowed you to be a little bit more
free in what you do? It’s like you learned from just
being around the film industry.
While people were in school learning to make
artwork that was tailored to integrate into the gallery
system, I was making work to integrate into my own
social media channels. Presenting my work was just
as important as the work itself. Lighting, set design,
and ephemeral elements all became part of the
artwork in order to present it as a documentation
DESIGN
of the physical objects I was making. But because
of this platform, the documentation became more
important than the physical pieces, which were
discarded or cut up and turned into new objects
to be documented. This approach has completely
informed the artistic decisions I’ve made. Both the
potential and limitations of the social media outlets
I was using were integral parts in the process.
I assume the Channel Zero project came up through
social media? Was this your first time working for
a formal TV production?
Nick Acosta, the showrunner for Channel Zero,
approached me about being a creative auteur for his
TV show. I had never worked on a show, but they
promised freedom to create my own concepts, so
I jumped for it and I absolutely loved working on it.
I learned so much. I would love to work on another
film project, and in fact, I would love to direct a film
project someday.
JUXTAPOZ .COM 33
DESIGN

Was there a big change in the way you worked

when it came to a TV production?
The biggest change was working with assistants and
money. It was wonderful! I had people picking up my
supplies, filing my receipts, organizing my materials
for me and cleaning the shop every night. I still got
to make the work myself, but my crew were the extra
hands I wished I had all my life. The hardest part was
surrendering control over how my work was lit and
the angles it was shot from. Outside of working on
Channel Zero, it’s pretty much me working alone to
make everything— from the molds, to the structural
work, to the final hairs punched into a piece. I do it
all myself.

There is obviously this element of horror and the

grotesque in your work, but there is also just the
sheer skill of presenting almost hyperreal, alternative
realities. How do you balance these two elements?
Experience as a human being is horrifying to me,
and that is reflected onto the things I make. Honestly,
most of the time, I don’t even realize something is
creepy until people give me feedback. I usually think
I’m creating intense visual metaphors or transcribing
my experience.

So, I just gave you feedback? In that vein, what is the

best thing someone has said about your work when
they have walked into one of your gallery shows or
commented on your social media feeds?
This girl who made a hand-knitted version of one
of my masks brought it to my art show last year and
gave it to me. She’s a dentist by profession, and I
have always wanted to be a dental technician. We
stay in touch and send pictures to each other of
surgical tools and interesting medical devices. I am
just as fascinated with her work as she seems to
be with mine. I’m excited by how artwork tends to
be a magnet drawing together people with similar
interests. I love that my work has attracted all these
people into my life and weaved us together with a
common thread, even though often we do completely
different things.

Sarah as a 10-year-old: what was your favorite

movie, TV show, and book?
Honestly my life didn’t even start until I hit puberty.
At 10, I was probably into whatever my parents
wanted me to be into.

Okay, Sarah Sitkin now: what are the things that

are influencing you?
The natural world has my attention. I was really
into technology, engineering and digital realities
for most of my adult life, but in this past year, I
have really been interested in what is tangible, and
how it came to be that way. I love understanding
how changing environments brought different
biology and behaviors. I am also fascinated by
human psychology, behavioral patterns and coping
mechanisms. Learning is the biggest catalyst for
creativity in my life. I love researching.
What are you working on next?
I am working on a solo art show, Insecurity Blanket,
which is focused on wearable pieces. I’m making
skin suits, prosthetics, and non-invasive body
modification pieces.The context of the skin suits is
the concept of the art carrying the "burden" of the
bodies. For example, some, not all of the wearable
pieces, will be made with the intention that they are
interactive and show the participant what it feels like
to be in that particular body, and the stresses of it.
Sarah Sitkin’s solo show at Superchief Gallery in
downtown Los Angeles opens on December 17, 2017.

34 WINTER 2018 Top: Untitled, Plaster, resin and silicone, 2014 Bottom left: Untitled, Silicone, wool and plaster, 2015 Bottom right: Sevdaliza ISON album cover, Silicone, resin and hair, 2017
SOLO EXHIBIT FEATURING WORKS BY JASON PULGARIN

APRIL 21ST 7-10PM

JANUARY 12TH 2018

OPENING RECEPTION 7-10PM

casscontemporary casstampa casscontemporary

FASHION

Kerin Rose Gold

Hide and Seek
Rihanna, Snoop Dogg, Nicki Minaj, Lady Gaga…
the list of celebrities who sport Kerin Rose Gold’s
eyewear and accessories line could fill the space
of this introduction. Like Beyonce, Debbie Harry,
Johnny Weir… you get the picture. Then there are
the grandmas and furry pups who smile broadly
while wearing her frames. Not for the incognito or
inconsequential, these glasses broaden the palette
and lift the mood. In short, for anyone seeking to
add a dash or dollop of spice to life, Kerin’s brand,
A-morir, frames the world nicely.

Gwynned Vitello: Despite seemingly sprung from a

Disney Light Show Parade, is it true you grew up
in the kind of beach town where people dress in
white and go to “summer”?
Kerin Gold: I grew up in Port Washington, a town on
the north shore of Long Island, a 35-minute train
ride from Midtown Manhattan, a commuter town
on the sound that also feels like vacation. One area
of Port Washington is “East Egg” in The Great Gatsby.
It’s really beautiful but I didn’t appreciate it as much
as I should have growing up (what kid does?)

Reflecting back, it was a wonderful upbringing.

I had a lot of independence and could walk to the
train and go to concerts in the city with friends
when I was 15. I went to a great public school that
had a terrible football team, but four separate
choirs, and I was in all of ‘em! The neighborhood
was diverse, which was a huge plus.
I know that painting and music both played a
part in your childhood, but I have the feeling that
books did, too. What else am I missing? Movies?
What would you have been doing in your free
time as a young woman?
Books played a huge part in my upbringing. My
maternal grandparents were avid book collectors;
when they moved homes in the 1990s, we estimated
their house had 10,000 books. There is even a Simon
and Rosalyn Gold Judaica Library in Queens College
comprised of their donated books. I have one of
their early editions of The Picture of Dorian Gray,
and I definitely got a talking-to from my English
teacher in seventh grade for writing a book report
on Capote’s In Cold Blood—another early edition
book from their house that I still treasure.
in my parents’ garage. I was always babysitting
or working during the summers, and most of my
money went towards concert tickets.
Barbies used to be the default birthday gift for girls,
so you had to come to terms with them somehow.
Did you collect, mutilate, or bake them into cakes?
Oh man, I started mutilating my Barbies at an
early age—armchair analyze that as you will. I’m
very lucky my parents didn’t police what I wore
or played with based on my gender, so I played
with Transformers and Ninja Turtles as much as
Barbies, which got full makeovers that turned
them into Wendy O. Williams clones before
I knew who she was. In high school, I made Barbie
sculptures that were not allowed to be put on
display: a bleeding Barbie with a computer chip in
her back, strewn among a pile of condoms, bloody
tampons and razor blades, or climbing up a ladder
to a pill bottle. Rudimentary stuff, but not bad for
an angsty teenager.

All of my spare time went to art, books, and hanging Something that may define you is being the
out with friends. Besides the school choirs, I was daughter of an immigrant. We lived many years
on the drama club board, I co-ran our school’s TV with my grandparents who were both from Italy.
studio, took piano and art lessons, and painted My clothes were embroidered, pots of spaghetti

36 WINTER 2018 Above left: Portrait by Sophy Holland Above: Photo by Jared Ryder

sauce were on the stove, green beans from the
garden for dinner. It seemed to impart a richer
culture, not to mention a work ethic.
A hard work ethic was instilled from day one, for
sure. My maternal great-grandparents immigrated
from Europe and my grandparents grew up in
depression-era Brooklyn. My dad came here from
Israel in the early ’70s with a thousand dollars and
a couch to sleep on for a month. Culturally, it was a
bilingual household, and there was both Israeli and
American music (and a lot of hummus, naturally) but
food-wise, we weren’t up to our eyeballs in za'atar!
Did that also encourage your ability to craft, to make
things? You definitely are in that comfort zone. Did
you ever have any formal kind of training? There
must be a lot of experimentation, so in turn, a lot of
trial and error on the way.
My parents were very encouraging of our creativity
(my sister is a doctor). I was always in an art class,
and they let me turn the garage into a de-facto art
studio. But the immigrant mentality also made
them very pragmatic about a career. I started music
marketing in college, and it never crossed my mind
that I would be able to make any sort of living from
artwork, ever, because who does that?
Above left: Photo by Jared Ryder Above right: Photos by Kerin Rose Gold
Creatively, I don’t think it would occur to me to
think of things as mistakes. I’m always evolving and
getting better—all my mistakes have been learning
experiences. In starting and running your own
business, you have to work up the courage to be
fearless as both an artist and a businessperson.
What must also have defined you was being ill as
a young woman. Did you feel isolated or unlike
yourself? Because you seem now to be a ball
of energy. Did it change your perspective and,
somehow, open any doors?
Being diagnosed with severe Ulcerative Colitis at
16 was, naturally, very impactful. Being chronically
ill isn’t like having the flu, where you almost die on
your couch for two weeks, but then you’re fine—
you’re like that forever. You have to learn how to live
in a different reality. I couldn’t think about a future
because I didn’t know if I’d be healthy enough to get
out of bed tomorrow. I didn’t talk about what I was
going through with anyone; not my teachers, not my
employers, not my friends. It was rough.
When I went into remission at 25, I was emotionally
prepared to have a post-traumatic stress breakdown.
I finally had the emotional bandwidth to process the
FASHION
life that I was unable to have for the nine years
I was sick. It was, in a way, a bottom. I realized I hated
my job and had to figure out what was next. Those
states are both terrifying, and in the right mindset,
incredibly freeing. It opened doors mentally.
One door being your major in costume history.
It sounds like a very rich experience to be
immersed in fabrics and stories.
It’s essentially learning about costumes, dressing
garments, and clothing, the same way you would
study art history. There’s a lot of research, reading
and writing, so, to be honest, I dropped out of the
master’s program. I take education very seriously
but wasn’t able to devote as much to undergrad
studies at NYU because I was so sick. I can always
go back to school, but not the work I had started
doing, and A-morir was snowballing.
Now I get to hear about how you made your first
design. Tell me how that came about and how it
made you feel.
I didn’t go about making my first product
intentionally. Like all of my crystal works, I made
something for myself. In fact, I had bought crystals
because I thought I was getting a new phone, and
JUXTAPOZ .COM 37
FASHION
didn’t, and then I broke my only pair of glasses. I was
broke at the time, as well, so got a pair of five-dollar
street glasses. I really wanted something special, so
I decided to make them special. I never in a million
years thought someone would want to purchase
them, but then I started getting chased down the
street—literally. Numerous times. So I figured, “Shit,
this doesn’t exist in the marketplace currently;
maybe I have something here.”
I hate wearing contact lenses, so I really need
glasses. They used to feel like a barrier, but now
I enjoy them. What role do accessories have for
you, or if you want to expand, how about fashion,
in general?
It’s funny because, by definition, accessories
are supplemental. I love them because they are
suggestive. I’m more intrigued by what a woman is
saying in a sweatsuit and showgirl earrings versus
the obviousness of a bandage dress (though I respect
both choices!) An over-the-top pair of glasses is
instant glamour. The role that fashion has for me
is an essay unto itself. But I will say this: fashion,
to me, has always been my medium of expression.
I don’t abide by current trends, but I deeply value
actual couture as an art form, and I appreciate the
importance of fashion as one of many reflections of
what is happening in our culture
Which singers or actors kind of embody your
philosophy of clothing?
My personal clothing philosophy is to wear what
makes you feel comfortable, and I relate to people
who do that most. Bowie, Rollins, RuPaul, Miss Piggy,
they’re all living as their most authentic selves. And
any celebrity who takes chances on the red carpet—
I am so bored with each one looking like a prom.
Celine Dion is really killing it, and I love the chances
that Solange and Rihanna take. While I don’t follow
38 WINTER 2018
MMA, I hope Conor McGregor has shown men that
they can think differently about glamour. Anyone who
gets a bespoke suit made with “Fuck You” pinstripes for
a press conference, I have nothing but respect for.
Are you particularly drawn to urban life? What
attracted you to Madrid when you went to school?
Are cosmopolitan areas more inspiring?
My parents would take us to the city to museums,
to the opera, and that was always in NYC. I have
a vivid memory of being four or so and driving
across Houston, and that left me rapt. NYC is not
for everyone, but it’s very much for me. I love
encountering multiple languages and cultures
every day. The energy of Manhattan, where I live
and work, centers me, and for that reason, I have
always been attracted to cities. However, in the last
few years, I’ve appreciated going somewhere remote
with a creative project.
You’ve said you don’t use idea boards, and that
you really value collaboration.
It’s true, I don’t make mood/idea boards. I don’t
like the idea of doing inspiration research because
I don’t want that work to unintentionally influence
my designs. I personally find that restrictive.
I like to let things come as they come. I love
collaboration because it forces me to expand my
skillset and figure out things I wouldn’t normally
have made time for. It’s like getting really fun
homework assignments for a class you’ve always
wanted to take.
I always like to hear about studios. Is yours live/
work, and if it’s not, does your home have a
different atmosphere?
For the first four or five years, I worked out of my
apartment on a small table, then converted my
dining area to a small but effective studio.
I got to the point where I wanted a separate space
and was tired of tripping over work stuff every
time I went to the bathroom. I’m finally in a space
that really feels like home. Now all the walls are
black, with a ton of books, curated ephemera,
framed things on the walls, candy corn pillows, a
Benson & Stabler throw on the couch and a paper
mache cactus. We have N’SYNC mannequins and
Muppet figurines, an apartment for a grown child.
I live with my boyfriend Nick, who owns Fool’s
Gold Records, so we have turntables and a music
production area. We’re always working, so it’s a
really creative space.
The studio is similar, but stuffed with fake flowers,
campaign images, headpieces, crystals and
eyewear. And the walls are white. There’s a framed
Guerilla Girls poster next to my desk, which I highly
recommend for any female identifying as creative.
Have you exhausted all the potential
embellishments there are to work with, or is there
something you would love to get your hands on?
Just when I think I’ve exhausted all embellishment,
I find something new to use or figure out a way
to interpret a design technique. There is always
something new.
I know you love figure skating, so are you going to
go see Margot Robbie in the Tonya Harding movie?
I paid to go see Stars on Ice in college! I was once
woken up in the middle of the night by my sister
for a trivia question where the answer was Surya
Bonaly—and I am going to the advance screening of
the Tonya Harding movie, how about that?
See more of Kerin Rose Gold’s designs at
kerinrosegold.com.
Above: Photos by Sophy Holland
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INFLUENCES
Mike Lee Is Floating in Space
Atmospheric Disturbance
Those of us who are not astronauts or skydivers
will probably never get to experience the actual
feeling of floating in space. Yet weightlessness is
an exceptionally appealing physical and mental
concept. Rather than bearing the “weight of the
world,” it uplifts with a sensation of ultimate
freedom and deliverance. Digital media professional
Mike Lee developed a process using everyday
tools to construct atmospheric oils that depict
just that feeling. His figures levitate in a void,
with meticulous grayscale gradients, rendering
conspicuous light effects. Drama and mystery hover
beyond the harmonious surface. Eliminating key
pieces, Lee leaves it up to the viewer to complete
the picture and create their own puzzle.
Sasha Bogojev: Is there a certain time and place
where your images are set?
Mike Lee: No, it's more about absence. I'm trying
to remove any sort of narrative, and everything's
42 WINTER 2018
meant to be, in a way, generic. That way anyone
who views the work can bring any past life
experiences to the paintings. I don't know if
you've seen dolls for children that are blank with
no features? I like how they become a mold for
whatever is desired. It's that kind of idea—trying to
remove facial features, the physical base, so people
can fill in the blanks. I want to be inclusive so that
any race, gender or ethnicity can see themselves
in the work. At the same time, I'm trying to make
my paintings appealing, so, hopefully, on the
superficial level, people can enjoy a nice image.
And if they wanna dive deeper, they could find
meaning within it, too.
Aside from trying to produce generic images,
there are some details such as clothes or
hairstyles. How important are they and how much
attention do you give to them?
I spend a lot of time trying to figure out the right
design for those. I'm trying to get the most engaging
shapes and hopefully represent a certain type of
person. Sometimes I even try to bring in really
subtle political or social elements without being
overly obvious.
What’s an example of such an element in your
work?
One was around the time Trayvon Martin was
killed. So my reaction was to slowly introduce
hoodies into my work. I try not to be overtly
political because I just never feel like I know
enough about it, but I've always been a real
observer, so all I bring to my work are the things
I've seen and experienced.
That meshes with the idea of forgoing details.
Since your work is mostly about feelings and
emotions you've personally experienced, how do
you translate those into such harmonious images?
Above left: Four Figures, Oil on canvas, 36” x 36”, 2016 Portrait: Veronica Jones

A lot of times, there isn't a specific emotion. It's
more about using the light to create a certain type
of drama or setting. And. again, the intent is that
everyone who views the work can project their
own life onto it. I've gotten a lot of reactions like,
"Oh these are really depressing images," which is
interesting. That wasn't my intent.
I was going to say that I’ve always found
your images uplifting and positive, perhaps
melancholic, but never depressing.
I've gotten similar reactions to yours, too. Some
people find them really amusing, some people
laugh. There's a pretty wide array.
Are there any references to gender in your work?
There are definitely male and female figures, but
sometimes I purposely blur gender lines to avoid
absolute definitions. I want to include everyone.
Hopefully, those in the LGBTQ community can
see themselves in the work as well. I'm trying to be
considerate toward everyone and bring many layers
of ideas to the work.
I've noticed that lately you've been constructing
more complex pieces with many different
characters.
The earlier work was about a single figure, and
sometimes I'd pair them up, but now I'm trying to
get more graphic with the overall composition.
I'll actually start with abstract shapes and compose
figures to fit that design.
I keep thinking of synchronized swimming when
I'm looking at those. Am I far off?
I think it ultimately deals with being suspended
Left: Sitting Figure, Pen and Ink on Paper, 11” x 14”, 2016 Middle: You and Me, Oil on panel, 16” x 20”, 2017 Right: Standing Girl 1, Pen and Ink on Paper, 8” x 10”, 2016
in a space. So it can be floating in a void space,
or underwater, which is pretty much the same
thing. Just removing gravity. Also, I'm not very
knowledgeable when it comes to art history, so
I rely on friends who know way more than me.
At one point, they pointed me toward all the beach
paintings by classical artists, so I started bringing
those ideas into the work.
Speaking of art history, do you have a particular
artist or art movement that influences or
inspires you?
I pretty much love every aspect of art as long as
I can see authenticity in the work. But rather than
having reference sheets, I like to just remember the
impression paintings, drawings, and installations
had on me. It becomes a hodgepodge of influences
where, hopefully, the viewer won't identify another
artist in my work. I do my best to be as original as
possible, so if I see someone doing something similar,
I lose interest and will go in another direction.
Where did you grow up?
I’m from a small city called Placentia in Southern
California. It was like every other suburban
neighborhood. I found myself being anxious from
boredom so I always tried to find ways to fill my
time. But when I think back, the days spent in the
pool or at the beach were pretty significant. I moved
to New York in 2007 after working in San Francisco,
and I was really surprised how much it immediately
felt like home. The pacing, people, transit, food, art.
It was how I always imagined myself living.
For me, NYC always felt like a giant, gray
megalopolis. Does that influence your work?
INFLUENCES
For sure! Not the gray part, but more from the
experiences and people that the city attracts.
Also the energy I get from everyone around me
constantly pushes me to work harder.
Are you saying that light and shadow are
a very big part of your work, the source of
the atmosphere, rather than the characters
themselves?
The posing definitely adds to it. I suppose it goes
hand-in-hand—the specific pose along with the
light. For instance, in the body of work I just painted
for the Japan show, I wanted to evoke positivity with
the work. So I wanted to bring in more active and
dynamic poses.
Most of your work is very small scale. Why do you
chose to work in that size?
I think, initially, because I was still learning how to
handle the medium, I just wanted to make sure that
I could generate as much work as possible. I'm still
learning through each painting. At the same time,
I like the idea of making smaller works that aren't
too expensive and pretty much anyone can afford
them. I just wanted people to have the work.
You don't have any formal artistic or painting
education, do you?
No. I've been painting for about two and a half
years now, but all my friends are painters, so I'd
just learn from them. It was pretty much pencil
and pen throughout college. Then I moved on to
Copic markers and pens, trying to mimic the feel
of graphite. I played around with other mediums,
but I couldn't find anything that came close to the
richness of oils.
JUXTAPOZ .COM 43
INFLUENCES
Was it something you just started in your spare time,
or more of a personal challenge to become an artist?
It wasn't so much about wanting to be an artist, but
it wasn't just a hobby either. I just wanted to create
something for myself. And there was something
more tactile about original work, something I can't
really get from a digital image.
That can be an issue with digital art.
It's not like the digital side is less skilled. I definitely
appreciate good design no matter what medium.
I guess I just prefer the human touch.
44 WINTER 2018
Your images seem to be easily translatable to 3D.
Do you have any interest in sculpture?
That’s my dream. I’m pretty sure I’d need help,
but I’d love to create large public art sculptures or
installations. I haven’t had any opportunities yet,
but I’m sure I will one day!
What about motion? Especially considering your
digital media background, do you ever imagine
your work coming to life?
I was thinking about possibly creating an animated
short film. I was thinking of working on something
like that one day. And I can be OCD, so I'd probably
go crazy and just end up rendering every frame by
by myself.
I was going to ask about your color palette.
Did you ever consider trying anything else other
than greyscale?
I've been thinking about it for a few years. If I'm
gonna go with color, it's gonna be a complete 180.
Full saturation!
Just neon and fluoro!
Yeah! I love contrasting ideas. So if that day comes,
it's gonna be bold.
Mike Lee opened a new show this fall at Amala Gallery
in Tokyo.
Above: Swimmers, Oil on canvas, 30” x 24”, 2017
TRAVEL INSIDER
It’s easy to romanticize México City with
its colorful balance of tradition, modernity,
affordability, arts and culture. On the flip side, there
is the temptation of viewing it through a lens of
staggering statistics, pollution, political uncertainty,
cartel violence and poverty. Home to over 25
million, and covering 3,700 square miles, Greater
México City, or Distrito Federal (DF), has a larger
population and economy than over 100 countries in
the world. Reality is complicated, and tragically, as
we were forced to remember in September, 2017, it is
vulnerable to the destructive potential of the region's
shifting tectonic plates.
I have some recommendations based on my visit to
México City, experienced just a few weeks before
the earthquake, and my lasting imprint of a city
that is magnetic, a laboratory of inspiration for
generations of writers, painters, photographers,
46 WINTER 2018
México City
The Center Holds
architects, and filmmakers who continue to fall in
love with its charms.
I tend to approach a new place by trying my best to
get lost, and that’s really easy in México City. The
colonial center is built atop and mirrors the streets
of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec empire.
Elsewhere, repeating circular layouts entwine up
against traditional grids that flow into long avenues
that, for the unfamiliar, defy logic.
Park Life
Providing no guidance with city navigation, but lovely
nonetheless, are the city’s many parks. Alameda
Central, located in the heart of downtown, was the
first urban park on the continent and draws large
crowds to outdoor sculptures, fountains, markets, and
public concerts. At the East end, Palacio de Bellas, one
of the city’s most prominent cultural centers, hosts
theater, music, opera and dance performances, and its
several floors of murals by México’s most renowned
painters make it worth a visit.
Twice the size of New York’s Central Park,
Chapultepec Forest are the lungs of the city and
the most important ecological space. Divided into
several sections with running trails, ponds, and
memorials, the park is home to the largest and most
visited museum in México, the National Museum
of Anthropology. Chapultepec Castle looks down
upon the city from atop a large hill above the
contemporary art museum, Museo Rufino Tamayo.
A testament to how quickly the city is changing,
Jardín del Arte Sullivan was initially recommended
to me by local photographer Mark Powell as “one of
the last un-gentrified parks in central México City,
full of colorful concrete-poured benches and ledges,
All photography: Alex Nicholson Above: Mexico City skyline
 TRAVEL INSIDER

giant bird cages and still lots of glue sniffers around

keeping it real.” A few months later, and it has been
already been cordoned off for remodeling.

Museums
México City has more museums than any other city
in the world except London. Beyond those you'll
find in guidebooks, institutions dedicated to the
city's legacy of art and history, are the side streets,
in sometimes distant neighborhoods, where you’ll
discover buildings and the occasional back room
or attic with more unusual collections. There are
exhibitions dedicated to antique shoes, communist
revolutionaries, and even one housing mummies
discovered by Zapatistas searching for buried
treasure. Museo del Juguete Antiguo Mexicano in
Doctores holds the self-proclaimed world's largest
private toy collection. Throughout the four-story
building, toys overflow from every inch of floor,
wall, and ceiling space.

South of the city center, the largest university

in the world, UNAM is home to the Teodoro
González de León-designed University Museum of
Contemporary Art. Nearby, unimaginable varieties
of cactus line the snaking paths and hidden coves
of one of the oldest botanical gardens in México,
the Instituto de Biologia. The 420-acre campus also
has its own ecological reserve where the land art
masterpiece, Espacio Escultórico, is located.
North of campus, Coyoacan, a former rural village
that eventually lost its farms, lakes, and forests to
the all-consuming city, is a hub of art, culture, and
history. It’s where Museo de Frida Kahlo is located,
as well as Museo Anahuacalli, the Diego Rivera-
designed pyramid dedicated to Pre-Hispanic art.
Diego and Frida lived not too far away and you can
visit their beautiful home and studios designed by
fellow artist and architect Juan O'Gorman. You could
spend months touring world-famous architecture in
México City, but a brief taste might include booking
an appointment to see Luis Barragán’s home and
studio or a visit to the floating bookshelves of
Biblioteca Vasconcelos, designed by Alberto Kalach.
Northeast of Mexico City, the famous pyramids of
Teotihuacan are well worth the day trip.
Roma is home to Galeria OMR, MAIA Contemporary,
and Galleria Licenciado, among others. Closer to
Polanco and not too far from Museo Soumaya and
Museo Jumex are Anonymous Gallery and Galeria
Luis Adelantado. In Centro Historico, a block from
Alameda Central and next to his clothing company
Tony Delfino, is artist Smithe’s newest endeavor,
TOBA Gallery. While in Centro Historico, keep your
eyes peeled for world-class murals from international
stars of street art as well as a constantly shifting
canvas of graffiti and murals by local artists. A fun
alternative is Stylewalk MX, which has enlisted the
expertise of several of the artists themselves to offer
in-depth and informed tours of the downtown street
art and graffiti scene.

Getting Around
Even with a fairly robust public transit system, the
traffic in México City is often horrendous. The metro,
used by around seven million people every day, has
12 lines and 195 stations, and can be a convenient
way to explore if sitting in traffic or walking sounds
exhausting. This subterranean world is an experience
in itself, with hidden gems like Talismán station,
which houses the fossilized remains of a mammoth
that workers uncovered during construction. Another,
Pino Suárez, is built around an Aztec pyramid. Some
of the larger stations have shopping, food, art exhibits

Below: Park scene Above (clockwise from top left): Casa Estudio Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo, Smithe x Dems One Mural, Ericailcane Mural JUXTAPOZ .COM 47
TRAVEL INSIDER

and the occasional spontaneous salsa concert. You

can also take the Metro to see places a little out of the
way, like the iconic head sculpture and monument
to former president Benito Juárez at La Cabeza de
Juárez in Iztapalapa.

Food, Drink, and Mariachis

Around any corner will be some small tables and
chairs shaded by big umbrellas or stools pulled up
to a more elaborate food stand. Everyone has their
own favorite taco stand, and you should ask around
and try all of them.

At some point, follow the high-pitched whistle

which leads to a charcoal oven on wheels. Beneath
the Camote Cart’s whistling smoke stack are
roasting sweet potatoes and plantains which, served
with even sweeter strawberry syrup and condensed
milk, are a common evening snack.

There is no shortage of clubs in México City but

one of the more culturally unique is Patrick
Miller, a nightclub which appears to be frozen in
time. Crowds separate into circles, cheering on
’80s-style dance-offs which occasionally morph
into coordinated line dancing led by an office
manager blowing off steam after a long day at the
office. Nowhere will you find such a diverse mix of
personalities, generations, and styles.

Mescal is the drink of choice in much of México but

its thousand year-old ancestor, Pulque has recently
enjoyed a resurgence and can be found in a new wave
of trendy bars such as Pulqueria Los Insurgentes,
where patrons swig giant mugs of the thick, white,
slimy, fermented cactus sap and dance beneath
Daniel Lezama paintings. Disregard descriptions of
the drink’s texture; it has a fascinating history and is
worth experiencing. A plaque on the wall outside a
Pulqueria at Plaza Garibaldi advertises the drink as
a favorite of the Aztec emperors.

Garibaldi is where you go, literally any hour of

the day, if you decide you need a Mariachi. Packs
of musicians offer their services to passing traffic
as well as visitors and patrons of food and drink
establishments inside the square. It is an incredible
place for people watching.
Markets
Find open air markets or neighborhoods dedicated to
certain goods, unlike the big box stores and Amazon
delivery services. On Sundays, down the street from
Plaza Garibaldi, La Lagunilla Market hosts a flea
and antique market where an eclectic collection of
books, memorabilia, masks and other arts and crafts
from the last hundred or so years line the sidewalks.
Get there early and plan several hours of digging for
treasure. Mercado de la Merced is one of the city’s
oldest and largest markets. Emerging from the metro
station into the middle of the market means winding
through a maze of vendors selling everything from
pots and pans to three-piece-suits for your toddler.
Across the street, Mercado de Sonora, referred to
by tourists as, “The Witchcraft Market,” is where to
go for a taxidermied horse head or potion for your
broken heart. Aisles are lined with voodoo dolls,
medicinal herbs and the occasional endangered
animal carcass, among other things.
I intended on visiting México City for a week, maybe
two, but ended up staying a month and feeling
like I needed a year, maybe more, to even begin to
experience the place. As the artist Saner relates,
“It is rich in every sense, with nature, history,
tradition, art, and color, but also with rebellion,
bad governments, poverty, and injustice. It is for
all of these reasons I continue to stay here, taking
inspiration from every part of this place.”
Killing nearly 300 and flattening buildings across the
city and region, the 7.1 magnitude earthquake that
struck on September 19, 2017 devastated a country
already reeling from another earthquake that struck
less than two weeks prior. Rebuilding and healing is a
lengthy process, but hopefully this famously resilient
city will emerge even stronger. —Alex Nicholson
Teotihuacan: City of Water, City of Fire is on
view at San Francisco’s de Young Museum through
February 11, 2018.

48 WINTER 2018 Clockwise (from top): La Lagunilla Antique Market, Plaza Garibaldi, Street Food scene, Mexico City Subway
IN SESSION

All Hands
on Deck
Ben Maltz Gallery at
Otis College of Art and Design
Running late for LAX and frantically looking out the window of your
Lyft, it’s so reassuring to see the familiar punch-card-designed Otis College
of Art and Design building, its primary color flags waving good news that
your destination is only minutes away. Occupying the former IBM Aerospace
building, it is not only a Los Angeles landmark and part of the city’s historical
narrative, but an active player in southern California’s cultural dialogue.
In 1922, it was the largest art school west of Chicago. Through the 1940s,
Norman Rockwell was the summer artist-in-residence, and during the 1950s,
it stoked and nurtured the California ceramics revolution. Not only did the
2000s spawn graduate programs in writing, fashion, graphic design, teacher
training and other disciplines, it also partnered with groups like the Surf-
rider Foundation, Global Green USA and the Center for Autism and Related
Disorders. Former Juxtapoz cover artist Camille Rose Garcia and current cover
artist Kerry James Marshall are among its alumni, along with mavericks like
Billy Al Bengston and John Baldessari.

At Otis, art, indeed, is life, a vibrant process that is celebrated at the Ben
Maltz Gallery, self-described as, “equal parts public forum, classroom and
laboratory,” since 2001. The newest show at the gallery, which charges
no admission, is All Hands on Deck, opening January 21, 2018. Conceived
in a world that challenges identity, nationality, and social class, a mix of
abstraction and figuration meet in the gallery. Mostly three-dimensional,
fingers flutter, torsos hang loose or stand tall, and they all represent. Each
demonstrates pride and the strength of coming out from the shadows.
We chose a piece by Cammie Staros, whose hand-built objects marry
contemporary sculpture, Modernism, antiquity and craft. Looking to the
voluptuous amphorae of ancient Greece and Egypt, her sculptures are both
historically rooted and bracingly present. Using a physical vocabulary shared
by many venerable cultures alongside industrial applications like neon
and steel, Staros’s work reveals semiotic systems created and strengthened
throughout art history.

Cammie’s work in All Hands on Deck examines representation and lucidity

through her investigation of architecture, ancient pottery and a physical
vocabulary. References to the body, particularly in female form, through the
combined lens of early pottery and the innovation of Modernism, result in
familiar but challenging pieces. The stacked clay pot column forms a sensuous
totem with a captivating narrative.

All Hands on Deck is on view at the Ben Maltz Gallery at Otis College of Art and
Design in Los Angeles January 21–April 22, 2018. The public is invited to
the opening reception January 21st from 4–6 p.m.

50 WINTER 2018 Above: Column, ceramic, steel, cement, 14 x 13 x 116”, image curtesy of Ghebaly Gallery and the artist
PROFILE
People Power in the Stencil
“Please don’t mention that I’m a street artist,
I’m a neo-muralist,” so implored an artist with whom
I was recently working in spite of my knowing
that he’d spent the last ten years nurturing and
living off a culture that was almost the antithesis
of this current shift to the municipally sanctioned
and corporate mural trend. Now, I’m not against
muralism as such. It’s a powerful medium with
a rich history, particularly in the Americas, with
often strong associations to social justice issues and
community building, though now communities
currently being built tend to integrate a type of
generic muralism into their new build projects.
Such add-on artists, complicit with the unashamed
abandonment of street art’s original rhetoric of
transgressive spontaneity, premeditated with
developers in a kind of faux subversion. But if they
still put art on the streets for people to hashtag and
enjoy, what’s the problem, you might ask?
The problem is, of course, the same one that street
art initially set out to challenge. Such mechanisms
and conduits to power within public space, so, by
default, public art, desire an ever-more passive
audience primed to consume #muralart in the same
manner they consume advertising and product.
In a culture of globalised brands and neo-liberal
ideology, this one-size fits-all style of public mural art
is ideal for clone developments and gentrification
projects. Middle of the road, middle class and middle-
brow, it is fast becoming the Mumford and Sons of
street art, creating a culture that seeks nothing more
than your uncritical compliance.
All of this got me thinking—what can be done to
wrestle back “street art” from corporate property
speculators and those organisations dedicated to
profiting, parasitically, from a culture predicated
on transgression and resistance to this onslaught
of capital and video projector-assisted art. Can this
coming tsunami of big budget bucket paint and
cherry picker productions be averted, and if not,
what should all of those concerned do?
54 WINTER 2018
Laugh Now
Authentic street art’s impending demise, or at
least its dilution, recalls the first piece of street art,
that first stencil, that hit me with an impact like
no mural ever has. Like a song, it contained the
power to make you want to leave your small town
and small life for better things. It sparked both
art and activism in eyes tired from an advertising
assault I had experienced on the taxi ride from
the airport to central London where I was to DJ.
Lugging my record box (yes, vinyl) from the back
of the cab, I was confronted with a slightly less
than life-size, single-layer stencil of a chimpanzee
holding a sandwich board boldly stating, “Laugh
now, but one day we’ll be in charge.” Appearing
at a time when transgression was not simply a
marketing technique, its immediate cultural value
far exceeded any possible commercial value.
There were no street level stencil art marketing
campaigns, so it was undoubtedly art. But what sort
of art was this? Who had created it, was it animal
rights related, was I the monkey, was it public art,
did it relate to graffiti?
Stripped of these references, it left me momentarily
lost. Like all good art, it pushed me down a rabbit
hole to live for a moment in a different world. A
world away from the city, my dislocated self and the
information overload I’d just experienced. It was
2001, and it was, of course, Banksy’s Laugh Now.
This wild counterpoint to the regulated
distribution of images and signs in a public space
triggered a lifelong obsession with street art, which
has, in its authenticity, never lost the power of that
first defiant punch, a punch that instantly knocked
the art education out of me. It acted as a trigger not
only to thought, but to action, and that same year, I
established the Nuart Festival.
Stencil art is the tool the powerless already
possess. It enables speech in the language of the
times, leaving traces of the familiar in unfamiliar
surroundings. Unlike contemporary art, I realized
it was not a mirror, but a compass to show the
way, not produced for a community, but a shout-
out to create a community. Some mural artists,
often through necessity, have to be coaxed in
the way they communicate politics, but I’m tired
of nuance. There are people, companies and
organizations out there quite prepared to use
mural artists as the shock troops of gentrification,
bulldozing an area and clearing a path for
developers, mine stripping the culture as it goes.
We need to be prepared to offer and fight for
alternative platforms, patrons, finance and events
if the culture is to maintain any authentic link to
its radical roots. In the meantime, let’s celebrate
the anonymous and unsung heroes of stencil
art, those nameless champions of unsanctioned
human scale works whose rebellions challenge
the corporate world.
In a culture where anti-authoritarianism can be
“diagnosed” and medicated against as a disorder,
one where contemporary art is in thrall to the
market, we need quick, simple and very public
transgressive acts. The stencil offers a form that
echoes Joseph Beuys famous statement, “Everyone is
an artist,” in the most literal sense.
In the beginning, you’ll feel like a fraud, a faker,
and you can damn well bet you’ll be inauthentic.
But continue, and somewhere along the line, you
just may create an incantation that reverberates
and triggers action. Believe in the idea of art, love
and community.
As critic and author Robert Hughes asked in the
1980s in The Shock of the New: "What does one
prefer? An art that struggles to change the social
contract but fails? Or one that seeks to please and
amuse and succeeds?" I leave it to readers to decide
which is which. Laugh now, but one day we’ll be in
charge. —Martyn Reed
Martyn Reed is the founder of the seminal annual street
art festival, Nuart, which takes place in Stavanger,
Norway. He also started Nuart Aberdeen in 2016.
 PROFILE

Above: Photo by Banksy JUXTAPOZ .COM 55

 E l l a & P it r(F R)

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BOOKS
Shimmering Zen: James Stanford
Finally, a book made for micro-dosing! I spent
about ten minutes with Shimmering Zen and
I’m already booking a weekend in Joshua Tree.
James Stanford is the artist whose photography,
digital illustration and painting has culminated in
a series of works he calls Indra’s Jewels, a group of
digitally reinvented mosaics of patterns that are
influenced by the Mojave Desert and landscape
surrounding Las Vegas, or even Stanford’s earliest
forays into art, experiencing the great works of
16th-century artist Luis de Morales at the Prado
Museum in Madrid at the age of 20 in 1968.
These elements have found their way into the
hypnotic, LSD-drenched mandalas, repetitive
layerings that carry a deeply subconscious
style. As Elizabeth Herridge writes in her essay
for Shimmering Zen, “...a mandala is defined as a
consecrated enclosed space separated from the
profane by a series of borders guarded by magical
figures.” Over 260 pages, Stanford’s modern take
on the mandala creates a stream of dreamlike
experiences, abstract but with tiny details that
begin to look like familiar sites in everyday life. “It
has been 51 years since I took LSD,” Stanford writes.
“I have never felt the need to do it again, such was
the impact it had on me. It gave me a glimpse into
the true nature of enlightenment.” May he pass his
vibes onto you. —EP
ianthepress.com
60 WINTER 2018
WHAT WE’RE READING
Philip Guston: Nixon Drawings
1971 & 1975
Text by Musa Mayer and
Debra Bricker Balken
It seems appropriate in a year of such political
turmoil to look back at history for reflection
and context. Perhaps not since Nixon has
America’s relationship with its President been so
controversial and tumultuous. Trump’s first year
in office has led to thousands of artists creating
work in opposition, protesting the current
administration’s mishandling of nearly every
policy. In 1971, the great American artist Philip
Guston had returned to America from Italy after
a move abroad prompted by scalding reviews for
his show at Marlborough Gallery in NYC in 1970.
What is most striking about this collection is the
satirical depictions of Nixon, works not so much
malicious but biting. As Guston himself noted,
“I was pretty disturbed about everything in the
country politically, the administration specifically,
and I started doing cartoon characters. And
one thing led to another, and so, for months, I
did hundreds of drawings and they seemed to
form a kind of story line, a sequence.” As the
book notes, Guston made many of these works
after conversations with his friend and famed
author, Philip Roth, which makes sense given
the narrative of the works. Of course, when
Nixon resigned after Watergate in 1975, Guston
reexamined his Nixon obsession and continued
the series. The book, made in conjunction with
the 2017 exhibitions at both Hauser & Wirth in
New York and London, and what Philip Guston:
Nixon Drawings 1971 & 1975 demonstrates, is the
power of language that an artist can wield in times
of unrest, a blueprint for artists who challenge the
inevitable abuses in power. —EP
hauserwirth.com
New York City Transit Authority:
Objects
Chalk this up as another standout presentation
and research project by the Standards Manual
team. The independent publishing imprint,
founded by designers Jesse Reed and Hamish
Smyth, has been reprinting and re-creating some
of the hallmarks of graphic design history, most
recently the 1975 NASA Graphic Standards
Manual and the 1970 New York City Transit
Authority Graphic Standards Manual. The original
manuals are exemplary of both great design
and great design ideas. They literally, no pun
intended, set the standard of how companies
and organizations can approach smart design
and have an impactful presence. The newest
release from Standards Manual is New York City
Transit Authority: Objects, with over 400 artifacts
related to the New York City Subway, collected
and documented by photographer (and Juxtapoz
contributor) Brian Kelley. We have followed
Brian’s collection on Instagram as it has amassed
in size, and amazingly, he was able to create a
history of NYC that dates back to the 1850s. In
some respects, it becomes a compendium of
American industrial history, not only in the design
of a train ticket, but the construction of uniforms,
organization of labor strikes or just how maps
evolve as cities grow. What began as a dedicated
collection of NYC history became a retelling of
urban evolution. The perfect book for history buffs,
collector culture, and NYC obsessives. —EP
standardsmanual.com
 ERIK JONES

CARLOS RAMIREZ KIP OMOLADE

NOVEMBER 18 — DECEMBER 16, 2017 JANUARY 6 — FEBRUARY 3, 2018 FEBRUARY 17 — MARCH 17, 2018 MARCH 31 — APRIL 28, 2018

K I P OM OLAD E ERIK JO NES DA NIEL A GDA G K OR A L IE

CARLO S RA MIREZ JO HN JA C O BSMEY E R J A M IE A DA M S

8 8 8 NEWA RK AVENUE │ JERSEY CIT Y, NJ 07306 │ JONAT H ANLEVINEP ROJECT S.CO M

BEAUTIFUL BITS
The VR Roadshow
Artists Get to Play Around in the Future For a Bit
The minds behind the open-source virtual reality
platforms WebVR and A-FRAME dream of a time
when anyone with internet access and creative vision
can build virtual worlds for the web. These open-
source web standards make the realm of virtual
reality as accessible as standard websites. Imagine
a web gallery that works like a first-person game, or
a web game that works with any VR setup. WebVR
and A-Frame give developers tools to build whatever
they want for VR gear. So far, they’ve used it to
make games, 360-degree images and video, LEGO-
like building simulations, shopping apps, and 3D
painting apps.
It’s an entirely new medium for artists, a way to
paint and animate in three dimensions intuitively
and naturally. Apps like A-Painter give artists VR
wands to paint in three dimensions, creating surreal
sculptures in light and shadow.
64 WINTER 2018
Mozilla (makers of Firefox) is showing off the
technology around the globe at their Developer
Roadshows. Artists and developers can use
A-Painter to craft virtual reality artwork. No
headsets required, but the pieces really shine
with a Visor or a Google Cardboard. Mozilla is
documenting artists and their work in an online
web series shot in some pretty exotic locations,
where the films show artist reactions to the tech
and their virtual creations.
Computer engineer and artist Diego F. Goberna
has worked extensively with Mozilla to develop
A-Painter and several other VR games, and his
artwork is being featured in the web series.
The artist describes painting in VR as, “A whole
new experience that feels magical but strangely
physical and familiar.” He sees the tech as a
means to enhance and amplify artistic vision and
anticipates it becoming a popular medium across
the world.
Penang, Malaysia-based illustrator and educator
Charis Loke got to play with WebVR at one of the
roadshows and immediately saw its potential for
storytellers. “When you have a set of tools like
this, it allows you to tell really powerful stories
that elicit responses from the viewers, gets them
to do something, to react, to collaborate with other
people,” she says. “And that’s only possible if they
can see the content in the first place, which is why
having it on the web is really important.”
You can see WebVR in action at one of Mozilla’s
Developer Roadshows and watch artist reactions in the
upcoming web series. To get started with WebVR, visit
the hub aframe.io. The site features how-tos, demos, code
snippets and more.
Above: Photo by Charis Loke in Penang
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 Kerry James
Marshall
The Key Figure
Interview by David Molesky Portrait by Joey Garfield

66 WINTER 2018
KERRY JAMES MARSHALL JUXTAPOZ .COM 67
68 WINTER 2018 Above: Untitled (Male Painter), Acrylic on PVC panel, 61.25” x 72.75”, 2008, Collection of the Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum
I
n 2016, the Kerry James Marshall
retrospective, Mastry, traveled from the
Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago
(MCA) to the Met Breuer. Standing behind
the clear plexiglass podium, about to address
the press, Kerry took a deep breath, looked down,
noticed his descended zipper, corrected it, and
then delivered his wonderfully disarming chuckle,
effectively deepening the awe of the already
starstruck audience. The exhibition fulfilled his
biggest dreams, he explained, his work now in the
Met alongside his own selections of great historical
artworks from the museum’s permanent collection.

The first room of the retrospective was

breathtaking, with nearly a dozen unstretched
canvases as large as 10 x 18 feet, painted with thick
unblended passages, fixed to the wall by rivets.
These masterworks of narrative compositions
are astutely conscious of flatness, illusion, and
draftsmanship, with dynamic brushwork and colors
that freely incorporate comics and pop culture
as much as they sample the grand tradition. The
retrospective presented his entire oeuvre, including
portraits, lightboxes, sculptures, photography, and
comics called Dailies.

Perhaps even more inspiring is how Kerry’s life

path has provided the key ingredients for his
ever-expanding creative universe. Born in 1955,
Kerry moved with his family a decade later from
Birmingham, Alabama to Watts in Los Angeles.
During an era of rising racial tension, they moved a
few years later to a housing project called Nicholson
Gardens, just before the historic Watts riots.

Kerry knew early on that he wanted to be an artist and

was selected from his Junior High School to attend
advanced courses in drawing at what was then known
as Otis Art Institute. While drawing a master copy of
Otis instructor Charles White’s lithograph of Frederick
Douglass, he had a realization about the insularity of
white figures representing ideal beauty throughout
art history. He’d go to museums to observe masterful
technique, but his appreciation was hampered
because of the dearth of black subjects who seemed
excluded from the whole genre.
At first, Kerry considered a career in children’s
book illustration and also dabbled, like many of his
peers, in abstract pictures. The Invisible Man, Ralph
Ellison’s novel about a black man whose skin color
renders him marginalized, inspired Kerry to make
his painting Portrait of the Artist as a Shadow of his
Former Self. This seminal painting re-energized the
use of the figure as his vehicle to bring politics and
race into focus. The painting became emblematic
of a lifelong artistic goal to fill the gaps of history,
where black historical figures and black cultural
ideas did not have representation.
In his late twenties, Kerry took a residency at the
Studio Museum in Harlem, the only museum
in the US funded and operated by African
Americans. In what was literally love at first
sight, he would eventually marry the first person
he met upon his arrival, the actress Cheryl Lynn
Bruce, the museum’s PR representative at the
time. Working and living in a 6 x 9-foot room at
the Harlem YMCA that was once home to Malcolm
X, Kerry solidified a determination to continue
his work, regardless of what situation or space
was available to him.
In 1987, Kerry, focused and unwavering, moved
to Chicago and got a break when he was hired as
an artistic director for a feature film. The salary
afforded him almost a year of living expenses,
spurring a significant body of work, and his
momentum continues unflagged to this day.
In 1998, he had his first major solo show at the
Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago.
Now, Kerry’s work is featured in an incredible roster
of important museum collections, and he has been
awarded an even longer list of residencies, grants,
fellowships, and honorary degrees.
This past autumn, I called Kerry at his studio on the
South Side of Chicago, and we talked about getting
to work after the retrospective, and the exciting
continuous evolution of his comic strip.

Above: Black Owned, Acrylic and neon on PVC panel, 60.3” x 72.1” x 3.6”, 2012. Private Collection KERRY JAMES MARSHALL JUXTAPOZ .COM 69
 David Molesky: You must be excited to get back to
studio life after the tour of Mastry.
Kerry James Marshall: The whole experience was
satisfying, but I couldn't wait until it was finished,
so I could get back to a normal routine. The problem
with big surveys is that it puts you in a position
where you have to start to figure out what your next
act is going to be.

Especially when you've achieved so much, the bar

gets raised again.
Right. It's a challenge to exceed yourself. Every
time I do a picture, I'm trying to do a better or more
complex picture from my last. I try to push the
limits of my abilities. With retrospectives, you make
assessments of what you've done over time. You can
see it all in front of you. You know more about what
you're trying to get at and how to make it happen.
And it's hard to look at things you've done 30 years
ago and not think, "Oh, if I knew then what I know
now, maybe I would've done this a little differently."

As a painter myself, sometimes it seems the more

I paint, the harder it gets. I have to account for
more perspectives while I’m working. You ever
feel that way?
Yeah, but you know what? That's the way it's
supposed to be. It's supposed to get harder, and
that's not really a problem. You're supposed to be
more sophisticated and much more self-conscious.
As you know more, you have to consider more.
It gets harder to make the next thing, because you
have to have a good reason to do it.

How do you think new digital and virtual mediums

will affect the future evolution of figuration?
Figuration is coming back. It’s the foundation, but
the reality was that it never went anywhere. There
were periods where abstraction seemed more
advanced. The issue is that it's not whether a thing
is painting, photography, sculpture, installation,
abstract, or representational. That's not really where
the critical value of a thing lies. It actually has more
to do with the particular treatment of each one of
those different media.

The popularity of cheap instant cameras didn't

increase the number of excellent images any more
than going abstract made people better artists.
When there is proliferation, it’s another case where
it becomes more difficult, and you have to take
responsibility to marshall all the philosophical ideas,
critical conceptions, and technical characteristics.
You have to figure out a way to maximize their
generated effect. This is how proliferation makes it
harder to do things that are worthwhile.

It seems with greater knowledge comes greater

responsibility.
If you're not going to surrender to chance, then
you're going to target your efforts at achieving a
very specific thing. That's how you keep it going.
You're trying to get at something specific, you're not
just waiting for any old kind of thing to happen,

70 WINTER 2018 Above top: Untitled (Painter), Acrylic on PVC panel, 72.9” x 61.1” x 3.9”, 2009. Collection of the Yale University Art Gallery
Above bottom: They Know That I Know, Acrylic and collage on canvas, 72” x 72”, 1992. Private Collection
Above: Untitled (Club Couple), Acrylic on PVC panel, 59.6” x 59.6”, 2014. Private collection KERRY JAMES MARSHALL JUXTAPOZ .COM 71
or hoping that something you did was interesting
enough, you're really trying to make it that way.
When you were teaching, you’d tell students, "You
have to ask why, to ask why always." What were
some of the important “whys” you asked yourself,
and what do you think are some of the important
questions that younger artists should be asking
themselves now?
People are not driven to make artwork because
of some of internal emotional need. I believe
it's always because you want to participate in
something that you see other people doing. When
you look at the history of how what you want to do
has evolved, you have to ask: "Can I add anything
to it?" Or will I be satisfied just mimicking what has
already been done?
In the ’70s, there was this notion that painting was
completely obsolete. Would it be worth my effort
to carry on a practice that people are claiming has
already been exhausted? You have to ask yourself
that in the face of what is going on around you. No
matter what the technology or activity is, nothing
has ever been completely exhausted. You can
look around for those places that never got fully
72 WINTER 2018
“It’s a complete miscomprehension to
believe that you don’t need to do the same
things that Rembrandt was doing.”
resolved, and then you can make an attempt at
trying to resolve those things.
I came across an article in Scientific American about
Fermat's Last Theorem. He was a 17th century
mathematician who proposed a paradox that
couldn’t be resolved for over 350 years. About 20
years ago, it was proven by a man who, at 10 years
old, became determined to solve it. So there are these
novel ideas that pose a challenge, and somebody's got
to check if it's worthwhile. You can do that in the art
world, too.
Contemporary history painting can shed new
light on events by prompting a unique space and
time for contemplation. How have current and
recent events made their way into your work?
The idea for Rhythm Mastr began with two recent
Above: Souvenir 1, Acrylic, collage, and glitter on unstretched canvas, 156” x 108”, 1997. Collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
catastrophes: the spike in violence in Chicago in the
’90s, and the demolition of high-rise public housing
near where I live on the South Side of Chicago. There
were moving people out and tearing down public
housing. It was controversial and complicated in how
it was handled. I want the narrative around these
events to take on Homeric epic structure and form.
I realized how this could have the same cultural
impact as Star Wars, which initially was going to
be five episodes, but now seems to be going on in
perpetuity. The narrative allowed me to talk about
the social consequence of high-rise housing and
its demolition, as well as the consequences of gang
violence in relationship to public housing projects
and the surrounding neighborhood. It also gave me a
chance to talk about the conflicts between tradition
and modernity. The public high-rises on 35th Street
were right across the street from a Mies Van Der
Rohe-designed campus for the Illinois Institution
of Technology (IIT). The street literally divided two
completely different worlds.

I have a character from the neighborhood in a

program learning robotics at IIT, alongside a
young man who lives in the projects. Also in this
neighborhood is a brownstone building called
the Ancient Egyptian Museum. This museum
promotes the idea of Afrocentrism, where black
people become healthy and gang violence stops
when black people can revive who they were
before they were enslaved people. To do that, you
center your worldview around Africa and center
creative capacities around the achievements of the
Egyptians. In the narrative, the robotics student
is the girlfriend of the kid who meets the Rhythm
Man who teaches him drum patterns to unlock the
power of African figure sculptures. They are both
trying to solve the gang war problem. They don't
realize that they're in conflict with each other: one
using robotic technology, the other using African
mystic power.

What is your vision for the development of the

graphic novel?
For me, it needs to be something that operates like The
Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, or the Harry Potter cycles.
You need to be able to get that much out of it. It needs
to demonstrate that you can generate these narratives
that can go on for generations. Its initial inception was
for the Carnegie International, but it really started to
take shape when I did a show at the MCA (Museum of
Contemporary Art in Chicago) where it became a daily
comic strip called Dailies. I began building a series of
comics around the Rhythm Mastr. Each component of
the overall narrative allowed me to talk about things
through barbershop-style conversations about history,
culture, and politics.

There was one thread that started out as Ho Stroll.

With a lot of prostitution and streetwalkers in the
neighborhood, I had to give these working people a
chance to contribute their inner philosophical life
through conversation. So it really contains three
narratives: the Rhythm Mastr, P-Van, and Ho Stroll,
which has now become On the Stroll. I was going to
build up enough narratives to fill a full-size page of
the Chicago Tribune with black-oriented comics.

These separate narratives overlap and become the

larger Rhythm Mastr story, with everything taking
place in the same neighborhood. The Rhythm Mastr
kids would pass the P-Van, they’d see the prostitutes
on the street, they’d go by the Ancient Egyptian
Museum, they’d be at IIT, and they would be at the
projects. All of it gets woven together.
I'm still working on it. After the Mastry show closed,
this was supposed to be the year that I would
resolve the graphic novel form. In this process, I'm
always making new factions of those stories and I'm
actually in the middle of working on new Dailies
right now.
What is the overarching plot for the screenplay?
The theme is really the conflict between tradition
and modernity. In a drive towards the future, can
an orientation to the past win?
It's possible to use values from our past that will
remain important to our species in the future.
Yeah. This is something that people miss when
talking about painting and all of its accompanying
skillsets. I don't know of a good film that didn't
start out with the production designer making
drawings of the sets. That’s the same skillset
needed for narrative paintings. It's a complete
miscomprehension to believe that you don't need
to do the same things that Rembrandt was doing.
You have to think about how the lighting works. You
have to conceive, construct, and refine the narrative.
Look at all those paintings; there's virtually no

Above: Woman with Death on her Mind (detail), Acrylic and collage on book cover, 5” x 7”, 1990. Private Collection KERRY JAMES MARSHALL JUXTAPOZ .COM 73
74 WINTER 2018 Above: Portrait of the Artist & a Vacuum, Acrylic on paper, 52.4” x 62.5”, 1981. Collection of the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University
Above: De Style, Acrylic and collage on unstretched canvas, 122” x 104”, 1993. Collection of the Los Angeles Museum of Art KERRY JAMES MARSHALL JUXTAPOZ .COM 75
difference between the setup for Gericault's Raft of
the Medusa or a movie scene. You get actors posed
in costumes with props, then find a location and
organize it so that it conveys your ideas. I've never
seen a movie that didn't do that.
When Rhythm Mastr becomes a movie, do you
think it'll be animated or do you think you'll use
real figures?
Ideally, it has to be animated first. You have a lot
more latitude that way.
Have you done animation before?
I've done some animation and video that uses
animation. When I was in high school, I participated
in a program at Otis called "Tutor Art," which
included hand-drawn animation. I learned how to do
animation to a soundtrack. I also have every book on
animation you can find. I watch all the Disney and
76 WINTER 2018
the Chuck Jones documentaries. I'm really interested
in technique. I did production design for a couple of
feature films, so I know a little bit about how films are
made and how animation is done, so I'm ready for it.
Any idea when folks might start hearing about the
graphic novel coming out, or the animation?
By this time next year, I hope to have the graphic novel
ready for publication. This project first came into
existence in 1999. It takes a long time. If you're really
going to do it right, you really have to come to terms
with the amount of detail that has to be invested in
everything. When I started developing characters
for the comic strip, I designed clothes with my then
assistant who was also a fashion designer. This was
just one part of building the archive and style that
would ultimately be the graphic novel. In my studio,
I use set pieces to development the narrative. You have
to invent practically every detail, so I have models of
Above: Could This Be Love, Acrylic and collage on canvas, 114” x 103”, 1992. The Bailey Collection, Canada
all kinds of things to draw from, including downtown.
It gets more exciting as it comes together. It propels
me to keep going, because I can see it being fulfilled.
When you're in it, there's nothing but hard work.
There's nothing but labor. And it's almost all physical.
Any concluding advice for younger artists?
There are some things that you can't even imagine
unless you already believe you have the capability
of making it happen. As you know more and have
more skills, you can do more and imagine more
things. That seems fundamental. I encourage people
to do everything and take nothing for granted.
There are no shortcuts.
Kerry James Marshall’s work will be featured in
Figuring History alongside Robert Colescott and
Mickalene Thomas at the Seattle Art Museum from
February 15–May 13, 2018.
Above: Still-Life with Wedding Portrait, Acrylic on PVC panel, 48” x 60”, 2015. Private Collection KERRY JAMES MARSHALL JUXTAPOZ .COM 77
 Anja
Salonen
The Indolent Gaze
Interview by Kristin Farr Portrait by David Broach

78 WINTER 2018
ANJA SALONEN JUXTAPOZ .COM 79
80 WINTER 2018 Above: Cornflake Crusade, Oil on canvas, 60 x 72”, 2016
T
he figurative painting has long been
a compulsion of artists, and only the
remarkable make headway in the
game. Anja Salonen is deep into the
uncanny, concocting color and mood to present
an alternate reality, a dimension similar to ours,
but not quite right. The aesthetic notion of the
uncanny valley describes the uncomfortable
reaction humans experience when faced with a
clone-like being. The global merger of the real
and virtual has forced an increasingly blurred
line between the two, and the prevalent, dubious
honesty of the contemporary gaze is challenged
in Salonen’s work.

Eerie, exceptional, astounding, creepy and

mystifying are descriptors akin to uncanny, and
could also describe these paintings of a world that
oddly reflects the one we know. Salonen’s practice
explores what it means to be alive today and the way
paint relates to the body. She responds to the slump
of our current situation of glaring into screens as the
world implodes. Through painting, she emphasizes
this era—the evolution of physicality, emotion, and
our new defense mechanisms, and she does so with a
remarkable vision.

Kristin Farr: Who are the people you are painting

and what are they most often experiencing?
Anja Salonen: Most of the figures that I develop begin
with a reference to my own body. I photograph my
friends posing for me whenever they are willing,
but the work is largely based off of photographs that
I take of myself enacting the poses that I envision for
the paintings. The figures appear to be experiencing
boredom, malaise, disturbance… the gaze often
meeting the viewer’s, or idly detached, mouth
slightly gaping. I want the figures to hold weight
and appear despondent.

What makes successful figurative painting in

your mind?
I can’t really isolate what makes a successful
figurative painting because I’m attracted to
such a wide range of stylistic and conceptual
choices, but I think that paintings that are
pushing the boundaries of body constructs and
representation, and different ways of talking
about the body in space are the most interesting
to me right now.
Some forever favorite painters of mine are
Pontormo, Manet, Helene Schjerfbeck… More
contemporary painters that I really connect with
are Tala Madani, Jordan Kasey, Tschabalala Self,
Robin Francesca Williams, Ambera Wellman,
Sascha Braunig, Cheyenne Julien, Anders Oinonen…
the list goes on.
How would you feel if you ended up at dinner
with the people you paint?
Probably pretty frightened, but it’s also kind of
all I want. I want my figures to be rendered to the
point of believability, but for the belief to be in
an alternate space and reality or dimension. To
me, it sometimes feels more like I’m exposing a
world than creating one. I’m really interested in
Masahiro Mori’s concept of the “uncanny valley,”
in which he hypothesized what humanity’s
reaction would be to robots that look almost like
people, but not quite—on the border of empathy
and revulsion, closeness and othering. He wrote
about a relationship between the resemblance
of an object to a human and the emotional
response that the object elicits. My paintings
are objects, flat planes, that hold the illusion
of a somatic reality, and that reality’s location
on the spectrum of familiarity and alienation
also potentially affects the elicited emotional
response in the viewer. I think a lot about
dimensions, alternate realities, the subjectivity of
objects, illusion, delusion. So, yeah, I would kind
of like nothing more than for my own body to
enter that reality.
What do you like most about exploring the body?
The body as subject matter has always been central
to my work for a lot of reasons. It is a point of
access, a collective experience, a political ground.
I’m interested in the physicality and complexity
of the body as an expressive tool, and in using
the representation of bodies as an entry point for
discussing representation and images in general.
I’m also interested in the body as a site and source

Above top: Plasticity, Oil on canvas, 60” x 40”, 2017 Above bottom: Elasticity, Oil on canvas, 60” x 40”, 2017 ANJA SALONEN JUXTAPOZ .COM 81
of trauma, the complex relationship between the
interior and the exterior, and the body’s role in
forming self-image, the grotesqueness as well as the
beauty and vulnerability, and the identity politics
that are tied to each specific body.
How do you relate the physicality of paint to the
body?
Oil paint is a pretty mystical practice to me. Like,
absolutely alchemical, using oils and pigments
from the earth to create a flat illusion of that same
earth… Oil paint, for me, contains this similar
uncanny sense of being of the body, but not quite.
Its smoothness and viscosity has the power to
express some really specific and esoteric behaviors
of flesh, light, and color, and I often feel like I’m
sculpting much more than drawing while I paint.
The paint on the canvas is also a direct record of
a motion extended from my body, but the paint
seems to have its own momentum. I feel like I’m
working with paint’s natural behavior rather than
controlling it, and manipulating it to look a certain
way, but I’m constantly amazed by paint’s own
generative ability. I feel like I’m in a dialogue with
my materials as I work. I’m sculpting a world, while
the paint and the brushes behave in their own ways
as objects, and every new brushstroke I make is a
decision based off of an internal process that is as
equally based in my concept for the piece as it is in
learning from the materials.
You’ve used oil paint since you were a kid. How
did your training affect what you’re doing now?
I totally fell in love with oil paint as a material
at a young age, and feel like I have a very deep
relationship with it. I learned how to paint
primarily from life, and studied my own face
a lot as a way to practice. I think a part of this
relationship to self-portraiture is a means of
trying to understand or connect to my physical
body, understanding the boundaries of my
specific identity. I’ve fluctuated through different
painting styles over the years and departed
from my classical training for a more gestural,
surreal style for a while. Recently, I’ve been
kind of merging the two, rendering these more

82 WINTER 2018 Left: It thrives on grass, Oil on canvas, 56” x 100”, 2016 Top right: Big year for redheads and Make a beauty wish (installation view), Oil and gesso on plywood, 2016
Bottom right: Forty-seven ways to look pretty, Oil and acrylic on canvas, 72” x 84”, 2016
fantastical and colorful scenes in a tighter,
three-dimensional way to create the illusion of a
complete alternate world.
Are you trying to capture how we feel inside or
how we feel we are perceived by others?
I guess both. I’m really interested in depicting how
it feels, psychologically and somatically, to be alive
right now, and that applies both to the ways we feel
about ourselves and about others.
Do your paintings take the lead when it comes to
composition? Do you start with a sketch?
I’ll usually start with an idea, gather source
material for it, do a rough compositional sketch,
and then work on the canvas. The composition
sort of naturally creates itself as I lay out the
components of the painting, and the initial idea
changes a lot with each step of the process.
I often work in larger series of paintings, creating
a cohesive body of work that contains its own
composition and direction of ideas. I like making
specific work for each show I do because I want the
paintings to work as one larger piece.
Above top: An Extreme Form of Togetherness, Oil and acrylic on canvas, 96” x 60”, 2016
How is living in LA influencing your work
right now?
I started working in the color pallette I use now
when I moved into my first studio in LA in the
“I learned how
to paint primarily
from life, and
studied my own face
a lot as a way to
practice.”
fashion district, down the street from Santee
Alley. The streets are completely overflowing with
neons and plastic and furs and fake plants. The
LA light must be interesting to every painter here
in some way… The colors, the haze, the natural
environment, desert flora, the beach, the strip malls,
the weird hidden magic things. LA space is also
so deeply strange… so broad and vast, sprawling.
Ocean, mountains, big sky…
How do you describe your personal aesthetic and
does it match your paintings?
The way I design my surroundings and personal
aesthetic is really tied to creating a color
composition. I wear and surround myself with color
combinations that I like, treat my outfits in a similar
way, and even my meals.
What feelings are you most often trying to project
into the work and onto your audience?
Despondency, illness, humor, beauty, disgust,
attraction, familiarity, alienation, weightlessness,
heaviness—a lot of contradictions.
What do you want to add to the dialogue about
the body and corporeality?
A new aspect of corporeality that figurative
painters are navigating right now is how the
ANJA SALONEN JUXTAPOZ .COM 83
84 WINTER 2018 Above: Party of One, Oil on canvas, 36” x 48”, 2017
three-dimensional body interacts with digital
space and flat images. Digital space is a new
landscape, with its own illusion of constructs
of gravity, layering, light and shadows. This has
sort of changed the perspective direction of a lot
of post-analog painting, because whereas before,
figurative painting functioned as a “window,” a
recessive space with the illusion of depth, now
there is a push towards illusionistic projection
and forward movement. Artists are calling
attention to not only the surface of the painting,
but the space in front of it, and I think this idea
of projection is directly tied to the spatial shift of
the virtual.
What are you painting now and what’s coming up
next for shows?
My solo show opened in November at ltd Los
Angeles. It’s called New Dimensions in Recreation.
The body of work I’ve made for this show consists
of three-dimensional wooden panel structures
Above: The Long-Lasting Intimacy of Strangers, Oil on canvas, 96” x 72”, 2016
painted with illusionistic three-dimensional
images. The paintings show malaise in its tangible
and mediated forms—an essentially three-
dimensional, palpable body processed as a flat
image, reaching a final form of dimension in real
space. In the work, reality is mutable, shadows cast
by fluorescent lights on the three-dimensional
objects melting into painted illusions. There is no
truth, the flat and the illusory and the dimensional,
projections and contractions, fluidly moving in
and out of one another and through space without
hierarchy. The limitations of self-image during
the apocalypse—at what point of distortion the
self becomes something else—and what tells you
something is wrong.
What are you doing tonight?
I’m going out to the desert to see my dear friend’s
noise performance and stay in a house in Fontana,
and go to Andrea Zittel’s High Desert Test Site in
Joshua Tree.
Who have been your best non-traditional teachers
in life and art and what has been their most
memorable advice?
My fourth-grade creative writing teacher who
taught me about existentialism, a painter I took
lessons from when I lived in London in high
school who taught me about loving, sensitive
portraiture. My first piano teacher, my sculpture
professor at RISD who believed in magic, many
of my dearest friends. My mom. It’s hard to
pinpoint exact statements of advice, but I think the
common thread of my most meaningful learning
experiences have been in finding an honest
connection with someone who sees something
about the world that I do.
Anja Salonen’s solo show at ltd Los Angeles is on view
through December, 2017.
anjasalonen.com
ANJA SALONEN JUXTAPOZ .COM 85
86 WINTER 2018
 Artists Remember
Greg Escalante

GREG ESCAL ANTE JUXTAPOZ .COM 87

I hope it is true that a man can die, and yet not only live
in others, but give them life, and not only life, but that
great consciousness of life. —Jack Kerouac
As the cycle of time swirls in an endless continuum,
every so often the gods conspire to pluck another
hero from our midst, signifying the end of an era.
The recent unexpected passing of Juxtapoz co-
founder Greg Escalante left a deep void within the
extended community of artists whom he so tirelessly
fostered. It is impossible to quantify the scope of his
influence. There was no bigger cheerleader for art
and artists.
I first met Greg at the Robert Berman Gallery in
1990, when he purchased the first painting I ever
sold at an exhibition. We became good friends
over the years, and he remained my principal
guiding force for the rest of his life, always at the
ready to offer positive advice and unwavering
encouragement. He was equally instrumental in
the careers of a plethora of other artists whom he
consistently championed.
I asked a number of them to contribute their
thoughts to help create a portrait of a remarkable
pioneer who meant so much to so many. Here are
the excerpts from recollections of some of the
creative souls he touched before shuffling off this
mortal coil. —Gregg Gibbs
88 WINTER 2018
Robert Williams: Greg Escalante was the equivalent
of Guillaume Apollinaire, in his time, as a supporter
and a pioneer. He came in on the alternative
movement when he was still a baby and was very
instrumental with the beginning of Juxtapoz as a co-
founder. A lot of people are going to feel the vacuum
of his absence.
Mike Shine: Greg opened up the world of art for
many of us with the creation of Juxtapoz. His
passion and endless drive to keep opening that
world further was very inspiring. Like many of the
art orphans Greg left behind, we all will need to step
up and try our damndest to keep his mission of art
for all going strong.
Craig Stecyk: “Yes, my friend,” was his perpetual
refrain. It was an expression of passionate vision. The
surrogate self in the Joe Copro disguise never wanted
credit for his boundless good deeds and innovations.
By standing out, he blended into the social narrative.
Moving forward ever, backward never. Genius goes
where it wants, and there is no chance in it, and even
less choice. The invariable fact of Gregorio Conrad
Escalante’s tenure was that he was always ahead of
the curve. In the end, life gets away from us all. Once
again, Greg has gotten somewhere first.
Laurie Hassold: Greg helped author an art scene
that provided young talent with a respite from
the snobbish bourgeois stronghold of acceptable
"high art." As a grad student, I always felt a bit
snubbed when visiting galleries and museums,
like there was a class system, and I was on the
bottom rung. Greg's galleries and the shows he
curated were so very inclusive, and the exact
opposite of snobbish.
Joe Coleman: I met a tall, lanky cartoon surfer in
a suave suit. He talked like a nervous carnival
pitchman espousing an art construct that was anti-
minimalist, anti-conceptualist and anti-Dadaist.
I immediately took a liking to this whirling dervish
of psychedelic reverence. I heard that he was a
former bond trader, but to me he was a bonder of
artists, collectors, gallerists, philosophers and all
creators that were, for many years, on the margins
of what was acceptable to the contemporary art
world. Now that he’s gone, there is a negative
space…an empty quiet left in the absence of such
a resonant force.
Mark Ryden: I seriously can’t remember one of my
art shows where he was not there, always wearing
an appropriately themed, fabulous outfit. Greg
got involved with things like this simply because
he was excited to make interesting things happen
in the art world. He loved making connections
between people. And he did this without any
ulterior motives. He was not interested in getting
anything for himself, like money, or his own glory.
He did it for the pure love of art. That is a pretty
rare thing.
Frank Kozik: Greg was an integral part of the
Lowbrow scene and was immediately supportive
and enthusiastic. His support and interest helped
hundreds (thousands?) of artists and other creative
types’ careers blossom. Everyone he ever interacted
with benefited, and he never took—he just gave.
I would honestly say that he and his circle created
an entire genre of art.
F. Scott Hess: A couple of days after he died, I was
trying to think of anyone else I’d ever known
in the art world who was so energetic, engaged,
and generous. There is no one. He seemed to be
everywhere at once, getting to every opening,
event and party. If he found your artwork to be
of value, he worked to help you get it shown. The
sheer number of artists whose lives he has touched
is astronomical. I’ve always thought of him as the
“Guru of Lowbrow.” Where would that movement be
without him?
Shepard Fairey: I feel really indebted to Greg for his
support on many fronts, and I’m going to miss him.
He was a great guy, and right up until he died, he
was dropping gifts off and offering me walls where
I could do murals. I won’t be doing as many cool
things without him around, and the entire art scene
will be missing somebody who facilitated so many
good projects that we all benefit from.
Nathan Spoor: Greg was actually the one great
binding agent that made this Los Angeles art scene
interesting. He was a tireless proponent for the arts,
Art by: Robert Williams
“I want to do art shows in a
museum that should never be
there. You should never have
black velvet in a museum.”
–Greg Escalante
with non-stop enthusiasm for artists, and fun ideas
that fed into the art scene that he loved and helped
to nurture.
Eric White: He was a kind and generous person
with a keen eye and unique perspective, and was
highly supportive of artists who would have had
a hard time breaking into the orthodox art world.
It’s so hard to believe he's gone and that I can’t just
reach out to him right now. His presence will be
felt for a long time, and his contributions will have
a lasting impact.
Luke Chueh: His desire to help artists was on a
level I don't often encounter. Most people will help
as long as they get something out of it, but Greg's
Art by (from left): Mark Ryden, Shepard Fairey
enthusiasm seemed genuine and sincere. From
what I could tell, he had his fingers in all sorts of
projects around the West Coast. Though Lowbrow
is the genre often associated with him, his personal
collection was much more diverse.
John Swihart: He was so well-connected and
I always joked that Greg had a magic lantern he
would rub and the magic would always happen.
Whenever he would call, I would wonder what fun
and wonderful ride he was about to take me on. He
would sometimes drop by for a visit full of amazing
stories of his newest synergistic adventures. After
he would leave, the house would be buzzing with
his positive energy for hours.
Niagara: Graham Greene once said that what
lengthens a person's life is travel. What lengthened
Greg's life was his friends.
Long Gone John: There are many reasons why
he was loved… number one being he was a
kind, generous man and seemingly a happy and
contented soul… that will be echoed in every
single tribute you read here and will never be up
for debate. I had an immense affection for Greg and
he will be greatly missed by every fortunate soul
who ever crossed his path.
Bob Dob: He loved helping artists. If you were
standing around at a show he would always
come by and say hello and then find someone of
importance for you to meet who could possibly
further your career. Greg promoted that art can be
strong conceptually and be well crafted.
Van Arno: Greg realized that art should be
visually exciting and not an exercise in academic
deconstruction of deconstruction. Talking to him
made me appreciate his breadth of knowledge
and his accessible spirit and passion. He fought a
multi-front battle to make art fun as an engrossing
experience. When you go to an art opening and see
young people on a date, he was a big part of making
that happen.
Bad Otis Link: He told me about imaging and
creating a future that was better and more
GREG ESCAL ANTE JUXTAPOZ .COM 89
90 WINTER 2018 Art by (clockwise from top): Shag, Chet Zar, Elizabeth McGrath, Natalia Fabia
stimulating than the past. Greg Escalante was my
friend. He was real, generous and shared his world
with all of us. I respect everything about him.

Natalia Fabia: One of the things that comes to

mind was his ability to put people together that was
so selfless; connecting artists with galleries and
collectors and other artists in such positive ways.
He was this tall, goofy lighting rod for all of us.

Robbie Conal: The world needs enthusiasts. Greg

Escalante was a world-class enthusiast. When
Greg liked something, he loved it! We can all be
grateful that he acted on his love of street art and
understood its cultural significance. He was a truly
generous soul.

Chet Zar: He loved to connect artists as much as

he loved collecting art. Greg was not into the art
scene to make money. He did it purely for the love.
There is really no other person like him in the art
community and his absence will leave a huge hole
in the center of all of our hearts.

Marnie Weber: He really wanted the artists to be

happy. Whenever I would see Greg, he was always
the same—funny, friendly, and super interested
in what I was doing. He later was instrumental in
having me appear in Juxtapoz. He actually seemed
as thrilled about me being in the magazine as I was.

Elizabeth McGrath: He would call me at all hours.

He obsessively had to complete the big picture.
He fearlessly fostered an environment that forced
people to crack out of their shells and that birthed
a lot of this movement.

Shag: Greg bought more art than anyone I know—

which is probably the best way to support an artist.
He also was one of the funniest people I know. At
one point, he carried around a giant fake finger in
his car. If somebody flipped him off while driving,
he would slip the giant finger over his middle finger,
and make a grand, overly dramatic unveiling of his
enormous bird.

Dosshaus: There are hundreds, if not thousands, of

other artists who will nod in agreement when we
say, “We owe it all to Greg Escalante.” And, like us,
they’ll mean every word of it. His incredible legacy
is in the art he fostered, his generosity of spirit,
and in the fact that he gave so freely of his time
and influence to help spotlight the art and artists
he loved. He took a genuine, almost paternal joy in
the art community around him, a community he have all been lucky to grow within. It’s become bigger example. After I’d managed to stay upright and dry
largely cultivated. than life today. I owe everything to Greg and his for an hour or so, he paddled over to a pier and took
constant support. And I can say that is the case for stills and a video of my fully dressed adventure. It
Lola Gil: He had an ease about him, and I very most artists I know. was so fun I will probably spend the rest of my life
genuinely loved to hear about his experiences and paddle boarding, imagining him up ahead, guiding
fascinating stories. We all can only strive to be like Moira Hahn: Earlier this year, Greg invited me to me, with perfect form.
him; he was born with a rare and truly selfless gene go paddle boarding. I wasn’t dressed for it, but that
that is untouchable. He’s an important figure who made it even more goal-worthy not to fall in. Greg’s Michael Knowlton: I loved going out with him to art
birthed, moved, and nurtured this little art world we instructions were super brief, so I just followed his events. He was always so selfless. He would grab

Art by: Marnie Weber GREG ESCAL ANTE JUXTAPOZ .COM 91

a person and walk them across the room through
the crowd and introduce them to the perfect
curator, surf shop owner, or like-minded artist that
would be a genius coupling. He would make the
introductions with a quick one-sentence description
of each person and leave the two to talk. He knew
the alchemy of people as well as he knew art and
business, so the introductions were always inspired.
Doing this all the time made him an art world
Johnny Appleseed.
Anthony Ausgang: Greg was incredibly enamored
of artists, and I really think he preferred to spend
more time with them than the people buying
the work. Some gallerists are like that; their
amazement and respect for artists comes before
sales. It’s a rare thing.
Gary Baseman: He seemed to be everywhere, at
every gathering and gallery opening. He was such
a face in the LA art scene for so long. He was at
the forefront of legitimizing a particular kind of
painting that didn’t go through the traditional art
school-gallery-museum circuit.
92 WINTER 2018
L. Croskey: I will forever be grateful to Greg Escalante
for believing in me, my eye, and my curatorial skills.
His support and guidance have been integral in my
life and getting me to where I am today.
“Yes, my
friend...”
–Greg Escalante
Marion Peck: I wanted to work with him because
I liked the way he was excited about making
culture happen. He was very unselfish and genuine.
I admired his energy. I liked talking about art with
him… he was funny, not full of it, the way so many
people are when they talk about art.
Nicola Verlato: I think Greg was one of those people
who had a very clear mind that life without the
presence of art is just miserable, but also that art
without any reference to real life is absolutely
worthless. The two terms have to meet in the work
itself. Art has to become something important for
everybody and life has to be open for art to blossom
everywhere possible.
Jeff Gillette: I feel deeply indebted to Greg Escalante
for pretty much starting my art career. The first
time I “met” Greg, he had scheduled a studio visit,
but I became unavailable at the last minute. So
I asked a friend, who was also named Jeff, to pretend
to be me, and lo and behold, Greg offered “me” my
first LA solo show. Later, when we really met, he was
surprised to find out that I was the real artist, not
the person he had talked to before.
Todd and Kathy Schorr: Before Juxtapoz and the
internet would turn a fledgling art movement
into what would become a global phenomenon
known as Lowbrow, there was Greg and a
handful of other aficionados who would become
the movement’s first ardent supporters and
patrons. He was always an active participant
on the scene in those early days, leading all the
way up until the present. He was always at our
shows throughout the years, and never lost his
enthusiasm for the artists he admired, which was
an eclectic group, to say the least.
Jorge Gutierrez: I joked with him that he was my
art world “papa,” and I can still hear his inimitable
laugh. I loved pitching him painting ideas like they
were movies. He would always nod; no idea was
ever too crazy or subversive enough. I would get
the most profound or sweetest or raunchiest texts
at the craziest of times. In my mind, he never slept.
The thing I will remember the most about him is the
way he brought people of all kinds together with art.
And it made him giddy. We should all be so lucky to
live a life like his.
Ron English: Sadly, the true depth of a soul's impact
on the world is only realized by the expanse of
the void they leave behind. I was well aware of the
warmth and wit of his company and the optimistic
nature of his existence. What I did not fully realize
in his lifetime is that I was not the sole beneficiary
of his generosity and beautiful spirit. Of course,
I was not unaware of his impact on others and
on the scene that was ours, but I truly had little
concept of how large his spirit loomed. He was
truly the heart and soul of our community. There
will never be another.
Suzanne Williams: He was the most tireless
champion of artists and he actually couldn’t help
himself from helping others. He spent all of his time
hooking them up with something and took pleasure
in that. He was so tireless, he just wore himself out,
and now he gets to sleep.
Art by: Marion Peck
Art by (clockwise from top left): Nicola Verlato, Todd Schorr, Jeff Gillette GREG ESCAL ANTE JUXTAPOZ .COM 93
Smithe
Learning and
Loving Life
Interview & portrait by Alex Nicholson

94 WINTER 2018
SMITHE JUXTAPOZ .COM 95
A
t one point during my conversation
with Smithe, he insisted that he
doesn’t like to give advice because
he isn’t good at it, only to follow the
declaration with some good, practical counsel
of his own. “It is always better to do than to
speak.” As the day went on, I understood these
are words he clearly lives by. Between a design
studio, clothing brand, gallery, playing in a band
and touring the world painting murals and
participating in exhibitions, Smithe is always doing
something. His response also illustrates the light
hearted, humble attitude with which he reacts to
accomplishments and interacts with friends, fans,
and collaborators.
Smithe lives, works, and paints in the historic
center of Mexico City. Still fairly affordable, but
quickly changing, Centro Historico is a hectic,
bustling commotion of working people and crowds
of tourists that, at times, rivals a busy Times
Square. The Copete Cohete office, a design studio
where he partners with the artist Pogo, serves
96 WINTER 2018
as mission control for anything and everything.
Clothing for Tony Delfino, the brand he started
with Jesus Benitez in 2008, fills a back room where
it is packaged and shipped to those not able to
visit the nearby storefront. In the main office,
overlooking the street below, employees are busy
creating animations, illustrations, and branding
for commercial clients or planning exhibitions at
TOBA Gallery, the space adjacent to Tony Delfino.
Smithe used to paint in the same space, but recently
decided to rent a separate studio, a few blocks away,
where he is hoping, once the businesses become
more self-sufficient, to devote more time to his
paintings and personal work.
Alex Nicholson: What are the earliest things you
remember creating?
Smithe: The first things that I started drawing were
replicas of Dragon Ball Z. When I was 11 or 12 years
old, there was a boom of the anime in Mexico and
I was drawn to the characters. Then, in school, we
had this class called Technical Drawing, which
basically taught you how to use rulers, squares,
and pencils to draw geometric figures, blueprints
or objects with their different perspectives. I really
enjoyed that and still use several things that
I learned from it in my drawings.
Are there other books, magazines, or movies that
had a big impact?
Everything in general! I am very graphic and
I like to see all the details in images, from Manga to
mechanical books. One that had a big influence was
an encyclopedia that my dad collected in the ‘80s
called Salvat Automobile Encyclopedia. It was
my favorite when I was a child.
At your recommendation, I visited the
magnificent murals at Palacio de Bellas down the
street from your studio. Who is your favorite of
the Mexican muralists?
Jorge González Camarena is my favorite. Both his
technique, as well as the color palette and topics are
awesome, very advanced for the year in which he
was making them.
You told me your parents were always supportive,
finding you things to draw with, even if they were
simple. How important was that encouragement?
Yes, my parents were always very supportive,
even in my graffiti stage. I got into trouble quite
easily and they still helped me so I could do
whatever I wanted.
When did you decide that you wanted to try and
make a living as an artist?
I think it was when I obtained my first design
job. It was for a Mexican skateboard brand called
Aztlan, which is still around. It was my first
opportunity to earn some money from my designs,
and afterwards, it became clearer to me that it
was possible to work in what interested me.
I never envisioned doing fine art, I was always
more focused on design and illustration.
Do you feel like you have to do something creative
every day?
Not always. I have production or preparation stages
before starting work every day. What does happen
to me is that I always have to be doing something.
With my studio Copete Cohete, the clothing brand
Tony Delfino, my gallery TOBA, and my band
Stendal, I always have something new to do that
keeps me active every day. I hope in the coming
years to be able to focus more on my personal work
and, little by little, give myself some space from all
the other responsibilities.
With so many different projects going on
simultaneously, how do you stay motivated?
I try to get out of my comfort zone and look for
different things to inspire me to change the way
I do things. I have been stuck in what I’m doing for
some time and I need to think a little bit more about
my graphics, give them a different twist from what
I have done in the past.
Left: Pardalls, Acrylic on canvas, 31.5” x 35.5”, 2015
Above: Banano’s Bar, Acrylic on canvas, 15.75” x 20”, 2016 SMITHE JUXTAPOZ .COM 97
You have to make lots of quick decisions as a
business owner, designer, muralist, and artist.
Do you find that easy, and are you a naturally
decisive person?
Yes, you have to be cold sometimes and think about
the future. Running a gallery was a very tough
decision that costs me a lot of time, but I’m also
gaining a lot of experience. I keep on learning and
like what we have done with it.

With the gallery, you are trying to create a place

for local artists to show their work. You must have
a lot of young artists who ask you for advice. What
do you tell them?
I try to never give advice. I am so bad at it. When
people do ask me what to do and how we came to
where we are, what I always tell them is to never stop,
to continue to produce and do stuff. The worst thing
that can happen is that nobody sees it but you have
already done it. It is always better to do than to speak.

Along the way, did you ever feel discouraged or

like you might not succeed?
I don’t like to think about whether I have been
successful or not. I like to measure it more by the
things that I have accomplished during these years
and the things that have materialized and are still
here. There are a lot of dead projects that never
came out as I had planned, but I know there’s time
to accomplish them in the future.

Are the design studio, clothing brand and gallery

things you always wanted to do, or did they just
happen along the way?
Everything has happened slowly, with very
calm steps. The clothing brand was for fun and
to have a good time making T-shirts for our
friends. We never planned for these things, they
just happened. It’s the same with the gallery and
illustration studio—in talks and meetings, the ideas
come out and then we start acting upon them. I like
the fact that I have not planned for a lot of what we
have accomplished.

Earlier you mentioned the hope that now that these

things are close to running on their own, you will
have time to focus on your personal work. What
pushes you to keep changing things up?
Yes, finally, after being torn to pieces for every
project, each one is working on its own and I am
happy for that. To be honest, I want to focus more
on my graphics and art in general. I wish I could
explore more things that I have not been able to
accomplish as Smithe, and I think I have in mind
what the next steps are.

Any hints?
I really want to explore my stuff on a 3D level.
I want to leave flat work surfaces for a while and
start putting more depth into my work.

You’ve been a part of the band Stendal for a while

now. What are the differences creatively between
playing music and painting?

98 WINTER 2018 Above: Astronomy Domine, Smithe x Dems One, Mexico City, 2016
SMITHE JUXTAPOZ .COM 99
It is very different. You have to communicate with
a lot more people, not with words, but to reply
with sounds. When we make or try to make music,
there’s nothing written, we do live rehearsals, and
it stays that way. We listen, and if we don’t like
it, the four of us continue to work. It’s a process
totally different from painting, another side of me
that I like to keep active.
What part of the process is similar?
Maybe when you have an idea in your mind but
never expect the final outcome. What I first imagine
is always different from the final product.
Do you improvise a lot when you paint?
I improvise almost always. Sometimes I will plan
100 WINTER 2018
things if a piece is commissioned, but, for the
most part, there are no sketches. Lately, I have
been wanting to change that and dedicate more
time to planning the construction of my work and
see how far it can go.
What is the most rewarding part of the creative
process?
Seeing how an idea is born from scratch. The
process is what I enjoy most, more than seeing
them finished. For example, sometimes a small
change in color will change the attitude of
everything that you have done, and I like that,
never knowing what the final plan is and being
surprised along the way.
Left: Haenim, Acrylic on canvas, 23.5” x 35.5”, 2016 Top right: Undeniable, Acrylic on canvas, 31.5” x 35.5”, 2016 Bottom right: Centurion, Acrylic on canvas, 80” × 80”, 2016
You have focused on mental disorders, inner
demons and other psychological states in your
work. What has inspired that focus on the mind
and brain?
I think that painting is my therapy and, as a result,
I show what I am feeling in my work. I do not do
any mental exercises or anything like that. When
I am drawing and painting is when I have time to
think about me and what I want to do in the future.
Unintentionally, I think that is reflected in the work.
Does believing you have something to say and
something that people should see mean attaining
a certain level of confidence? How do you see the
relationship between the ego and the artist?
The ego is something to be respected. I think that,
in the end, we are all humans and we are all
equal, but we all have different capacities. The ego
sometimes can help and support an idea, but it can
also sink if you don’t know how to handle it. I don’t
like to speak a lot about the ego in my work.

Are there specific things you want to

communicate in your work, or do you prefer
it when people come up with their own
interpretations?
What I like to know is that it makes them think, for
them to wonder as to why or how I did it, because
it’s always fun when they tell you about their own
interpretations. Sometimes it surprises me how
each one of them reads what I do. I think that’s
what I look for; that for a moment, they forget what
they have on their minds and wonder.

Collaboration is a big part of many mural

projects, and you are constantly surrounded
by others in the office. How important is it for
you to have a good community of other creative
people around?
I don’t know, I love working with a lot of people.
That’s my way of working, to always be surrounded
by creative people and do things together. I can’t
imagine being alone working in my studio. It
wouldn’t be me. I think I would be bored by now
and end up doing something else, ha ha.

Obviously there is the scale, but how else does

your creative process differ from working on a
painting in the studio and working on a mural?
They are totally two different worlds. One is super
hermetic and personal, while, with the other one,
you have to adapt to the environment, the people,
the space, and even the weather to accomplish the
mission. I have been in many different situations,
and painting outside always varies so much. Each
wall is different. Painting in the studio is much
more controlled and you set your own limits for
how much time you want to spend on a piece.
When you are painting at festivals with large walls,
time is always very tight to complete the work.
I am already tired with that and I think I will be
leaving that a bit.

Mexico City has a long and influential artistic

history. What do you think it is about the city that
attracts creative people and inspires artists?
I think that a city is always full of information,
movement, noise, and people. At this time, Mexico
City is having a moment where it is growing in
a creative way. Distrito Federal (Greater Mexico
City) has a lot of history and it is very cheap to
live and have a studio, in comparison to other
big cities. The artistic scene is growing and that
makes me happy.
What do you love most about the city as an artist,
and what do you dislike?
I have always loved my city. Since I was a kid, I have
been very influenced by wandering the streets and
getting lost. By having my studio in the heart of the
city, I get that too. I think what I have a hard time
with is how to handle the massive amount of people
and cars, the total chaos. You would not want to ride
your bike across town. It is a real problem.
It’s been a few months since the devastating
earthquake. Is there discouragement and fear
about the future, or are you encouraged by
everyone coming together to help in the healing
and rebuilding?
Like any natural disaster, it took us aback, but for a
moment, we realized what we were really capable
of. Being able to take care of each other, seeing
how people helped others without expecting the
government's support. I'm still amazed by this.
Mexicans have the notion in our culture to help in
the worst scenarios and we demonstrated this on
the 19th of September, 2017.
smitheone.tumblr.com

Right: Unaware 2, Acrylic on canvas, 31.5” x 39.5”, 2016 SMITHE JUXTAPOZ .COM 101
 Kip Omolade
Heavy Metal Deity
Interview by Ron English Portrait by Bryan Derballa

102 WINTER 2018

KIP OMOL ADE JUXTAPOZ .COM 103
104 WINTER 2018 Above: Diovadiova Chrome Kitty Cash III, Oil on canvas, 48” x 60”, 2015
I haven’t yet had the pleasure of meeting Kip Omolade
face-to-face, but I have certainly pondered the faces he has made.
I have always been mesmerized by reflective surfaces and fully
understand the complexities of painting oil on canvas to mimic
light on metal. The heft of Kip’s art stems from its elemental
expression of mystery in simplicity and of specificity into
universal patterns and form.
Ron English: How personal is your art?
Kip Omolade: My art is deeply personal. The use of
color is directly connected to my NYC graffiti days.
The sci-fi look is connected to my childhood and
teenage interest in comic books and my internship
at Marvel Comics. The use of oil paint is connected
to my painting from life at SVA and the Art Students
League of New York.
Your inspiration comes from the African art
tradition of mask making. Have you retained any
of the original inspiration, like magical thinking or
Above left: Diovadiova Chrome Kip IX, Oil on canvas, 8” x 18”, 2017 Above right: Diovadiova Chrome Joyce III, Oil on canvas, 48” x 48”, 2016
power imbuing in your modern interpretation?
I’m inspired by the African representation of
deities. The Nigerian Ife culture specifically created
sculptures that combined the natural features of
actual leaders and a spiritual ideal. With my latest
self-portraits, I’m exploring the role of an artist as a
sort of deity.
How important are the details in the reflections?
Do they constitute a primary or a secondary
narrative?
It depends. I usually work within two motifs.
Sometimes I’m interested in a spiritual, timeless
look, so I’ll position my sculptures so that the
reflections are reduced to abstract shapes and
colors. Other times, I’ll take my sculptures outside
so I can get reflections of the world and me. This
approach gives me a chance to capture a specific
moment in time and make a landscape, a portrait
and a still life all in one painting.
People always look for themselves in reflections.
How do you exploit this human inclination?
I don’t know if I consciously try to exploit people’s
need to see themselves in reflections. I’m more
interested in representing mere human existence.
However, some people see my work online and
think I just mount sculptures against colorful
backgrounds. I suppose that when they see the work
in person, they expect to see themselves but are
surprised to see that the work is a painting.
There is a dichotomy between the work of art as a
unique object and a work of art as an illustration
of something else. You seem to be trying to
balance these two artistic strategies in your work.
Am I reading this correctly?
Yes. I want viewers to notice the beauty of my
work and my craftsmanship, but I also want to
KIP OMOL ADE JUXTAPOZ .COM 105
106 WINTER 2018 Above: Diovadiova Chrome Karyn IV, Oil on canvas, 24” x 36”, 2015
Above left: Diovadiova Chrome Karyn VIII, Oil on canvas, 9” x 12”, 2017 Above right: Diovadiova Chrome Karyn IX, Oil on canvas, 9” x 12”, 2017 KIP OMOL ADE JUXTAPOZ .COM 107
Below left: Diovadiova Chrome Diana III, Oil on canvas, 36” x 48”, 2014 Below right: Diovadiova Chrome Kip X, Oil on canvas, 18” x 24”, 2017
illustrate the historical significance and cultural
meaning. One of the things I appreciate about
your work is that it’s skillfully done and captures
the viewer’s attention, but there is also a message
about society.
Have you ever thought of doing the reverse
version to create a model that would be the
inverse of the face? Then you could stage a more
“For the sculptures of women I add
eyelashes to match their personalities.”
108 WINTER 2018
internal narrative in the room that would reflect
into it, for a counterpoint piece.
That’s an interesting idea. I’ve never thought of that.
Have you considered selling the masks
themselves? What is your idea of prop versus
art piece?
Yes, I’ve thought of selling the masks themselves.
During the process, I’ve always thought about
displaying them as luxury items. In fact, when
I’m finished with the sculptures, I usually
ceremoniously mount each piece against a panel
with my Diovadiova logo on it. I look at props
as part of the art. The whole process itself of
reproducing a reproduction of a reproduction of a
reproduction of a reproduction of a reproduction is
a kind of performance art.
Describe your process, including fabrication and
photography as you arrive to the final end piece,
which is the painting.
I start by making a mold and cast of the model’s
face. I work the plaster sculpture by sculpting
eyes and nostrils and refining the overall face.
I use the sculpture to produce a resin version that
is chromed. For the sculptures of women, I add
eyelashes to match their personalities. I photograph
the final sculpture and use references to paint
on canvas.
What's the largest work you've done so far?
My largest painting so far is 96 x 74 inches.
What monumental or fantasy project would you
want to do if money and time were no object?
I would love to travel the world and photograph my
self-portrait chrome sculpture in various locales.
I would also love to work on portraits of iconic people
like Obama, Beyonce, Rihanna and Chuck Close.
How has your experience working within the
gallery system been?
The gallery system is a relatively new experience
for me. I’ve been working independently and
made more money on my own selling directly to
clients. It’s fun to get all of the money directly,
but there is something that’s still powerful about
working with the infrastructure of an established
gallery. They still have the connections and
power to sell, so the artist can focus on creating.
This is why my upcoming Diovadiova Chrome
show at Jonathan LeVine marks an important
moment in my career.
Who is collecting your work and what are they
seeing in the work as opposed to your original
intentions? Has your interaction with the public
changed your approach in any way?
Most of my collectors are entrepreneurs who are
interested in the universal look of my work. They
pretty much get my original intentions of cultural
ties but they also make an emotional connection.
Earlier this year, I had a show at Viacom in NYC
and was happy with the reactions from so many
different people from different nationalities and
backgrounds. The experience didn’t change my
approach but it was meaningful and confirmed
my vision.
Kip Omolade’s newest solo show, Diovadiova Chrome,
is on view at Jonathan LeVine Gallery through
December 16, 2017.
Left: Diovadiova Chrome Kip IV, Oil on canvas, 72” x 96”, 2016
Above: Diovadiova Chrome Karyn III, Oil on canvas, 36” x 48”, 2014 KIP OMOL ADE JUXTAPOZ .COM 109
110 WINTER 2018
 Gustav
Klimt
Hanging with Rodin at the
Legion of Honor
Interview by Gwynned Vitello

Right: Nuda Veritas, Oil
on canvas, 99.25 “x 22.125”,
1899, Österreichisches
Theatermuseum.
Courtesy Kunsthistorisches
Museum Wien
112 WINTER 2018
F
or those whose perception of Gustav
Klimt is confined to Woman in Gold, and
to Vienna as decadent home of cafes
and pastry, please keep reading. Such
knowledge might accumulate points in Family
Feud, but will assuredly leave you deficient in fully
appreciating this artist who confessed to painting
“Day in and day out, from morning till evening,”
mostly centered in a place called the City of Dreams
and City of Music. The Austrian artist comes to the
West Coast for the first time, including two of his
seven-foot panels reproduced from the stunning
Beethoven Frieze. Many of the pieces are making
their initial trip to the United States in Klimt &
Rodin: An Artistic Encounter. Currently showing at
the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, the paintings
are arranged amidst the museum’s vast collection
of Rodin sculptures, the better to experience two
audacious artists, as well as a collection of their
erotic drawings. I spoke with Viennese born and
bred, Max Hollein, CEO and Director of the Fine Arts
Museums of San Francisco.
Gwynned Vitello: I think it would be helpful to
know a little more about Gustav Klimt’s Vienna.
I know there was a building boom and I think it
was the fifth largest metropolis.
Max Hollein: Vienna, at that time, I think you could
argue, was the most important city of Europe,
and I would say the capital of Europe, in the sense
that it was the seat of the Emperor and the capital
of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. What made
Vienna so fascinating was that it was full of so
many different influences. So you had something
very exciting on one hand, but also something
Above: The Arts, Paradise Choir, and The, Embrace (detail of Beethoven Frieze),Casein, paint, chalk, graphite, applied plaster, and various,
appliqué materials, 84.7” x 189.4”, 1902, Oesterreichische Galerie im Belvedere, Vienna, Austria © Belvedere, Vienna
boiling, which later, of course, resulted in a big war
and the demise of the Austrian empire.
But Vienna in the late 19th century was really the
place to be if you had artistic ambitions, including
music, literature and theater. This environment,
in this case, similar to Paris, also infrastructurally
reinvented itself with the big boulevards. Vienna
erased the big fortifications around the inner district,
creating the broad, circular Ringstrasse Boulevard.
And this provided Klimt his first opportunity as
an artist?
There was an enormous amount of building, which
you will still see if you visit, like the famous Vienna
Opera House. This required very lavish visual
decorations, and so if you talk about Klimt at the
beginning of his career, he was very gifted, but
still more or less a fancy salon kind of artist. With
his brother, he formed a kind of artist’s collective,
where the best artists were basically doing the
frescoes in the theater, still in a vague, kind of
classical 19th century tradition.
If you were to look at the buildings, would you have
been able to tell his work apart from his brother’s?
No. It would be completely indecipherable. His
brother died young, and we don’t know how he
would have developed if he would have followed
with his brother. His father wanted him to have a
profession, so he and his brother were trained in
that special kind of craft, to really learn to paint.
Would he have been considered a fine artist at
that time?
He was seen to be in line as one of the great classical
artists, supposedly the successor to Hans Makart,
who influenced him in the lavish allegorical
imagery of the time. Then, what happened next is
fascinating in that Klimt, already perceived to be at
the height of his career, basically pivoted.

How did that happen?

He got the commission to paint the ceiling of the
Great Halls of the University of Vienna in what are
known as the “Faculty Paintings,” which was one
of the most prestigious commissions you could
get. While doing that, he had, not a crisis, but this
inkling that he could no longer cater to whatever
had been commissioned. Rather than paint “the
more favorable aspects of reality” he wanted to
show what was really happening in the world. When
professors saw the paintings, they literally rejected
them, saying “This is not us, this is not where we
are going!” Although he was not addressing them
personally, he was trying to express the dark
side, the angst of life. He literally took back the
panels, finished them himself and paid back the
commissions. We show a reproduction because the
originals were destroyed by fire during the Second
World War.

This was also when he was developing a

philosophy of the “sensibility of the individual,”
and embracing a synthesis of the arts. Is this when
he formed the Secession?
He basically became the spearhead of avant garde
in Vienna and headed the group who separated
from the Viennese Artists’ Society to form the
Secession, a group who no longer wanted to exhibit
in the more classical environment. They generated
their own propaganda machine, saying more or
less, “We are coming, we are the different ones,” as
they created their own program and posters, with
associates from other countries, one of whom was
Rodin. Klimt’s design for the poster to advertise
the first Secession exhibit depicts a naked Theseus
battling the Minotaur, a battle of the old and new.
A large empty space occupies the center, with
text compressed in the lower, demonstrating his
innovative design.

With his “Faculty Paintings” labeled as

pornographic, he had a reputation as an enfant
terrible. We could call him a sort of rebel?
In the sense that he was of the next generation.
Frank Gehry would be an interesting comparison.
If you look at his career, in the beginning, he was
more of a commercial architect, but then developed
a cutting edge, a different kind of style, and became
the pioneer of deconstructive architecture. Klimt
paved the way as he kind of switched sides in what
was really a substantial move. What’s fascinating
is that, on the other hand, though he no longer took
any sort of public commissions, he became the
leading portraitist of Viennese society.

Did all the governments pay commissions to

artists for public works?

Right: Portrait of Ria Munk III (Bildnis Ria Munk III), 1917 (unfinished), Oil on canvas, 180 x 90 cm, The Lewis Collection GUSTAV KLIMT JUXTAPOZ .COM 113
You had the same thing in Paris and Prague, for
example, and you can see it traveling through
Europe. What changed were the kinds of
commissions in the 16th century, when they were
originally from the church and nobility. When the
cities wanted to show their wealth and power, it
was in the unprecedented spree of really important
buildings, and that was where the action was.
Klimt was at the epicenter but he still had this
kind of understanding of Viennese art at the time,
which set it apart. With the Jugendstil movement,
you don’t look at one singular piece—architecture,
music, painting, and sculpture are all one.
Why was Vienna such a force and how did that
create Klimt?
On the one hand, you have the Hapsburgs Empire
already in its demise, so what empires do to hold
onto a common denominator is something where
power that represents stability can be expressed,
especially to the aristocratic class. The Hapsburgs
excelled in a long tradition of collecting, and given
Vienna’s location in Central Europe, it was culturally
charged, but also culturally charged at a time when
the establishment probably was new. The Jewish
community was coming into wealth. You had
Sigmund Freud, you had Arthur Schnitzler, the most
important theater writer of the time. This kind of
energy was absorbed by the art in a very productive
114 WINTER 2018
“Truth is like fire; to tell the truth means
to glow and burn.” —Gustav Klimt
way, and it creates a whole new series of opportunities,
possibilities and challenges. So I would see Klimt,
and see the insurrection in his painting. He and Egon
Schiele portrayed not just aristocrats; there were new
individuals setting the agenda.
Would you say he was radical?
He was, of course, obsessed by beauty on the
one hand, but also was extremely radical in his
compositions; the format of the dissolution of
the object became extremely symbolist. It was
psychologically fraught and could almost put you off
balance. People just love the Portrait of Sonja Knips.
It is sheer beauty because what he’s done is that
the left half of the painting is basically darkness, a
composition that before would have been filled, let’s
say, with flowers. She’s sitting there, and obviously
he likes her face, but the meaning is in the opalescent
textures of the dress, punctuated by a red notebook.
Tell us about the Naked Truth.
Nuda Veritas was absolutely a radical painting at
that time. This is not allegorical, this is not Eve,
Above left: Portrait of a Lady, 1917–1918, Oil on canvas, 26.375” x 22”. Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz, Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz, Austria / Bridgeman Images
Above right: Portrait of Sonja Knips, 1898, Oil on canvas, 57.125” x 57.5”, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna
this is basically a naked woman—holding a mirror
before her. In the tall, vertical format, Klimt answers
his critics with the words of the poet Friedrich von
Schiller, “If you cannot please everyone with your
deeds and your art, please the few; it is bad to please
the many.” Later, in Goldfish, a woman looks over
her shoulder, but the focus is on her bare derriere
as Klimt basically tell his critics, “If you don’t like it,
kiss my ass.”
While he was trained in painting, he didn’t have
an extensive education or study with a master,
but, early in his career, he met a woman who was
kind of muse and mentor his entire life.
He had liaisons with many different women, and he
primarily painted women, but his relationship with
Emilie Floge was especially intense. They spent
summers together and their letters go back and
forth. So he was, to a certain extent, Bohemian, but
also catered to the bourgeois crowd. It’s certainly
the life he wanted to live, this dual life while living
in the city, then spending a good deal of time in the
countryside, which a lot of them did. It was a typical
Above: The Virgin, Oil on canvas, 74.75” x 78.75”, 1913, National Gallery Prague, © 2017 National Gallery in Prague GUSTAV KLIMT JUXTAPOZ .COM 115
lifestyle for this crowd. But I still think of Klimt as
kind of a renegade. Although he and his brother
came out of a trio of artists, he never painted with a
workshop or assistants, so his output is very small,
something along the lines of 250 signed works.
I guess that’s not surprising, since painting
was a solitary practice for him, and he didn’t take
on students.
He’s seen as the most famous and important visual
artist from Austria, but there are very few Klimts
around because, yes, his body of work is so small,
and very early on were in a lot of institutions, and
this contributes to the mythology. What I find
interesting is that he had a hard time finishing his
work, and at a point in his career, he approached the
possibility that unfinished work is actually finished,
and he was exhibiting these works. I think he was
assessing himself, asking if they need more, and if
they incorporate the sheer essence of what he was
trying to convey. It’s an interesting approach and
there is an avant-gardism in that some of these
unfinished paintings are extremely fresh.
We’ve talked about his allegorical works
and female portraits, so when did he start the
landscapes? Did he paint those as a way to unwind?
116 WINTER 2018 Left: Baby (Cradle), 1917–1918, Oil oncanvas, 110 x 110 cm, National Gallery of Art,Washington, Gift of Otto and Franciska Kallir with the help of the Carol and Edwin Gaines Fullinwider Fund
They really started with the whole battle over
the “Faculty Paintings” and him feeling kind of
attacked. He started going to the countryside,
to relax and to find something different. If you
compare him to Van Gogh, he was tackling some
really big issues, which Van Gogh never did. Klimt
went on to the most mundane subjects, like a garden
of flowers, so he had this whole breadth of topics,
which was fairly unusual for an artist of this era.
Out of a traditional kind of painting, like Philosophy
and the Beethoven Frieze, then he finds truth and
expression in the most beautiful, if commonplace,
things. You don’t find that from artists of the time,
and Klimt tried to reinvent the canon with this
whole breadth of platforms of expression.
His approach to landscapes was different, like
cutting a hole in a piece of cardboard and looking
through his “searcher.”
He wrote about that, but I think the important
aspect of the landscapes, besides them being
beautiful, is that the square format was unusual.
They have this flatness which is utterly fascinating.
Trees, lawn, the building all flatten so that
he negates any kind of perspective or three
dimensionality in that context. What he achieves in
neglecting any kind of perspective is that the whole
piece is neither naive, nor precious, but becomes
ornamental by itself and has these different
textures so that it possesses its own magic, as well
as a kind of humility.
Then there are the erotic drawings, and you have a
lot of them on display at this exhibit.
A lot of artists made them, and I think, for him,
it was really something he did to loosen up,
actually, a rather extreme obsession, and he did
these drawings continuously. I don’t have the
ratio, but I’d say that roughly 80 percent of his
drawings are women, a lot of them are enacted
in various sexual positions, some masturbating,
others are at times, of two women. These are
highly intense erotic moments, very intimate.
While Klimt’s paintings, coming out of the
symbolist tradition, use a certain kind of formula
and indicate his love for mosaic, the drawings
are sheer reduction in how they’re laid out, some
undecipherable but extremely beautiful and
completely sensual.
Some of his quotes reference Japanese art, so
I imagine this was an influence on much of his art.
If you look at the Japanese woodcuts or landscapes,
they have different objects and scenes that appear
almost glued to one another, as if there’s no
transition between the foreground, middle and
background. That’s certainly an influence, though
the execution is completely different.
He didn’t seem to travel extensively, but his trip to
Ravenna had an impact, didn't it?
He wrote in his diary that he was fascinated by
the Ravenna mosaics and the possibilities of gold,
which became this sort of ornamental use in his
works. What was important to him was that the
gold was reflective, that it shined, but basically
intensified and compounded the view. It almost
radiates in a certain way and is something that pulls
different areas together.
I’m curious, after landscapes and all the female
subjects, why he painted The Baby towards the
end of his life.
Well, it’s an unusual composition because of the
intense interest in the fabrics. I think it’s something
that comes with the viewpoint. He’s obviously
influenced, noting the strange perspective he
applies, by photography here. He seemed to like
the innocence of the baby as a motif, this pristine,
identifiable baby with a complex and unidentifiable
wall surrounding it.
I have to ask, were caftans a typical fashion for
men of the day?
No. That design by his partner, Emilie Floge, was
very unusual. It has a Greek mythology feel, but it is
definitely a fashion statement.
Klimt & Rodin: An Artistic Encounter is
on view at San Francisco’s Legion of Honor through
January 28, 2018
Above: Alley in front of Castle Chamber, 1912, Oil on canvas, 43.25” x 43.25”, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Artothek /Bridgeman Images GUSTAV KLIMT JUXTAPOZ .COM 117
118 WINTER 2018
THIS IS THEN AND
THIS IS NOW
Interview by Evan Pricco Portrait by Kyle Dorosz
The city is a living, breathing entity and from Evan Pricco: After all the hustle and bustle of NYC,
you are going to be in North Carolina for a bit
above, the perspective that Daniel Rich approaches preparing for the next solo show, right?
Daniel Rich: I’m in a place called West Jefferson,
in his image-making creates fluid interpretations of North Carolina. I think it has 1,500 people living
in it, barely even a town. It's in the Appalachian
the landscape. Am I looking at New York City? Is that Mountains, basically western North Carolina. It's
very beautiful. My wife's family owns property here,
Tokyo? Does it matter? As Rich puts it, his overall goal so the space was just available. We're just going to
live here and see what happens.
in making works based around cities and architecture
Although you grew up in Germany, you lived in
is to have “a dialogue about changing political power South Carolina later, and then you went to New
York City. Give me a little bit of a background of
structures, failed utopias, the impacts of ideological how you got to where you are now.
Yeah, I'm sort of stateless. My parents are from
struggles, war and natural upheavals.” Every city’s London, but I was born in Germany because my dad
is a hematologist with the Red Cross and was based
history relates to change, failed ideas and overlapping there. I lived in Germany until I was 19, and then my
dad took a new job in Columbia, South Carolina.
architectural eras mixed with historic relics and smart I had the choice of staying in Germany or coming to
the states. In Germany, I was skateboarding, painting
design. In his paintings, the NYC-based, German-born graffiti, and just not really focused on anything in
particular. Because things weren’t looking so bright
artist has created a language that functions as both for me, I decided to move to South Carolina and did
a year of high school there.
window and mirror, to view the city as a vital portal
Everyone was applying to college and I decided to
of the past and future. apply to art school because I always liked to draw

120 WINTER 2018 Above left: Guangzhou Circle, Night, Acrylic on Dibond, 59” x 72”, 2017 Above right: Palestinian Meridien Hotel, Baghdad, Acrylic on Dibond, 33” x 32”, 2016
Above: Western District, Hong Kong, Acrylic on Dibond, 30” x 37”, 2016 DANIEL RICH JUXTAPOZ .COM 121
122 WINTER 2018 Above: Athens, Acrylic on Dibond, 59” x 72”, 2017
and, like I said, I had a background of painting graff.
Because South Carolina was such a big culture shock
for me, I went to Atlanta to this place called Atlanta
College of Art, which doesn't exist anymore, but there
was an art school at the time. I was going to study
graphic design but then immediately got into painting
and printmaking. I didn’t know I would be into that!
And then something odd happened where I got some
awards, so then I started thinking about graduate
school. I wanted to get out of the South. I wanted to
live in a city again, one that had a river, transit system,
and stuff like that, and for some reason, I decided on
Boston. Then I just kept it going. From there, I moved
down to New York and just kept working. Maybe the
last five years or so, I've been able to support myself just
with my work.

What was Daniel Rich the graffiti writer like?

I was very tight. Actually, when I moved to Atlanta,
REVOK was still there, and so I was psyched to
see graff on such a level. That was also more of
the scene in Atlanta. It was more about painting
productions, and then the illegal spots were more
like silver pieces. We did a lot of highway spots and
things like that, so that's what I did most in Atlanta.
When I moved to New York, I didn't have the energy
anymore to stay up late. I didn't really paint. I was
just more of an observer of graffiti after that.

It makes sense because you have such an

observational eye for a city in general. I always
noticed that people who did graffiti at a young age
tend to look at the city differently as they get older.
It works with skateboarders, as well. It seems as
if you gain a perspective from graffiti so that you
understand structure and mass in a certain way.
That and growing up in Germany, being really into
history and seeing how history and landscapes aren’t
there anymore because of war and political change.
So, Germany, skating and graffiti led me to being into
architecture or just having an appreciation for the
built environment. Seeing how buildings connect
with each other, I've definitely carried that through
into what I'm doing now.

This probably isn’t the first time you have had

heard commentary that in your paintings, it's like
the world has been abandoned. There's something
about that absence of people that has a doomsday
feel, like what's left behind when we leave.”
It’s not necessarily something that I do on purpose,
but, for the most part, I do try to make them appear
somewhat timeless by editing out references to
people. I do know that they come off as being "the
day after" kind of look. It’s interesting that I'm not
really that aware of it, but I like what people read
into them on their own.
Depending on where you are in the world, some
structures themselves have an inhuman concept,
almost like they've come from a different planet
and were not positioned organically. Or the way so
many buildings and styles clashed after cities were
rebuilt after WWII, especially in Germany.
So much in Germany was rebuilt and was new, but
was also made to look old. You get this ugly modern
look that doesn't fit with the rest of the landscape.
I guess what I'm really interested in is how history
is recorded through architecture, while paintings
capture a moment in time. Maybe there's something
uncanny about the scene, something strange. That's
something I do, add a weirdness to the image,
something that's a little unsettling. I look at it like
a Trojan Horse because the subject matter, I would
say, is 95% politically motivated. Maybe you'll find
out the title of the work, the city, and that might
introduce some other thoughts into your head as far
as what the painting is even about.
Let’s cite an example; for instance, your painting,
Athens, from 2017. Talk about the way you choose
an image, what your motivations are when
picking a city.
I had gotten into the Athens cityscape because
Athens is this iconic place, the birthplace of
democracy, and has undergone so much change in
the course of its existence. Also, the contemporary
face of Athens is a direct result of the clash between
capitalism and communism, because after the civil
war in Greece in the late 1940s, it was either going
to lead toward a communist system or capitalist
system. Basically the government prevailed and
wanted a capitalist system, and what they did was

Above right: Stadium, Acrylic on Dibond, 59” x 81”, 2012 DANIEL RICH JUXTAPOZ .COM 123
encourage this building boom in Athens in order to
get the workers, the middle class, whatever you want
to call it, on their side to vote for them.
They encouraged all this building in Athens,
building which led to jobs, growth and people
making money. It just so happened that the kind
of buildings the state encouraged were really
simple constructions, these multi-level concrete
apartment dwellings. It's this early Modernist idea of
architecture, but what was adopted in Athens is just
super dense and looks like these stacked concrete
blocks. That was the idea. I didn't actually know all
of that. The initial idea was this clash of capitalism
over communism.
What I do is I basically scour the internet for images
that I can use. First, I blow up my source image to
the size I want the painting to be and print it out on
an oversized black and white printer. Then I trace
the photograph on to the panel, which is completely
covered with a transparent vinyl mask. The tracing is
then tidied up with a black ink pen—that way
I can fix perspective issues, edit and add to the
124 WINTER 2018
image, and so forth. The line drawing on the vinyl
covered panel is then "re-drawn" with an exacto
blade—every line is scored with a knife. Once the line
is cut, I can remove vinyl shapes to be painted in.
Once I have scored the line drawing, I mix as many
colors based on the image I'm working from as
possible—a color for each shape. The shapes are
painted in with a squeegee by masking and re-
masking over the scored line drawing over and over
until every shape has been painted in. The large
paintings usually have about 300 colors and take
about 2-3 months to finish.
It goes without saying that seeing your work in
person is such a different experience because you
actually get to see those layers you are talking about.
Yeah, you can see it's actually painted and really cut
with those raised edges where it's masked off. I do like
that tactile quality, but they really flatten out when you
look at them on the screen. They don't read the same
way as they do in person, which is a good thing. An
8-by-8-foot painting takes up to 3 months of work to
finish, which is ... a little long [sighs].
I love that sigh.
It’s meditative, but they do take a long time to make,
which is the downside of my practice. I have had
assistance in the past from interns, and it does help
move me forward faster, but I'm a real stickler about
stuff, so if the lines aren't straight, it's not going to
fly. I feel like I’m the only one who can do the cutting
part. People say, "Oh you should use a vinyl cutter,
you should do this or do that," but I just can't see it
really working out the same way as just doing them
by hand. It would lose the personality. I'm just going
with what I know for now.
So we talked about Athens, but you have a range of
cities and structures you have addressed in your
work. What else goes into the picking process?
I'm a news junkie, so I listen to the radio a lot and I read
the newspaper, and it's about the things that catch my
attention. Then I try to seek out images that somehow
reference that event or that thing that interests me. For
example, the Hong Kong painting I made came about
after the Umbrella protests that happened there that
were about pro-democracy. I only started working
on the whole cityscape works four or five years ago.
Before that, I wasn't really doing these really dense
compositions, it was more free-standing buildings. The
imagery has gone down this road where it's really busy
compositions right now.
You're not doing the postcard shots, which I think
is very refreshing.
I definitely don't want to do the postcard shots.
That was the thing with the New York City painting,
too, the Upper East Side. When you think of NYC,
everyone thinks of that skyline. And I don't want to
do that. For that work, I took the picture myself, but
I do prefer to work from source images just because
it's part of the content. I find an image and it's super
complex, but I get psyched about it because I see the
possibilities of it being a good painting.
And you are working with nuance, often a
complicated history or turning points in history.
They aren’t as literal as seeing sights you are used
to seeing.
They're definitely a lot more open ended in that way.
My painting, Gamcheon Cultural Village, Busan,
South Korea, looks like a Lego hillside painting.
That was originally a refugee camp from the Korean
War that's now become an artists’ village. It also
underwent this transformation of being a place of
despair, and now it's a tourist attraction.
When I first looked at that work, I confused it with
something you might see outside out of São Paulo.
Yeah, it has a very different history but then
adapted the same kind of architectural style. It's
just out of necessity: we gotta build a shack and
that's how we're going to build a shack. There's
a hillside, they'll just climb up the hillside until
they're at the top of the hill. I think it's interesting
that we share these commonalities all over the
world, that as humans, we automatically go to these
same kind of styles of shelter.
Above left: FoxConn, Shenzhen, Acrylic on Dibond, 19” x 21”, 2012
The stadium painting is what first attracted me
to your work. I have a fascination with empty
stadiums.
That one was hell to paint! It’s really hard to paint
the seats. It's based off the stadium called the Big
Eye in Japan. I'm interested in the fan culture of
soccer and how it also brings groups of people
together, these very fanatical meetings, a “power of
the masses” kind of a thing. A stadium can really
exemplify that, and it being empty gives a moment
of stillness that I like.
I personally got really fascinated with Olympic
stadiums after the games. A lot of them aren't
used for anything, and they just kind of sit there,
especially in locations that aren’t as developed as
Los Angeles or London. It's like Chernobyl, these
relics left behind. It’s like perfectly sustained ruins.
Yep, instantaneous ruins. It will be ruined at some
point, like these cityscapes I’m doing. All this stuff
that we're building for specific purposes that's now
just languishing.
Let’s talk about the show, because you are in North
Carolina with a purpose.
Above: Amazon Books, Acrylic on Dibond, 77” x 59”, 2013
Yeah, I’m preparing for a show at Peter Blum Gallery
in NYC in early Spring, 2018. I'm hopefully going to
have eight to ten paintings. Six of them will be large,
and then I want to throw in some smaller ones.
For your sanity?
For my sanity, plus I like having smaller paintings;
not only because they go faster, but I just feel like it
feels good to make something more immediate. The
show, I guess, is inspired by current events. There's
all this talk about globalism and anti-globalism, and
just the fact that we have already moved past that
point of being anti-globalism, I think. We are all
in this world together, we're more connected than
ever. To be anti-globalist at this point in this country
is just ridiculous. That's what the show is going
to revolve around. I’ve been working again on the
Amazon fulfillment center works, and there will be a
couple of those.
What I like about an Amazon fulfillment center
is that people always think it's a library. It's not
a library, it's a warehouse! That made me think
about how Amazon is like a future library and
how libraries are sort of national heritage sites. For
Amazon to take over this role of being this supplier
of the written word I think is really interesting. Also,
there's been these key events in history involving
destructions of libraries, like the Nazi book burnings
and ISIS destroying libraries. I got it in my head that
I would make this painting of an Amazon warehouse
that was looted or destroyed and then place that next
to an image of a pristine one.
I’m working on another, bigger Athens painting,
I have a big, empty stadium that's based on one
in North Korea. I'm doing a painting of worker
housing in China that's also like a big cityscape.
I like working with these seemingly unconnected
images. But then they do all connect on multiple
levels, just not overtly. I have been told that
I should make more theme-based shows, but for
some reason, I can never quite get into that idea.
I don't want to make a show that's all the same
kinds of building or towers, or this or that. That
kind of bores me. History is too chaotic.
Daniel Rich’s next solo show will be on view at Peter Blum
Gallery in NYC in April, 2018. His book, Windows and
Mirrors, is available at danielrich.net.
DANIEL RICH JUXTAPOZ .COM 125
126 WINTER 2018
 Luke
Pelletier
The Idea Man
Interview by Eben Benson Portrait by Brandon Forest Jenson

LUKE PELLETIER JUXTAPOZ .COM 127

128 WINTER 2018 Above: Should’ve Seen it Coming for a While, Acrylic on canvas, 32” x 40”, 2017
N
ostalgia for youth is a potent force, plans, starting bands, pitching TV shows, learning man? Growing up, I always felt the tension there,
a pure vision of what life could be if new instruments, writing better songs, going on especially with my parents. Where do you see
only we could return to that place. tour, making paintings, taking photos, working elements of your rural upbringing in your work?
It disregards harsh realities, while with my friends, getting fucked over, learning new I think I always felt like an outsider in North Carolina
embracing the joy, romanticizing the pain. It turns techniques, collaborating with other people, curating because I wasn’t actually born there. I moved there
sensual memories into towering symbols that art shows, learning how not to get fucked over, when I was seven years old from Tampa, Florida.
stay with us forever, shaping the values, goals, running an offset press, and throwing everything My parents didn’t know anyone when we moved to
and hobbies that bring us joy in adulthood. Luke I’ve got into being creative. I’ve always done a million Brevard. The town is really small. Everyone knows
Pelletier unearths this world and these memories, things at the same time. I’ve tried to narrow my focus everyone and they’ve known each other their whole
tempers them, but ultimately invites us to hang out in the past, but the boredom and restlessness become lives. No one ever did anything specific to make
back there with him. Growing up in rural North unrelenting. I don’t really have religion. At least not me feel like I wasn’t a part of the community, but
Carolina, Luke’s reality was shaped and formed by my parents’ religion. So if I find meaning in anything I always knew I wasn’t. My parents were always real
the confluence of punk and skateboarding with at all, it’s in the things I make and the work I do. cool about everything. They encouraged me to draw
traditional American values. His work playfully I guess that’s what keeps me going. and they let my shitty hardcore band practice in
incorporates sentimentality and Americana, our basement. I knew they thought the stuff I was
contrasting them with the inner conflicts of growing How does your somewhat traditional background, making was weird and the music sounded like hell,
as a person and as a man. coming from rural North Carolina, interact but they just let me be weird. I never got much grief
with your identity as a skate rat, artist, or idea from them, but I got it from everyone else.
Eben Benson: I feel like, with looming adulthood,
there's this urgency to work tirelessly towards
goals, regardless of whether they’re wanted or
valued. You seem scattered, though in a good
way, so no one can doubt your prolific work ethic.
When did you realize you were unable to or
simply unwilling to just work towards something
for the sake of working?
Luke Pelletier: I think I’ve always had a similarly
scattered and driven personality. I loved art, but for
a long time, I didn’t really know where art came from
or that people could be artists. There aren’t many
art museums in the South and if there are, I wasn’t
going to them. I never really saw anyone making art
around me. It all just seemed really impossible. So it’s
hard for me to pinpoint when I realized I wanted to
be an artist. Even though I didn’t know about fine art,
I knew I didn’t want to work a normal job. So I’d come
up with little schemes to make money. When I was
a kid, like second grade probably, my school banned
Pokemon cards. All the kids had their lunch money or
whatever. I’d get a stack of notecards from the library
and I’d draw some pretty alright looking trading cards
and sell ’em for a dollar each, or three for two. The
kids would trade them and try to pay extra for better
cards. Pretty soon, I cleared a hundred dollars off of
these bootleg Pokemon cards. That was a fortune to
me at the time. Then the other kids’ parents started
complaining because their kids were coming home
hungry after they blew all their money on my cards.
I had to have a meeting with the principal and my
mom. He told me I had to give all the money to this
charity the school was doing. I agreed, but I never did.
The little shit that I was, I kept the money and I felt like
I outsmarted an authority figure.

I just liked all of it. The creativity. The hustle.

Breaking rules. Making money. Once I started to
realize that I could make things that were fulfilling to
me but also operated as a part of some sort of culture,
I became hooked. I got hooked on learning to make
new things, throwing parties, blacksmithing, taking
photos, expressing myself, opening businesses,
printmaking, watching my ideas fall apart, coming
up with new ones, watching my business fail,
doing design work, coming up with new business

Right: Three Times Through, Acrylic on panel, 11” x 14”, 2017 LUKE PELLETIER JUXTAPOZ .COM 129
I had a real problem with a lot of the things I saw
growing up in the South, and I had a hard time
keeping it to myself. Most of the people I’d hang
out with were down to earth, but you didn’t have
to look far to see some dumbass with a rebel flag
tattoo who felt like he was put on earth to build a
wall and keep the government small. Even though
I thought I was so much “holier than thou” because
I didn’t have a “the south will rise again” bumper
sticker, I’d never heard the word feminism until
I went to college at SAIC in Chicago. So I had a lot
of catching up to do as well.
A few years after we moved there, a lot of the
factories in the town started closing down. It
seemed like the whole town was out of work
for a while, and that didn’t help ease any of the
tension. But then the town started to rebrand
itself as a tourist spot. They cleaned up the
downtown area, opened up some bars, and built
a bike path. After that, the whole town was
operating on a seasonal economy. Every winter
the shops close and the town dies, but every
130 WINTER 2018
summer the tourists return and it comes back to
life. I still make a lot of art about all of that stuff.
You can hear it more in my music and see it more
in my pictures, but I’ve always painted pretty
heavily about seasonal economies and tourist
culture. A lot of my inspiration comes from the
flea markets I visit in the South, the hand painted
signage, building materials, alligators, and hard
work. The South is a complicated place, but it’s
where I’m from. I think it’d be hard for me to
make anything that doesn’t have some sort of
reference to how and where I grew up.
I read that Tony Hawk's Pro Skater was a piece
of your childhood that affected your view of the
world a lot, and that nailed a huge feeling for me. I
love you saying that your work aims to create the
world that you kind of found out didn't exist. How
is that going? How do you find that ideal world
has changed?
Yeah! That game was huge for me. I was wicked
young when I first played it, so it was sort of my first
introduction to skateboarding and punk. The game
created this whole world that was designed for
skating. All of the music was so energetic and
new to me. You’d be skating crazy impossible
obstacles and smashing through windows. It
was this perfect teenage paradise with no rules.
It wasn’t long after that when I actually got into
skateboarding and punk. I fully bought into all of it.
My friends and
I started some crappy bands. And when we weren’t
practicing, we’d go skating uptown or hang out at
the skate park. The people who owned the park gave
my older brother a job and they let us play shows
whenever we wanted. So that sort of became our
second home for a while.
That game and a lot of my other interests, like
flea markets, tourist towns, themed restaurants,
amusement parks, mini golf, and things like
that definitely got me interested in the idea of a
constructed paradise—places where every detail
seems considered. They provide you with an
experience you can’t get anywhere else. I guess
that’s what I’ve always been working towards. I’ve
Above: No One’s Really Watching Anymore, Acrylic on panel, 72” x 54”, 2017
made some attempts at building my own world a
few times. The last time I did it was at New Image
Art for my last solo show. I was happy with how
it came out, but it was only up for two weeks. In
the future, I’d like to open something that people
can enjoy for a longer period of time, and I’d like
to find business partners that I feel like I can
trust. I’ve watched a few projects crash and burn
because I brought on people who couldn’t deliver
what they promised. Whatever I’m working
towards has never been a fixed thing. If I go on a
walk today and see some really awesome shutters,
I’ll go home and redesign the shutters on the bar
I’ve been working on. I’m a scattered person, so
it’s always changing.
It seems like you were meant to be in California.
What made you move to Los Angeles?
I’ve wanted to live in Los Angeles for as long as
I can remember. A lot of that came from being into
punk and skateboarding because that’s where all
my favorite bands and skaters were, but I had no
reference for it other than what I saw in movies. So
I always had this picture in my head of what the city
was like. Most of that came from Beverly Hills Cop,
Dogtown And Z-Boys, Fast Times At Ridgemont High,
Boyz In The Hood, and Crocodile Dundee 3. But it’s
been a lot more like a cross between Less Than Zero
Above right: I Can’t Remember What I Felt So Guilty About this Morning, Acrylic on canvas, 32” x 40”, 2016 Above left: Static Drone, Acrylic on canvas, 32” x 40”, 2016
and an episode of The Beverly Hillbillies.
It’s a trip out here. There are palm trees everywhere
so it feels like you’re always on vacation. People
smoke weed outside of bars like they’re smoking
cigarettes. Everywhere you go, it’s like having déjà
vu because you’ve been there before in some movie
you can’t recall. I’ve never seen so many people
“But across the
board, this city
charges way too
much for beer.”
with so much money in all my life. They own
whole streets and they pack them with mansions,
but if you go a few blocks in any direction, you’re
walking into another world. I’ve eaten food out here
that looks like it’s out of a science fiction movie,
and been introduced to a culture I’ve never even
heard of at the same time. It’s not a very integrated
city, but it’s very diverse. Every neighborhood
is different and the creative communities are so
energetic. There are a lot of really great DIY art and
music spaces in LA, so there’s always cool art to see
and good music to listen to, but, across the board,
this city charges way too much for beer. When I tell
the boys back home that people are buying eight-
dollar beers, they lose their minds.
Growing up skateboarding, what were some
notable graphics you remember? Were there any
companies or artists that really stood out to you
in the skate world?
I don’t even think I was born when it came out,
but my favorite graphic, hands down, is American
Icons by Marc McKee. As far as companies I thought
were cool, I really liked enjoi. That Jason Adams
part in the Bag of Suck video was always one of my
favorites. And I liked the way they did those funny
intros with the bootleg special effects. Ed Templeton
and Toy Machine, of course. We must have watched
that Baker 3 video a thousand times at the park.
And I know they weren’t a skate team or whatever,
but the whole Jackass thing really resonated with
my friends and me. We were mostly skating in
parking lots and stuff like that. So we’d get bored
and copy all the dumb shopping cart stunts they
warned us against. We’d come up with our own
stunts and film them while we were out skating.
LUKE PELLETIER JUXTAPOZ .COM 131
132 WINTER 2018 Above: Island Tours, Acrylic on panel, 16” x 20”, 2017
I was more into skating that seemed creative and
fun rather than technical. A big part of that might
have been because I was never all that good at it.
In the past, you've spoken about how the internet
gave you access to so many things that influenced
you growing up. Obviously, the internet has
changed a lot, and so have you. How do you feel
about the internet and Instagram these days?
Where do you see it helping young artists and
where do you see it hindering them?
Most of what I learned about skateboarding and
punk came from the internet. There just wasn’t a
lot of information about that stuff lying around the
South. Other than my friends, no one was really
into it. Not only were we able to find songs and
videos, but if we wanted to build a quarter pipe or
find out when bands were coming to our area, it
had all that. Once my band started playing shows,
we used the internet to set up shows and promote
them. That’s when I started learning Photoshop,
coding, and all that, so I could make my band’s
website look cooler. As far as Instagram goes, I
think it’s great! It’s cool to be able to keep in touch
with artists from around the world. I feel like I’m
a part of a scene that’s a lot bigger than the city I
live in. My biggest beef with the internet is that
Above: Work Hard and Buy Lottery Tickets, Acrylic on panel, 36” x 24”, 2017
everyone is looking at the same stuff. I feel like
every artist uses Google images at some point or
another to find reference images. And that’s fine,
but you end up seeing the same breaching shark
photo done in the style of twenty different artists.
I’m trying to get away from that a bit, but it’s hard
to justify going to the library for a picture of a
shark or trying to take one of your own when you
have 10,000 images of sharks on your phone.
Do you still like to build things? How do you treat
building something for utility versus making
something aesthetically pleasing?
I love building things! I try to do that as frequently
as I can. How I approach it depends on what I’m
building. If I’m building a bar, I have to take into
account the lighting, the size, the materials, the
fact that people will be spilling drinks on it, the
possibility of people dancing on it, how people
operate in the space, aesthetics, stability, and heaps
of measurements. Making paintings is great, but
there’s no better feeling than watching your friends
get drunk at a bar you’ve built.
When we met, you gave me a matchbook (also a
business card) that referred to you as an idea man.
What's a common idea that's been recurring for you
recently? Do you find the same thought or theme
floating around your head for months at a time, or is
it always spontaneous?
If feel like I’m always sort of thinking about
labor, competition, tourist culture, capitalism,
vices, romance, moral dilemmas with romance,
objectification, addiction, free will, masculinity,
fun, and ultimately, Americana. When I wake
up, I usually continue to work on whatever I was
working on the night before. Ideas and lyrics come
to me throughout the day and I try my best to write
them all down. Sometimes I write them directly on
the painting I’m working on and sometimes they
end up on a list. I put the really good ones on a
separate list so they don’t get pushed to the side. At
some point, every day, I work on the lists I already
have. Sometimes I just put similar ideas near each
other so I can make connections and combine them
into a single idea later on, or I work on developing
an individual idea. Some ideas have been on the
list for five or six years and have no chance of ever
seeing the light of day. So there’s a spontaneity to
how I come up with things, but it’s also fussed over
for months.
Luke Pelletier’s newest solo show, American Fizzle, opens
at New Image Art in Los Angeles in February, 2018.
LUKE PELLETIER JUXTAPOZ .COM 133
EVENTS WHERE WE’RE HEADED

Cleon Peterson: Shadow of Men @ MCA Denver

February 2–May 27, 2018 mcadenver.org
“If we don’t confront the evils within ourselves, we’ll never be forced to take action against the evils in our
world.” This is what Cleon Peterson told Juxtapoz when we asked him about the themes behind his massive
new museum show, Shadow of Men, on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver this fall through
spring. Peterson’s work has an aura, its shadowy characters depicting ultra-violence and combat as a metaphor
for conflicts we see so often in both the political and social realm. But as many people have used the current
political climate around the world to reevaluate their own identity (while others seem to be empowered by
divisiveness), Peterson’s cinematic scenes have emerged with more clarity. What once seemed like visions
of the future now seem like scenes from our streets. No, not every street corner is full of violence, but the
possibility of conflict always seems too close for comfort. That is where the body of work for Shadow of Men is
at its best. Like a horrible nightmare or sleep-paralyzed hallucination, these evils loom just under the surface.
In his cover story with Juxtapoz back in October 2014, Peterson explained“ I want to present things that are
cognitively dissonant, ideas that make the viewer have to think critically about the ethical, moral, and historical
roles we all play in the world.”

Laura Owens
@ The Whitney, NYC
Through February 4, 2018
whitney.org
When it comes to the ongoing battle about
painting’s relevance in the contemporary art world,
Laura Owens is a powerful team captain. She
unapologetically takes painting into experimental
dimensions using humble craft material
innovations and continuous collaboration. Her
influence is broad, gliding through postmodern
and post-analog waves, leaving new doors open
in her wake. The first major New York survey of
this L.A. artist opens this fall at The Whitney
Museum of American Art, a place where Owens
seems at home, having been featured prominently
in two biennials and the institution’s collection.
The exhibition will cover her cheeky, bold works
from the ’90s until now, tracking the mesmerizing
and prolific shifts in her practice over the years.
Unafraid to incorporate humor and joy, and
take significant left turns, changing styles as
she pleases, creating new, unrecognizable work
without hesitation, Owens is an inspiration. It
cannot be ignored that staying true to yourself and
your own taste when embedded in the museum
world and high-end art market is a significant
challenge, and she’s crushed it accordingly. From
painting on the back of canvas frames to honoring
nostalgia and anonymous artists, Owens is a
pioneer, and this exhibition is sure to be a lesson in
the benefits of choosing your own adventure.

134 WINTER 2018


Ten Year Anniversary Show
@ Joshua Liner Gallery, NYC
January 4–January 27, 2018
joshualinergallery.com
Even as an East Coast gallerist, Joshua Liner
always tapped into “California Cool.” When Liner
ran Lineage Gallery in Philly, and then moved
to NYC to open his namesake gallery ten years
ago, he brought a roster of West Coast-centric
artists that made his space distinct in the Chelsea
art scene. This continues today, with Northern
California naturalists like Tiffany Bozic and Serena
Mitnik-Miller, sophisticated skate-influenced
painters such as Geoff McFetridge, Andrew
Schoultz and Evan Hecox, and contemporary
talents Hilary Pecis and Libby Black. For their
Ten Year Anniversary Show, Joshua Liner Gallery
will tap into that Cali vibe, but also expand into
some of the gallery’s European reach with Parra,
along with the abstract experimentations of Sam
Friedman and Johnny Abrahams, and world-
famous collector stalwarts like Wayne White and
Kris Kuksi. The anniversary celebration isn’t so
much a look back for the gallery, but a collective
focus of where the gallery’s curation goes for the
next decade. “As we bring these artists together,
the exhibition will be a thoughtful and exciting
thank you to so many people who have helped us
maintain a space that supports emerging talent,”
Liner told Juxtapoz. “This component of the art
world comes with many challenges, and I hope this
show will accomplish a recognition for all the hard
work that has gone into creating a successful space
for so many artists.”
WHERE WE’RE HEADED
Club 57: Film, Performance, and
Art in the East Village, 1978–1983
@ MoMA
Through April 1, 2018
moma.org
On Halloween, MoMA opened film curator
Ron Magliozzi’s dynamic project Club 57:
Film, Performance, and Art in the East Village,
1978–1983. This first major exhibition to survey the
club’s legacy includes three film series of recently
preserved pre-digital video, as well as an installation
of photographs, xeroxed flyers, paintings, drawings,
collaged event calendars, costumes, and a wacky
black light room by Kenny Scharf. Club 57 served
as a laboratory/screening room/performance/
party space, and became the true epicenter of
creative activity in the East Village, influencing
virtually every club that came along in its wake. Like
the original location in the basement of a Polish
church at St. Mark’s Place, MoMA’s exhibition
is held in its lower level theater lobby galleries,
effectively recreating the dimly lit club space in a
museum setting. The curation of nearly 100 artists
for this exhibition quickly snowballed into a massive
archival effort to collect and preserve the remaining
Club 57 artifacts that had been squirreled away
under beds and in closets. This excavation revealed,
in particular, a diverse exploration of gender
through various art forms and performances. A
visceral trip down memory lane for the artists
involved and visitors alike, the opening events also
served as a reunion for those who shared in the
club’s vitality, and a memorial for those contributors
no longer with us. Enter on 53rd street at MoMA’s
The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater Galleries for free
entrance to this exhibition. Club 57 will remain on
view until April 01, 2018.
EVENTS
Muzae Sesay: Domestic Dive
@ Athen B. Gallery, Oakland
February 10–March 2, 2018
athenbgallery.com
“Abstraction is a broad term. I consider most of
my current work to be abstract figurative due to
its representation of a skewed sense of space,
while incorporating spatial elements such as stairs,
doorways, etc.,” says Oakland, California-based
painter Muzae Sesay. At this point in history, it is
increasingly clear that styles cycle through, and
what was once old may one day start to feel brand
new again. For some reason or another, you may
begin to see the decade you occupy start to look
like a decade from the past, and the styles that
seemingly made that decade unique will return
in new, vibrant forms as we enter a new phase
of history. Our conversation about abstraction
with Sesay began as he was preparing the works
for his solo show at Athen B. Gallery, Domestic
Dive. Both gallery and artist are the perfect
marriage—emerging talents that have an eye on
past eras but also explore emerging trends and
styles in contemporary art. In conversation with
Sesay, we talked about abstract paintings and how
they can sometimes speak more clearly than the
figuration, and how, perhaps, it is the era we live
in that determines which style rules. “The role of
the viewer in abstract art has always interested
me,” Sesay notes. “In my opinion, abstract work
becomes more dynamic in its function.”
JUXTAPOZ .COM 135
SIEBEN ON LIFE
The Fine Lines
Have you ever seen the movie Role Models?
It's a 2008 comedy starring Paul Rudd and Sean
William Scott. The week it came out, numerous
friends texted, emailed, and called, telling me that
they'd seen my art in the film. I was confused yet,
curious, so I bought a ticket to the show. And as
rumored, one of my art prints was prominently
featured in the film during a house-party scene. I was
obviously excited to see my work on the big screen,
but I couldn't help wondering how it made its way
into the movie without my permission. I was pretty
sure somebody, somewhere owed me some money.
136 WINTER 2018
And the Dotted Line
I was totally wrong. After racking my brain for
a day or two, I vaguely remembered granting a
set-dressing company permission to use the print
in the background for a show on PBS a year or two
prior. I dug through a slew of folders and located the
contract I had signed for that specific show usage—
this time, carefully reading all of the fine print.
Boom, there it was: I had granted them the rights to
use the artwork in any production for an indefinite
amount of time. No one owed me squat.
If you do any work as a commercial artist, you're
going to come into contact with contracts, some of
which can be quite lengthy, confusing, and tedious.
I urge you, at the very least, to read every line of any
agreement you sign. If it is a substantial amount
of money being negotiated, hire an attorney to
go through the document. I think Role Models is a
pretty funny film, but I'd probably like it even more
if it wasn't a reminder that I, myself, was not doing a
very good job of being a grown up. Don't read it and
weep. —Michael Sieben
Above: Art by Michael Sieben
SAFETY
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POPLIFE SACRAMENTO, JERSEY CITY, NEW YORK CITY

Aftershock Festival
1 Brothers in arms. Run the Jewels
posed for us backstage with their
famed hand logo at the 2017
Aftershock Festival in Discovery Park
in Sacramento.
2 And of course, the man himself,
Trent Reznor, led Nine Inch Nails’
incredible career-spanning headline
set.

Mana Contemporary,
Jersey City
3 As part of Juxtapoz’s annual “Surf
Craft” benefit and auction for Waves
For Water and the Changing Tides
Foundation, Benjamin Keating
opened his metal foundry to show
us his unique interpretation of fine
art surfing.
4 Paul Wackers kicked off the
project with his stunning double-
sided board, arriving at the “Surf
Craft” showing…
5 … and bringing Pat Berran, who
demonstrated that a little abstraction
will look good on the water.
6 Gummies for charity? Brooklyn’s
own Christian Rex van Minnen was
nicknamed “The Wizard” for mind-
blowing work with his surfboard.
7 Juxtapoz editor Evan Pricco and
April 2017 cover artist Timothy Curtis
took a tough stance in front of Curtis’
fresh board.

The Hole, NYC

8 Eric Shaw continues his excellent
streak of works at the opening of his
newest solo show, Trails. Now that
he mentions it, we see trails in that
painting behind him…
9 Meanwhile, former Juxtapoz
featured artist Adam Parker Smith
was all smiles despite naming his
show, Kidnapping Incites Years of
Murderous Doom.

138 WINTER 2018 Photography: Mike Stalter (1–2), Evan Pricco (3–7) and Jessica Ross (8–9)
POPLIFE LOS ANGELES & SAN FRANCISCO

Corey Helford Gallery,

Los Angeles
1 Everyone gets a (D*Face) balloon!
Shepard Fairey and Obey’s Dan
Flores at the opening of D*Face’s
solo show, Happy Never Ending, in
downtown Los Angeles.
2 … Stars of the night, D*Face and
Kristen Liu-Wong, celebrate their
respective openings and perhaps
shared eyewear tips.
3 This is what friends do, they
support one another. Chaz from
London Police gives Risk a bit
of love.
4 This is a crew, and amongst
them, there is a Van Arno, Risk,
Kristen Liu-Wong, Darcy Yates,
Caro, D*Face, Dosshaus, Jan Corey
Helford and Sherri Trahan.

RexRomae Gallery,
Santa Monica
5 Rom Levy of Street Art News
curated and organized a pop-up show
with Norway’s Martin Whatson at
RexRomae Gallery…
6 … and guess what? Soo Yeon Lee,
the South Korean model/international
table tennis champion was there, too!

Copro Gallery,
Santa Monica
7 The Prince of Darkness, but such a
sweet guy, Chet Zar, gave everyone
The Fear at his new solo show at
Copro Gallery.

Chandran Gallery,
San Francisco
8 Guitar. Hero. J Mascis from
Dinosaur Jr was in town for the
opening of Thomas Campbell’s
We Are the Cosmos solo show, and
brought along photographer O,
artist Greta Svalberg and fellow
Dino, Marc Seedorf.

9 Man of the hour and his family:

Thomas Campbell.

10 Here’s looking at you—Miss Van,

Monica Canilao, Richard Colman
and Monique Ramos united for a pic.

11 A San Francisco opening isn't

complete without a little sonic
backdrop from Tommy Guerrero.

140 WINTER 2018 Photography: Birdman Photos (1–7) and Drew Altizer (8–12)
PERSPECTIVE
Pictures On Walls, RIP
The Legendary London Print Shop Stops The Presses
A shudder rattled through the street art world
on October 12th. London’s legendary print house,
Pictures On Walls, announced it was shutting
down at the end of 2017. True, they’d gone pretty
quiet in recent times—admitting themselves that
they should maybe have shuttered things three
years ago—but they were the OG print house in
London, the only place to get Banksy prints. The
place that found artists, launched careers and made
art accessible to everyone. Forums were built and
headlines written about what they did.
Pictures On Walls was set up in 2001 as a kind of
indie record label by street artists, for street artists,
making art affordable for all. As they would say, “The
invention of the internet and the cardboard tube
enabled us to circumvent the centuries-old grip of
the established art world and we laid waste to their
cronyism and vested interests and good taste. We
delivered a new generation of art directly into people’s
homes. Well, the Royal Mail did most of it.”
I worked there on and off, rolling prints and carting
hundreds of tubes to the Post Office. It was my
142 WINTER 2018
favourite ever job. There were few rules, many
hangovers and a sense of, “Fuck it, let’s see if this
works.” Sometimes there are legendary places, like
CBGB’s in the ’70s, where you wish you’d been. For
street art, POW was it. Ben Eine used to screen print
there, Paul Insect (and the rest of the Insect Studio)
had a space on the floor above, Mode2 had his own
desk in a corner and would come and go. When Pure
Evil was kicked out of the USA, POW helped him
out and he learnt the trade of selling prints. D*Face
would pop in and there was a constant passage of
visiting artists checking their prints or preparing for
a show. There was, more often than not, a Vhils, Blu,
Invader, Hewlett, Faile, Lush or Lister sleeping off
the night before on the scuzzy sofa…
“I got a phone call from Pictures On Walls back in
2004,” recalls Antony Micallef. “I was asked to come
to their studio in Shoreditch. I remember vividly the
first day I walked in. It was like an Aladdin's cave of
all my favourite art just casually lying around the
studio. I met Ben Eine and a few of the other guys
and immediately thought this is where I want to be.
It didn’t feel like walking into a gallery or meeting
anyone I’d met in the art world before, it felt like
meeting a group of friends.
I loved the idea that I had complete freedom to
paint and talk about whatever I wanted to do, and
they’d say, “Yeah, let’s make it.” It felt like I had
joined a family.
But street art became big business and prints
bought from POW began selling for many times
their face value, a success that turned disastrous.
The queues for Banksy releases were chaotic, even
violent, and other print houses started appearing,
diluting the quality of work available. POW was
at the forefront of the street art explosion and,
arguably, one of the prime facilitators. While
seeming unwilling or uninclined to capitalise on
their position, they have, however, remained indie
until the end. And now they’ve had enough.
“I don’t feel like POW is ending in any way,” says
Pure Evil, “it just feels like its going into a chrysalis
stage and will emerge as a different type of butterfly.
Thanks guys, you really smashed it.” —Josh Jones
Above: Pictures on Walls logo. Courtesy of Paul Insect.
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