Hola boys and girls. I would apologise for my slightly condensed version of blog last week had a bit of busy/nightmarish week and alas had to skip what would have been a sparkling insightful laugh fest (???) but by the sound of it (and yes Chris I mean you) it was a relief. For anyone who missed the point though I did pretty much fully approve of the Serpentine Pavilion.So, this weekend I went home and enjoyed the delights of the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery – which I LOVE. We use to go there pretty much every rainy weekend throughout the majority of my childhood (if it was sunny we went to Bristol Zoo) and it’s great, highlights include the glow in the dark semi-precious gems where you get to press the button to make them glow and the Egyptian mummy remains which are displayed in a way that forces small children to balance their entire bodies over the side of this pit filled with sand and it’s only when your face is about 4 inches away that you see this gross mummified skeleton head thing starring at you – it’s terrifying and great! Anyway it still smells exactly the same which is nice and actually has some really nice pieces in the art gallery upstairs. It also has lots of touring exhibitions and this weekend we had Art from the New World a Big Brash Exhibition of the New American Art Scene. This is what they have to say about it online:
“Art from the New World features a collection of 49 new works by a diverse range of some of the finest emerging and noted living US urban and new Contemporary artists, spanning the artistic spectrum from pop surreal to neo-figurative to street”
So that’s nice. What a weird, but cool exhibition. You all know I know NOTHING about contemporary art – here or in the states, so I don’t really know how much this work is part of some kind of new ‘school’, but it certainly seemed very different and yet pretty coherent as a whole! I very much approve of what the exhibition leaflet claimed they were all trying to do which is basically to get contemporary art off its jumped up pedestal and allow it to appeal to a wider audience using a ‘low brow’ visual language influenced by things like comic books, tattoo art and children’s illustrations. Influences of Pop Art and Surrealism (and all the many shades of the various movements in-between) are clear throughout the show as well as a definite lean towards ‘whimsy’ (my new favorite art word ‘cause it makes you sound less thick than just saying ‘that work is FUNNY’).
To be honest I cant’ really think of anything to write which sweeps the entire exhibition apart from the words kitsch, kitsch and WOW THAT’S REALLY KITSCH, so I will concentrate on individual pieces instead. I do, however, really very much approve of anything that ‘low-brows’ contemporary art, and the further away from conceptualism, the most elitist school of anything across any medium ever, the better.
One of the ones I particular enjoyed was Wet Tea Party by Natalia Fabia - I tried scanning this but gave up after 8th go so the one below is 'similar' the the one I saw. Lots to be said about this along the lines of female sexuality, ideals of femininity, narrative imagery – blah blah blah. I really like it because it’s weirdly Victoriana – playing with traditions of femininity, feminine spaces and the Victorian narrative painting. It’s also beautifully executed.
Resurrection by David Stoupakis also deals with contemporary attitudes to female beauty, celebrity, age and obviously religion.
I loved the work of artists such as Marion Peck, who were clearly influenced by children’s illustrations to create a nostalgia seeped but unnerving world where painterly traditions such as in this case the equestrian portrait have been played with and subverted to create a feeling of an eerie, distant world of faded childhood memories:
Similar, surreal worlds are seen in the work of Kukula:
Some of the pieces, although very enjoyable, had definite elements of A-Level Art piece to me. A bit too ‘sun moon stars’, swirly colors and long pre-raph hair stunk of a 16 year old girls wet dream for me really. I feel somewhat torn as I quite liked them, but tacky didn’t really do them justice.
Some of the pieces were clearly influenced by comic books, video games and graffiti art such as the work of Buff Monster who is apparently featured in some video by Banksy – who is everywhere in Bristol. To be honest although enjoyable this work to me seems highly derivative and very dated surely?
Anyway have to go as have shit to do for once but another artist definitely worth mentioning is Eric Joyner for this rather hilarious and totally surreal image (one in show not online but this similar idea):
All in all if this is what’s coming out of the states at the moment for the most part I’m very pleased – it may not be earth-shatteringly original stuff but I like the idea of bringing art back from the avant-garde and imbuing it with a really palpable language of cultural references. Thumbs up.
All in all if this is what’s coming out of the states at the moment for the most part I’m very pleased – it may not be earth-shatteringly original stuff but I like the idea of bringing art back from the avant-garde and imbuing it with a really palpable language of cultural references. Thumbs up.
