SOLO EXHIBITION “THESE FIVE KINGS” ON VIEW AT SHEPARD FAIREY’S SUBLIMINAL PROJECTS GALLERY
CURRENTLY OPEN THROUGH JULY 22, 2023
On view this week from Thursday – Saturday, 12pm – 6pm. No appointment necessary. CLICK HERE to view available works.
Scroll to read about each of the artwork series featured in the show!
I lifted the show’s title THESE FIVE KINGS from a line in a poem called The Hand That Signed the Paper by Dylan Thomas; The meaning of which is very much in line with my Mightier Than series which plays a large role in this exhibition. The poem demonstrates the power of words.
We usually think of the power of words as a positive thing, how it beats the power of violence, but this poem keenly illustrates the dangerous side of that power. How the written word can be a weapon of mass destruction, more devastating than other WMDs.
I also chose These Five Kings as a title because of the arrival of new A.I. language models. In past decades, science fiction envisioned a future where robots did manual labor, building things, preparing and fetching our food, seeing to our needs and whims. leaving us to do the higher cognitive tasks, thinking, engineering, science, philosophy, and art. As it turns out, this prediction was exactly incorrect.
The very first matters to be mastered by robots (at least enough to fool us) are the higher cognitive functions and as the technologies sharpen over the next few years, the only advantage that we will have over them is our empathy and dexterity.
The Five Kings on our hands and our ability to do manual labor are, for now, our only competitive advantage. Eventually robots will have better hands than us too.
This is not meant to be a bleak title however – Our hands are only made more precious and valuable with this strange turn of history…What we make with our hands – and who we share it with becomes more beautiful and more profound.
BIRD POT CREATURES
The Bird Pot Sculptures are inspired in part by my own four backyard ducks!
The original Bird Pot Creature was a painting inspired by the art of Heironymus Bosch. Not a specific painting of his – I was just studying his art at that time and I loved the way he built weird little creatures by combining people, mammals, instincts, birds, and everyday objects. His paintings are endlessly fascinating, so many little scenes and interactions between the off characters. That original Bird Pot first showed at Subliminal Projects Gallery in 2013. Since then, I’ve drawn painted hundreds of bird pots. The Bird Pot Sculptures then made there debut in 2019 at Hashimoto Contemporary.
More than any other art series I’ve created, these sculptures are truly a team effort!
Their components include a clay pot thrown and fired, a clay head, steel gun, and steel legs.
The clay heads were sculpted by me with the help of assistant Attie Schuler.
Each unique clay pot was thrown by our friend and ceramicist Sam Davick.
Special thanks to Serei Reifman who built a huge gas kiln in her backyard and helped us fill and fire the pots!
The guns are three plated, designed and modeled for laser cutting by Dan Scriener. Typewriter parts are disassembled, reassembled, and welded on by me. Each gun is specially fitted to each bird pot, attached using gravity only, and can be displayed with or without the gun.
The steep legs and feet were modeled by Dan Schreiner. Welded and wrapped by myself, Jesse Jarldane, and Clemente Guzman.
CLICK HERE to view available works.
PRINT BASED ORIGINALS
Or, PBO’s as we call them at the studio, are unique, one of a kind works made entirely from my own prints and posters.
I love so many kinds of art. I love the diversity of experiences that can be had from looking at art. Some experiences are simple, some complex, some sophisticated, some crude; representative, narrative, abstract, reflexive…PBO’s are a way of combining these experiences – to combine them to see what happens inside us.
For many years, I’ve been creating these. I tore, combined, and reorganized bits of prints to create new original pieces. All of the bits of art in these pieces were created by me and each one is different from all the others.
They are inspired by the art of Mimo Rotella, Jacque Villegle, Robert Rauschenberg, and of course, Shepard Fairey.
CLICK HERE to view available works.
MIGHTIER THAN GUNS & GUNSHOP
These guns are made from everyday implements of written language. Pieces include typewriter, stapler, and rubber stamp parts. These implements are disassembled, and reassembled using welds and bolts.
The first typewriter gun sculpture was created in 2005. Originally, they were small parts of larger installations. I always have a big sculptural element in all my shows. Something large enough and immersive that puts the viewer inside the art. Sometimes it’s a human sized figure or a few figures riding life size horses. And, originally these guns made of typewriters were things that the various sculptures would be holding.
Later, I realized that they were a full idea in and of themselves. Something worth isolating and letting sit alone on a wall. I made two of them for the Primitive Futures exhibition at Subliminal Projects in 2015.
CLICK HERE to view available works.
ORIGINAL PAINTINGS
Much of my art is made with a flat 2 dimensional quality, without gradation and blending. I often use this method of working, because I’m creating pieces for serigraph or other printmaking processes.
However, I also love the flexible and versatile nature of painting! In a certain way, painting is easier than drawing because it offers so many more tools to manipulate. It holds the possibility for so much variety in texture, shadow, value, contour, form, and color. Having all of these variables creates the need for more control but allows for a much wider range in visual vocabulary and allows for more more articulation.
The paintings in this show are inspired by Hieronymus Bosch, the Flemish primitives, Bruegel the Elder, and European Noble Portraits.
CLICK HERE to view available works.
ORIGINAL COMPOUND INTERESTS DRAWINGS
I have 3 wonderful employees that come to my studio and we work hard every day. We all take lunch together and often go on short walks after we eat. We talk about all kinds of things that are of interest to us. This is often the inspiration that goes into these little drawings. Conversations about what’s happening in our lives, things we’ve read about, current events, and so on. The Compound Interests Series is just me pursuing whatever little idea pops in my head and I make little scenes with Bird Pot creatures contemplating aspects of those little ideas.
When I bought the house that I now live and work in (nicknamed the Commerce City Art Compound!). The guy who sold it to me had 5 ducks and a goose living in the back yard that he planned to kill unless I wanted them. I’d never had any interest in owning birds but it didn’t feel right, condemning them to death, so they stayed. Since then I’ve fallen in love with them. They are 100% funny and beautiful!
I get a little shot of joy everyday when I’m taking care of them. The Bird Pot creatures and Compound Interests drawings are a little bit inspired by them. Like us, they are leading simple little lives with their own politics, complexities, difficulties, and limitations and they are surrounded by a huge complicated world that they have no hope of truly understanding. Just like us!
