JASPER JOHNS FRIDA KAHLO

OSGEMEOS MAGRITTE

SUMMER 2018, n206 USA $9.99 / CAN $10.99

DISPLAY UNTIL SEPTEMBER 3, 2018
OSGEMEOS // MAGRITTE // JASPER JOHNS // FRIDA KAHLO // OLI EPP // LAMAR PETERSON // MONICA KIM GARZA // JEFFREY CHEUNG Summer 2018, n206
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CONTENTS

Summer 2018 42
ISSUE 10
Editor's Letter Influences
206 The Painter and Patriot,
Mr. Fulton Wash
14
Studio Time
46
Life and Work Balance:
Oli Epp in London Travel Insider 92 126
Celebrating Fallas in Oli Epp Serena Cole
Valencia, Spain
18
The Report 100
Reflections on
50 Profile
Jasper Johns In Session Alina Tsvor Covers
MATRIX 270: Ground in Chicago
Alicia McCarthy and
22 Ruby Neri @ BAMPFA
134
Product 102
Reviews Events
Hublot x
54 Monica Beyond the Streets,

Shepard Fairey,
On the Kim Garza Whitney Museum,
Thinkspace Projects,
Polaroid Cameras, Outside Left Field,
InCase Backpacks The Serenity and
Oakland Museum
Conflict of Know Hope
of California
24
Picture Book 60 136
From the Frozen Book Reviews Sieben on Life
Tundra with Sarah Takashi Murakami,
On Shaky Ground
Michelle Riisager
Jen Mann, and Identity
110
René 138
32 Magritte Pop Life
Design Tokyo, Hong Kong,
Wide Awake! Brooklyn, Manhattan,
A. Savage of Los Angeles
Parquet Courts

76 142
36 KOAK Perspective
Fashion Racing for Thunder
Frida Kahlo’s Making
Her Self Up at the V&A
118 with Rammellzee

Jeffrey
Cheung

84
Lamar
Peterson

6 SUMMER 2018 Right: OSGEMEOS, The Long Way Home, Spray paint, acrylic, and sequins on canvas, 63” x 79”, 2017
66
Os Gemeos
STAFF

FOUNDER PRESIDENT + PUBLISHER A DV E R T I S I N G + S A L E S D I R E C TO R

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AG E N C Y D E S I G N E R INTERN
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Juxtapoz ISSN #1077-8411 Summer 2018 Volume 25, Number 03

Published quarterly by High Speed Productions, Inc., 1303 Underwood Ave, San Francisco, CA 94124–3308. © 2016 High Speed Productions, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in USA. Juxtapoz
is a registered trademark of High Speed Productions, Inc. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Opinions expressed in articles are those of the author. All
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8 SUMMER 2018 Cover: OSGEMEOS, Close Encounter of the First Kind, Spray paint on canvas, 63” x 79”, 2017
EDITOR’S LETTER
Issue NO 206
When Martyn Reed of the renowned Nuart
Festival set the theme for this past Spring’s
Nuart Aberdeen, “A Revolution of the Ordinary,”
I had feelings of both elation and defeat.
And to be honest, I wrote a rather ranting,
mildly-disappointed-in-the-21st-Century-and-
all-its-social-revolution-mechanisms essay
about what I thought was supposed to be our
controlled destiny of how we communicate
with each other. Our ordinary lives were
going to become extraordinary through new
platforms of communication, public art, and the
democratization of gatekeeper culture.
During the lead-up to Nuart Aberdeen, I found
myself wondering just what is ordinary. I mean,
hell, for the past 15 years or so, Facebook,
Instagram, and Twitter have elevated each of us
to extraordinary status such that “ordinary” is
vaguely insulting. How dare you call my life or my
experiences ordinary? I had brunch this morning
on an antique wooden table, for crying out loud,
and shared it with 51 strangers! But Nuart was
clever, placing the word ordinary in the context
of hyper-sensitive, perhaps over-educated, art
history critics who have excluded nearly 99%
of all people from enjoying what really is an
10 SUMMER 2018
incredible moment in art. There are so many good
things happening! And not just Banksy, or Nuart,
or JR. I’m talking about Kerry James Marshall,
Toyin Odutola, Jonas Wood, Yoshitomo Nara,
and Laura Owens, to name a few. Museums and
galleries have such great shows right now, but
many people have felt unwelcome because the
culture was only made for those who read the
right books, go to the right schools, and eat at the
right restaurants, inferring that these gatekeepers
are right, and the average people are wrong. So,
ordinary isn’t so simple. It’s just everyday life.
It’s waking up and going to work at 6:30 a.m. It’s
eating your lunch on park bench. It’s going home
at night knowing that perhaps you only have a few
hours in your weekend to see the Walker Evans
show at your local museum. “Ordinary” is finding
ways to bring art into your life that is not dictated
by the cultural elite.
The reason why the theme, “A Revolution of the
Ordinary,” struck so closely, why I wanted to
revisit it for this letter, is that I look at our cover
story on OSGEMEOS and see how incredible their
career has been, how original and on their terms.
Anything but ordinary, it is entirely of their own
doing, and outside of normal art structures. From
the streets of São Paulo, with interests in graiti
and hip hop, they became some of the most
famous and celebrated artists of this generation.
Consider the burgeoning careers of Jefrey
Cheung, Oli Epp and KOAK, or the extraordinary
stories of Fulton Washington and Know Hope,
both completely diferent artists but employing
unique voices in powerful, community-based
ways. Even Rammellzee created a personal
universe that has become not only a benchmark of
Afrofuturism, but a blueprint for how an eccentric
soul can be an art world all unto himself. So,
consider ordinary, and realize we are building
our own art history, our own narratives, just
like 24 years ago when Robert Williams and
friends started Juxtapoz. I look at how popular
and influential this art generation has become,
whether street or skate or politically motivated
art, and it’s amazing how inordinately vital
ordinary has become.
Enjoy Summer 2018.
Above: OSGEMEOS at the Luggage Store, San Francisco, 2013
DANIEL ARSHAM Cookie Monster Patch (Purple), 2018. Plaster, metal, paint.114.3 × 123.2 × 5.1 cm / 45 × 48 1/2 × 2 in

DANIEL ARSHAM
カラー・シャドウ, Perrotin Tokyo
アーキテクチャー・アノマリーズ, Nanzuka, Tokyo

MAY 23 – JUNE 30, TOKYO

STUDIO TIME
Dust for Lunch
I’m in the studio at 9:00 am until 8:00 pm
every day. I definitely haven’t got the best work
and life balance, but I feel grateful for being able
to paint full time. I harbor a lot of guilt when
I’m not in the studio, so it’s fair to say that I’m
a workaholic and I’m happiest there.
Possibly the best thing about my studio is its
location. I’m based in the heart of London, which
has been wildly beneficial. I have around two to
three studio visits a week from artists, mentors
and collectors. I’ve currently taken on three studio
allocations to make one big space, but can’t say
I’m particularly economical with that space.
I constantly have to tiptoe over a field of bits and
pieces that make up my studio floor.
14 SUMMER 2018
Oli Epp on His Studio
Objects are oten stripped of their functions very
quickly in my studio; books become palettes and
paint tubs become doorstops. I don’t have a table,
and all the chairs are stacked with papers, scalpels
and brushes, so I usually eat lunch cross-legged
on the floor. As a result, I’m quite a dusty person.
My flatmates are always mesmerized by the state
of the bathtub in the evenings. They once thought
someone had washed a stray dog. Sadly, the
green clippings of masking tape floating in there
revealed it was me.
I have a studio mascot—a brave little mouse, who
makes a bold appearance once every two weeks.
He gives me the fright of my life every time—most
recently whilst failing to leap from a box to the top
of my mini fridge. My fridge only stores sugary
carbonated drinks, mostly ones with alcohol.
I find the hum of the fridge quite soothing. My
studio is not a quiet place, however, I am lucky to
have the best studio partner. He’s really laid back
and puts up with my noise. I’m always listening
to artist interviews and lectures on YouTube or
Spotify. Worst of all, I whistle when I’m nervous,
and I'm always nervous.
It might sound lame, but painting is honestly
like having constant therapy. My work is so
autobiographical that I’m always reflecting on
and analyzing my thoughts and behaviour. I don’t
know how healthy this is, but it keeps me going.
—Oli Epp
Read Oli Epp’s full feature on page 92.
Photo: Ian Cox
 ERIC JOYNER
GLAZED MACHINATIONS
JUNE 23 - JULY 21, 2018

COREY HELFORD GALLERY

571 SOUTH ANDERSON STREET, LOS ANGELES, CA 90033 | 310 287 2340 | COREYHELFORDGALLERY.COM
REPORT
Judging Jasper Johns
‘Something Resembling Truth’ at The Broad
Perhaps no American artist of the twentieth
century is more celebrated, yet more misunderstood,
than Jasper Johns, who rocketed to instant fame as a
young man with his legendary first gallery show in
New York in 1958. That distinguished event marked
the first pure American contribution to the formalist
principles of Modern art, indicating a break from
Abstract Expressionism, the dominant style in New
York following the end of World War II. The tide had
already been shiting away from Europe’s monopoly
as the prevailing influence of the avant-garde.
And what could be more profound a statement
about the super-powered United States of America
becoming the nexus of the art world than a giant
painting of its flag? Johns wasn’t making a political
18 SUMMER 2018
statement, but instead, ushering the evolution
of painting into a clear, knowable definition as a
flat surface. By employing imagery of objects that
were inherently flat, such as targets, numbers,
maps, and flags, he dismissed the whole wishful
notion of painting’s role of perpetuating an illusion.
Johns continued to rif on this concept over and
over again for decades to follow. None of his later
work would ever eclipse the impact or ignite such
a revolutionary response as that first show at Leo
Castelli gallery. The artist, reticent to explain his
thought process, continued to pursue invention,
and the inherent meaning has remained a mystery.
The Broad Museum in Los Angeles, in collaboration
with the Royal Academy in London, put together
Above: Photo by Bob Adelman. Jasper Johns in his Riverside Drive studio in New York City in 1964. © Bob Adelman Estate
a comprehensive survey tracing the evolution of
the artist’s six-decade career called Jasper Johns:
‘Something Resembling Truth’. A tour from curator
Ed Shad ofered insight into the full range of John’s
motifs and motivations.
Gregg Gibbs: What is the significance of Jasper
Johns in the pantheon of art history? Why is
his work considered to be so important in the
development of Modern art?
Ed Shad: To start, there is the art historical story
of him devising new ways of approaching art-
making in the wake of Abstract Expressionism.
That story is very well trodden. At the time when
he made the flags, for instance, avant-garde
art looked like Willem de Kooning, Jackson
 REPORT

Pollock or Mark Rothko. That’s what art was

doing and that’s what art was. It gave primacy
to the self, where the gesture on the canvas
gives an insight into you as an individual if
you were living inside the United States. There
are reasons why we look at Pollock and feel his
personality, but also get ideas about the fact that
his paintings look like outer space or the atom
bomb. So imagine going from that, to this very
stoic, anonymous presentation of the American
flag in the mid-’50s done in encaustic. That
movement is very striking as it travels from
that expressive, energetic assertion of self into
something you have to slow down to understand,
something you have to study. When you look at
a Jasper Johns flag from the ’50s, the last thing to
think about is Eisenhower or the basic political
goings-on during that time. Instead, what you
should look at is the philosophical, perceptual
two-step between how things acquire meaning.
The more you get involved with the flags, the
more meaningful they become—you return to
this everyday object as something new. Fast-
forward 60 years to the present moment, it is just
as radical today as it was then—something that
requires you to stop, look and think.

Oten referred to as the bridge between

Abstract Expressionism and Pop, Johns retains
the gestural application of the medium but
combines it with populist subject matter.
What has made him such a pivotal figure in
facilitating this change of genres?
There is kind of a temptation to think of him as
a Pop artist and not an Ab-Ex artist. The reason
I’m tempted to refrain from Pop is because an
Andy Warhol soup can, for example, looks like it
was plucked from his kitchen. This elicits a sense
of consumerism, the way food is mass-produced
and democratic in the way it’s deployed. Whether
you are a rich person or a poor person, that
soup can of clam chowder is the same either
way. Johns’ image is taken from daily life, a
methodical measured image that distances us one is an image. Another great example is 3 Flags What makes that such a radical departure?
from what it is. He kind of occupies that middle from the Whitney, which is three flags stacked on The artist Ed Ruscha said that when he first saw
ground of perception. top of each other. This may seem simple, but there the flag paintings, it blew his hair back. There was
are lots of things to think about here. The sides of the nothing like it before. Flag ‘67 is a great situation
Is it like Gauguin stating that a painting stretcher bars are gray, though the flags are objects where a flag that is fully an image is on top, and
is merely an arrangement of color on a stacked on top of each other, and the flag image a flag that is fully an object is on the bottom, one
flat surface? Johns is not commenting on terminates at the edge of the canvas. Something rendered in orange, black and green and the other in
consumerism, but embracing the flatness or flat asserts itself as an object that is capable of clearly gray. But, there is a third flag. If you stare at the top
images, right? being defined as an image. To get really geeky, it is one for a number of minutes, allowing your retina to
If you look at the 1967 flag from the Broad collection, doing with real objects the exact opposite of what get tired, then stare at the gray version below, your
the stripes wrap around the edges. The canton, the rule of Renaissance perspective does when, eye will produce a red, white and blue flag. Here the
which has the stars, continues around the side of in the arrangement of space, large objects are in flag has entirely let the canvas. Now the image you
the frame. This is fully a flag. You could salute this front and smaller objects are in the distance. Johns see of the flag is completely created by your eye.
if you wanted to. There is no part of this flag that is arranges objects in a real space, deploying them
not a flag. Next to it is Flag on Orange 2, which shows in a deadpan way by making a point: that the way How extensively did you approach this survey,
the flag with defined edges embedded in an orange we relate to the world is partially a function of the and were there some important works you were
field. So unlike the other flag, which is an object, this perspective system in which we find ourselves. unable to include?

Top: Flag, 1967. Encaustic and collage on canvas (three panels), 84.138 x 142.24cm. The Eli and Edythe L. Broad Collection. Art © Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY JUXTAPOZ .COM 19
Bottom Left: Untitled, 1975. Oil and encaustic on canvas (four panels), 127.32 x 127.32cm. The Eli and Edythe L. Broad Collection. Art © Jasper Johns / Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.
Photo: Douglas M. Parker Studio Bottom Right: Photo by Pablo Enriquez. Art © Jasper Johns/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.
REPORT
Each of these objects is incredibly fragile. For
example, the MOMA piece featuring a target with
body parts attached above the image was done
on a bed sheet and cannot travel. These are not
exactly the type of things that are supposed to last
forever. The target with plastic casts, owned by
David Gefen, was one of the first objects that Johns
made, and we can understand if collectors have to
think on an individual basis about the fragility of
certain objects. There are some important pieces
not included in the show, but we understand and
are very proud of how it came together.
Why did you decide to hang the exhibition
thematically rather than following a
chronological progression?
It is curated topically because Johns presents a
motif that emerges and repeats, sometimes over
the course of 60 years. Each motif does not always
mean the same thing, though. When you see a flag
from 1955 next to a flag from 1968 or a flag from
1985, that certain motif has changed according
to how Johns has changed and how the world is
changing around him. While motifs inside of a
chronological survey presentation can be located,
we wanted to facilitate the chance to see those
changes over time. In the target gallery, you can
look at a 1958 target next to one from 1992. We
wanted to give viewers the opportunity to tease
out more of the meaning behind the work by
focusing on the particular motifs.
Tell me about the red, yellow and blue
paintings. What could he be trying to convey
when the word doesn’t match the color that it is
labeling?
20 SUMMER 2018
The primary colors of red, yellow and blue, literally,
are tools, the tools by which all other colors are
made. You can mix them together and create any
other color, so this is the starting point for color.
In a painting like False Start Johns gives us an
opportunity to think about the symbols of colors.
R-E-D is our symbol for red linguistically, but
nothing about those letters corresponds, in any real
way, to how we experience the color. Sometimes
you’ll see red written in yellow that is labeling blue.
That symbol has become destabilized. You have an
activity going on where you’re taking this toolbox of
primary colors and exploring what they mean, how
they carry their own emotional weight. And you can
do the same thing in gray. There is a calibration from
a color into gray that is subtle. What is happening
here? How is this doing what it’s doing? These are the
things that Johns seems to be interested in. I can’t
speak for him, but that’s what I get.
He famously doesn’t like to explain his work.
Why is that?
As I read more about his work in his interviews,
he actually does tell you quite a lot. I would
encourage people to read his earlier interviews
to gain insight into his ideas. I think the popular
opinion that he doesn’t comment much can be
misleading. For instance, his remarks about
measurement help me get into his paintings. So
many of the things he has said about his work
really take you into the process in a dynamic way.
As we come to the end to the exhibition, I’d like
to get your insight into the four-paneled series
called The Four Seasons, and what Johns might
be portraying.
Above: Photo by Pablo Enriquez. Art © Jasper Johns/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.
The seasons, of course, are a very traditional way
of looking at our lives. We use the seasons as
metaphors all the time. We are born in the spring,
the creative time. We come to the prime of our
lives in summer. We start our decline in autumn,
followed by the proverbial winter of our discontent.
What I love about this series is that we get into
that convention of associating one’s life this way.
On one hand, you can contain an entire life like
that in a linear fashion, but, at the same time, you
can maybe use the idea of the seasons to possibly
think about weather. The terms of the year repeat
themselves as a cycle. Inside you have images of the
artist as a shadow.
Also included, along with his work, are some
things he’s collected over the years. We have the
devices, we have the American flag, we have what
are called the peg door paintings. There are the
references to Duchamp, references to Picasso,
references to Queen Elizabeth’s coronation vase,
all sorts of items. Johns marks progression through
his personal stuf by driting through the seasons,
things you would find in his studio and things let
over from earlier bodies of work that he decided to
revisit. It’s a way of combining and re-combining
our lives within a never-ending cycle by looking
at the things we collect, whether through our
emotions or literally the things we carry along with
us. Seemingly, connecting a life with no beginning
or end.
Jasper Johns: ‘Something Resembling Truth’ at
the Broad Museum in Los Angeles was on view this
past Spring.
REVIEWS

Things We Are After

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22 SUMMER 2018
PICTURE BOOK

“For many years, I thought

that if I had a specific
relationship with the person
I photographed, the picture
would be stronger. I know
I have made a lot of strong
portraits because I knew
the person I photographed—
they simply trusted me.
But at the same time, when
people know you, they also
expect something from you.
Ater traveling in Yakutia,
photographing people I’ve
never met before, it was still
about relationships.”

24 SUMMER 2018

Sarah Michelle Riisager
Freeze Frame For Real
“Talking about fear has always been important
to me. It’s a big part of my work,” Sarah Michelle
Riisager reveals. “If there is nothing at risk, it
becomes too easy.” The Danish photographer’s
latest series, Frozen, was taken while assisting
as a videographer for Magnum photographer
Jacob Aue Sobol on a two and a half month, 7000
kilometer journey across Yakutia, a desolate region
of northeastern Siberia where the temperature
fluctuates between freezing and minus sixty
degrees. “Frozen is an insight into my universe,” she
explains, “a universe built on wonder, loneliness,
love, and fascination.” Recognizing that fears can
strengthen those insights, generating more honest
relationships with the people and places being
photographed, she suggests that, ultimately, “we
all seek love, trust and longing for more, no matter
where we are in the world.” In Frozen, Riisager
considers such universal connections, and through
careful sequencing and pairing of colors, shapes,
PICTURE BOOK
atmosphere and mood, welcomes the viewer to
share in a voyage across an icy, isolated landscape
frozen in the white light of her camera flash.
“I was terrified of failing and not being able to create
a story that was important. In the end, it is quite
simple,” she concludes. “Do it or don’t do it. And that
is what fear is all about. If it is important, we do it. If
not, we don’t.”
sarahriisager.com
JUXTAPOZ .COM 25
PICTURE BOOK

“I look at the colors, the shapes

and for a nerve of intensity.
I love what happens when you
put two photographs together in
a spread and suddenly it adds a
new layer to the feeling of it.”

26 SUMMER 2018
 PICTURE BOOK

“I’ve always been drawn to

the unknown, and for me,
photography is a lot about
discovery. It doesn’t have to be
a specific place or a country
I haven’t visited before—most
of the time it’s about feelings or
memories that I wonder about.
I have so many questions, and
the camera helps me to go out
and observe.”

JUXTAPOZ .COM 27
PICTURE BOOK

“I don’t think it is always

necessary to ‘ feel the picture’
in the moment I shoot it. I’ve
used a lot of pictures in projects
I don’t even remember shooting.
That said, I don’t doubt that
my strongest pictures are made
when the connection is there.
I don’t think it is that different
to photograph a tree, statue or
human being. If I’m not curious
or interested, it doesn’t matter.
Not that it’s needless, it’s just all
about being present.”

28 SUMMER 2018
 PICTURE BOOK

“In the beginning, I don’t think

it was a conscious choice to
use flash. I’m pretty sure that
it came out of necessity. I have
always shot a lot at night or
inside without sunlight, so the
flash became natural. There
is something interesting about
adding fake light to a picture.
I reveal myself, and I’m not just
a fly on the wall.”

JUXTAPOZ .COM 29
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DESIGN
Wide Awake!
A. Savage and the Art of Parquet Courts
In the history of music, visual identity has
never been more important. If you think that’s an
overstatement and maintain that Andy Warhol
designed The Velvet Underground and Nico, the
1960s were better, and nothing could be more
iconic, important, and life-alerting, I would say,
yes, album cover art has indeed had extremely
essential moments in the past. However, whether
Instagram , YouTube, Twitter, or physical vinyl
packaging, bands can do so much more with
visual art in 2018. When some forewarned that
the digital world would kill music, they did not
consider that music would evolve in its freedom to
explore its entire identity like never before.
A. Savage is lead singer and guitarist for the
NYC indie band, Parquet Courts, as well as an
accomplished fine artist who is behind many
of the band’s album covers and visuals since its
inception in 2010. When word got out that their
newest album, Wide Awake!, would be released
in spring 2018 with production from Danger
Mouse, many wondered if their sound would get
a new-studio sheen not previously heard in past
recordings. On the contrary, the band returned
with even more raw energy, accompanied by a
brilliant animated video featuring Savage’s bright
32 SUMMER 2018
and bold characters for the track, “Almost Had to
Start a Fight/In And Out of Patience." With the
Wide Awake! deluxe vinyl release sporting a 16-
page booklet of Savage’s art, we sat down with the
musician and artist to talk about the influences of
John Wesley, fitting fine art into a schedule, and
maybe getting around to that 10-foot painting.
Evan Pricco: Drawing or playing guitar? What
comes first in the morning?
A. Savage: Well, first comes the radio, then cofee.
I make it to my studio, on a good day, before noon.
So I'd have to say drawing. Typically, guitar is a
second-half-of-the-day activity.
Okay, so what came first in your life? Art or
guitar?
I started drawing before I learned an instrument.
You keep a proper art studio in Brooklyn, so
I assume that is where you spend most of your
time when not making albums or touring. If we
were to walk into your studio right now, what
would you be working on?
About 20 paintings for a large installation. I can't
give much more in the way of details. But you'd
probably walk in and say, "Wow, that's so many
paintings you're working on". And I'd say, "Sorry,
I can't really talk about this."
I love the band's visual identity, and even before
I knew you were creating most of it, if not all,
I immediately thought it was super smart in
terms of how color presentation and imagery
fit with the sound. It made sense to me, in the
end, that someone so intimately involved in
the sound would be able to get it right with
the visuals. This really isn't a question but an
observation: was making art for Parquet Courts
just a consequence of you being good at art and
it all fitting together? Was it a necessity?
You are very intuitive because we are super smart.
I do like for an album color to be a hint, and then
a component, of the sound inside. I suppose me
making the Parquet Courts artwork is a necessity
in that I'm a control freak and just don't think
anybody else could do it better. I like for the art and
music to be diferent from one another, but still feel
that is distinct to the group. Someone should want
to hear it by looking at it.
I read in a past interview that you looked at
artists like John Wesley and Jacob Lawrence
(two of my favorites, full disclosure) as
All artwork: A. Savage
 DESIGN

JUXTAPOZ .COM 33
DESIGN
influences or interests; prime examples of
artists mastering color. I see in the new album
art for Wide Awake! a little of that wonderful use
of color like Wesley’s. Do you feel that you are
growing more confident with your personal art?
Those are two wonderful but very different
painters. I assume by personal art you mean
art that doesn’t have to do with music. I'd say
I'm growing more confident, yes. It's a language
that is really different from writing lyrics. You
have to communicate an emotion or sensation
without, by and large, the aid of words, and
that's a challenge. But I do like the process of
navigating those emotions and distilling them
into imagery.
Do you collect at all?
When I was a kid, I collected Pez dispensers.
I have 3,000 LP's in my apartment, but I don't
think I collected them.
Yeah, I never liked the idea of a “record
collection.” I have records. I don’t collect them.
We were thinking here on staf about other
musicians who are known for personal art...
like Tom Waits or David Byrne, for example.
I don't want to turn this into a "who are your art
34 SUMMER 2018
heroes" question, but do you have influences
that extend between art and music?
There's a band from NYC called B Boys, who are
good friends. Their bass player, Brendan Avalos,
does all of their art. All of the Lumpy and the
Dumpers covers are great, I imagine that Mr.
Lumpy himself must be behind that. Sam Ryser
from Crazy Spirit and Dawn of Humans' work
is great and fits perfectly with the sound. Those
two are both highly imitated. Jess Aurelius from
Destruction Unit does some great work.
On the other hand, my good friend Bradley Kerl
has done most of the artwork for the band Ultimate
Painting. He's not in the band but I do like it when
bands work with an artist that they believe in and
have a good eye for visuals that compliment their
music. Total Control would be an example of a
band that works with amazing artists.
The first video from Wide Awake! was your work
animated, and when I saw it, I thought, "Andrew
is making some of my favorite work in all of art."
I just loved the characters and the color choices,
just the simple boldness of it all. Will the book
of art and illustration in the deluxe vinyl edition
of the album feature that sort of vibe from the
"Almost Had to Start A Fight / In and Out Of
Patience" video?
Yeah, all of that stuf came from the album art.
I didn't have any hand in animating it, I'm not an
animator, but it was cool to see those bits come
to life.
Are you planning any exhibitions anytime
soon? Or is that something you have to wait for
until the promotion of the album is over?
I had a solo show in NYC and Chicago last year,
and a group show in San Francisco. A lot of
these paintings I'm working on now are going
to end up in a long-term installation of sorts.
But as far as exhibitions go, I'd like to build
up something in the next year for that. It's
definitely on my mind.
If time was of no consequence, what is the next
thing you want to explore in the studio?
Maybe a 10-foot canvas? Space and
transportation would have to be of absolutely no
consequence.
Parquet Courts’ new album, Wide Awake!, is out now
via Rough Trade. The special deluxe vinyl edition
features a 16-page book of art by Andrew Savage.
FASHION

Frida Kahlo:
Fashion Victor at the V&A
A low hairline betraying ethnic heritage that not restrained by clothing, but empowered by it.
necessitated electrolysis, skin lightening that Though childhood polio withered her right leg and
changed olive skin to porcelain, and dark hair dyed a bus accident in her twenties necessitated back
to red transformed Carmen Cansino into screen braces and surgical corsets, she did not recede in
siren Rita Hayworth. At the same time, Frida Kahlo basic black, but reveled in color and pattern. No
defiantly wore her unibrow like a badge of bravery wonder lines still wrap around the block as fans
and plaited her tresses in traditional braids. She queue up for retrospectives of her work. On June 16,
would have scorned a stylist and, in fact, actually 2018, London’s Victoria and Albert Museum opens
commented about her time in New York that an exhibit of clothing, jewelry and accessories
“I dislike the ‘high society’… and feel a little rage which had been shuttered away in the Blue House
against all these fat cats.” Returning to Mexico, where Kahlo lived and loved. Co-curators Circe
she worked on her painting, My Dress Hangs There, Fenestra and Claire Wilcox open the door
Gwynned Vitello: The Blue House is intriguing
just by its very name. Why did Diego Rivera
insist that her belongings be sealed away, and
why did they remain hidden?
Circe Fenestra and Claire Wilcox: It was as if
Diego Rivera knew he was going to die three
years after Frida Kahlo passed away in 1954.
In 1957, Rivera died, but before that, he had
set up an irrevocable trust in the Bank of
Mexico, ceding their estate, including the Blue
House (today, the Museo Frida Kahlo) to the
Mexican people. Rivera left his friend and

36 SUMMER 2018 All imagery from: Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up, 16 June – 14 November 2018. Sponsored by Grosvenor Britain & Ireland
Above: Frida Kahlo with Olmec figurine, 1939, photograph by Nickolas Muray © Nickolas Muray Photo Archives
 FASHION

patron, Dolores Olmedo, in charge of the Frida
Kahlo and Anahuacalli Museums, and the
terms stated that all objects stored in one of
the bathrooms in the Blue House be concealed
for a period of 15 years. Another bathroom, a
cellar and several trunks, wardrobes, cupboards
and boxes remained sealed. At that point, the
clock stopped ticking. In 2003, the Director
General of the Comite Tecnico del Fideicomiso
gave authorization for the sealed rooms to
be unlocked and assessed, including all the
treasures we will see in the exhibition.
What significance did the home have for her,
and will the exhibit recreate any of the rooms?
The Blue House is where Frida lived as a child
and later with Rivera and also where she
eventually died. It was also where her artistic
career began, as her father encouraged her to
paint as a young girl. She paid tribute to the
Blue House, depicting her bed, studio and
other elements in her oil paintings and pencil
drawings. The exhibition will use photographs,
video, and the exhibition design to reimagine
the Blue House in the show.
How will the exhibition be set up? What kind
of backgrounds and tableaux are you using to
show the colorful pieces, and how big is it?
This version developed from my original research
for the first exhibition in Mexico, which addressed
Frida’s construction of her identity through
disability and ethnicity. Frida Kahlo Making Her
Self Up is derived from long conversations with
my co-curator, Claire. An obvious example is that,
in London, we don't have the Blue House, now the
Frida Kahlo Museum. Claire loves photography
and brought that context to the show. She felt
she needed to signpost our audience here and
contextualize more of Frida’s life through her
photographic archive, for example. I am Mexican
and very familiar with a lot of the materials, so
Claire gave me diferent points of view on how
others would view the materials and perceive the
objects here. Each object plays a pivotal role, and
we have included many of her paintings, as well.
Did the Mexican Renaissance take place
primarily in the cities, and how did the
atmosphere influence Frida?
The Mexican Renaissance refers to a period in
the 1920s and ’30s when the country flourished
as a destination for foreign writers, artists,
photographers and documentary filmmakers
searching for authenticity and artistic freedom.
Kahlo and Rivera’s social circle in Mexico was at
the heart of this liberal and artistic culture, and
many of the members held communist leanings.
There was a desire at this time to foster a new
national identity based on the history of Mexico’s
indigenous people. Kahlo reflected this in her life
and art.
Very much a champion of her Mexican culture,
Frida was also very close to her German father,
right? Did that in any way influence her clothes
and painting in any way?
Kahlo’s father was a great influence on her life.
He first encouraged her to paint and also to pose
for the camera, as he himself was a photographer.
Besides her love of color and ornamentation,
much of her fashion was born of function. Give
us a couple examples of how she embellished
upon necessity to create a unique style.
Clothes became part of her armor, to deflect,

Left: Guatemalan cotton coat worn with Mazatec huipil and plain floor- length skirt, Museo Frida Kahlo © Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo Archives, Banco de México, Fiduciary of the
Trust of the Diego Riviera and Frida Kahlo Museums Middle: Cotton huipil with machine-embroidered chain stitch; printed cotton skirt with embroidery and holán. Ensemble from the JUXTAPOZ .COM 37
Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Photograph Javier Hinojosa. © Diego Riviera and Frida Kahlo Archives, Banco de México, Fiduciary of the Trust of the Diego Riviera and Frida Kahlo Museums
Right: Prosthetic leg with leather boot. Appliquéd silk with embroidered Chinese motifs. Photograph Javier Hinojosa. Museo Frida Kahlo. © Diego Riviera and Frida Kahlo Archives,
Banco de México, Fiduciary of the Trust of the Diego Riviera and Frida Kahlo Museums
FASHION

conceal, and distract from her injuries. Kahlo

endured multiple operations in both Mexico and
the United States and had to wear orthopedic
corsets made of leather and plaster. Her corsets
were necessary for medical reasons, but she
also decorated them elaborately. The traditional
indigenous dress style she adapted allowed her
to conceal these items under long skirts and
geometrically cut blouses.

Did she buy her clothes, have them made, or

make them herself? What were favorite fabrics
and colors?
She would get them from friends and in the
markets. Her favorite colors were red, green, black,
white and blue.

She seemed to love the clashing prints and

patterns. Was her way of dressing considered
bold, or even ostentatious for the time? Did she
create her own jewelry, and what was some of
the most symbolic?
Frida Kahlo was an incredibly glamorous and
sophisticated woman. She was ahead of her
time, and that’s why she continues to be so
relevant today. Her style was very personal,
unique, hybrid and contemporary. She created
her own style to form a mélange of politics
and personal circumstances due to her body
impairments and mixed heritage. Through use
of traditional Mexican dresses to style herself,
Kahlo dealt with her life, her political views,
health struggles, her accident, a turbulent
marriage and the inability to have children.
She built her own style, a hybrid, that was
unique and very personal.

Jewelry was incredibly important to Kahlo.

She was able to recognize exceptional pieces,
regardless of convention. She was oten drawn
to irregular stone beads that connected her with
Mexico’s pre-Columbian past. She also wore
more delicate regional jewelry to accompany her
traditional Mexican dress as well as innovative
Mexican silver jewelry from contemporary
designers of the day.

Would you say her self-portraiture was more

about expressing her own depth of experience
than mere re-invention?
I think, mainly because she did self-portraits, we all
remember her through her self-image. By means of
her use of self-portraits and the use of traditional
Mexican dresses to style herself, Kahlo dealt with
her life’s challenges.
How did she use her clothing as a political
statement?
There will be traditional Mexican garments on
display, such as rebozos, a traditional Mexican
shawl, and a resplendor, a lace headdress worn
by women of the matriarchal society. Her dress
and the way she and Rivera styled the Blue House
are reflections of her cultural pride, along with
their shared political ideologies. Kahlo used her
striking appearance as a political statement,
crating her identity to reflect her own mestizo
identity and allegiance to Mexican identity.
Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up, sponsored
by Grosvenor Britain and Ireland and GRoW
@ Annenberg, will be on view at the Victoria and
Albert Museum in London from June 16–
November 4, 2018
vam.ac.uk

38 SUMMER 2018 Above: Frida on the bench, 1939, photograph by Nickolas Muray © Nickolas Muray Photo Archives
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INFLUENCES
Fulton Leroy Washington
The Liberation of Painter and Patriot Mr. Wash
“So these aren’t the type of defendants, in
my opinion, that the mandatory minimums and
all that are addressed to, but that unfortunately,
is not for me to decide… the guidelines … require
that there be life imprisonment imposed.” The
subject of those words, a husband and son, has
always maintained his innocence regarding
drug possession. His court-appointed lawyer,
desperate to find a witness, asked if he might be
able to draw a composite sketch, and to everyone’s
astonishment, he did, but to no avail. Fulton
Washington, who goes by the avuncular Mr.
Wash, served 21 years in prison, and may have
served for life, if not for the persistent devotion of
his daughter, Ahneishia, and the compassionate
pardon of President Barack Obama. When
Juxtapoz founder Robert Williams brought his art
and story to our attention, we wasted no time in
finding artist, teacher and peacemaker, Mr. Wash.
42 SUMMER 2018
Gwynned Vitello: The story goes that your
mother, who worked for Mattel, would bring
home broken toys that you would repair or
re-engineer. It sounds like you had a knack for
reformation early on!
Mr. Wash: Re-formation! I never looked at it like
that, but yes, that could be a true perspective of
my past, present and future. For me, the glass is
always half full. Instead of focusing or worrying
about a problem, what’s wrong, or why it won’t
work, I tend to find solutions. As a child, I would
fix toys and put puzzles together. I was always
taught by my village community to look for the
bright side of things, that life deals you both good
and bad hands. It’s not the hand you are dealt that
determines your reward, but what you do with
your hand. So here you have two broken toys.
What do you do… throw them away, or use one to
fix the other? Oh, you got a toy car and you wanted
Left: Political Tears, Oil on stretched canvas, 18” x 24”, 2007 Right: Possibilities What Exposure Would Bring, If Just Given A Chance, Acrylic on canvas panel, 18” x 24”, 2015
a toy boat, what to do? Turn the car upside down
so it will float! Or make a car-boat. I remember
doing both.
Most artists I talk with will say they were
interested in art from childhood. Would you say
that, or did you have the time or opportunity for
that kind of early pursuit?
As a child, my learning and opportunity started at
home. I was given coloring books and puzzles and
taught to pay attention to diferences in things.
Should we call that kind of observance an interest
in art? I asked and wondered why butterflies had
dots, patterns and colors. Why bees’ and flies’ wings
were clear. As a child, I saw and understood the
symmetrical balance in things and people. I noticed
that the slight diference in that balance is what
identified one person from another. When I didn’t
have words to say what I meant, I would try and
 INFLUENCES

draw them. So yes, there was an interest in art, but

no practical desire to pursue art as a career. Public
schools provided ample experience for arts and
crats as hobbies, but no exposure to art as a career.

How did you arrive at the materials and

processes, even the style of painting that you
currently use?
Most of my art materials came to me by way of
bartering. Inmates would bring me envelopes and
paper, and I would supply my limited skills. The
materials let over, in most cases, were mine.
I actually got my first set of oil paints from an inmate
whom I called Ben Franklin. Ben said he used to
paint, but didn't like the hobby shop and preferred
to draw in graphite. My process of painting is one
of repair, and as you say, reformation. I critique my
art from a point of view of constructive criticism,
always remembering to improve upon what I have.
As for style, that is still evolving as I am exposed to
diferent subject matter.

You have a very strong sense of community,

of giving back. That must have come from your
family?
Yes, you are correct! Both my mom and dad
instilled sharing. It didn't stop at home, as
I watched them share with the communities where
we lived and associated. I can remember that every
house where we lived, my mom would open to the
public for voting polls, feeding and tending to the
elderly, as well as serving the community with
her talent for styling hair. As a family, we would
pick fruits and vegetables, go fishing and hunting,
and then pass part of the bounty to those who had
misfortune. In captivity or free, I am bound to live
by that same sense of sharing.

How are art classes actually given in prison? Is

it hard to find out about them? Do you have to
qualify by talent or behavior?
Each prison has its own standard or policy of
dealing with art materials and classes. Some have
no art classes at all and do not allow art to be
publicly displayed in or out of your cell. Others
allow art materials to be ordered from approved
vendors, or bought through the institution’s
commissary. As an example, federal pretrial
detention classes were limited to very small groups
of four or less, which happened to be seated at the
same table. At the US Penitentiary Leavenworth,
they allowed art and had a hobby room, but no
classes. Inmates would draw and paint in their
cells or in the common areas. Everyone learned by but I was blessed to slide in as another inmate Despite what you experienced, you seem to have
watching and practicing on their own, or again, in (Smiley from Compton) was being transferred to a reverence for our institutions. How did you
small groups. I got many lessons looking over the another institution. Once in, and learning at a very maintain that through all those years in prison?
shoulders of inmates like Ben Franklin, Leonard fast pace, I felt a sense of compassion for the ones Very good question. Despite where I was born and
Peltier, Ron Chandler, David Ussery, John, Buddy still waiting, and petitioned for a classroom. It was raised, my mom and dad taught me to respect and
and the whole Leavenworth crew. It takes from granted, and I was able to teach all that I knew. believe in our laws, taught me fairness, and that
months to years to get a seat in the hobby rooms, There was never any qualification. the truth would always prevail. I never committed

Above: Looking Into The Past Present and Future While Experiencing My Art Creations (Which Are Painted Inside My Head) Being JUXTAPOZ .COM 43
Destroyed In The Public and In Prison For Political and Racial Reasons (self-portrait), Oil on stretched canvas, 24” x 36”, 2009
INFLUENCES
the crime that I was charged, convicted, and
punished for, so I always believed that the system
worked and I would be released. I realized that
the people running the institutions were not the
institutions. It was not an institution problem;
it was a people problem.
Have you gotten involved in issues like prison
reform, or do you prefer that your activism to be
in the form of teaching?
No, I have never become involved in trying to reform
a prison, though I honestly believe that such reform
is definitely needed. I understand that crime is by
design, and every crime was written by man. My
ongoing eforts are for criminal justice reform. We
need to change the mindset of the people writing
the laws as policies that bring the citizens into the
system and release them into the public.
Do you give lessons primarily to young people?
What do you enjoy most about teaching?
No, my lessons are for all ages. I enjoy most
teaching a person what to look for and that
feeling, when a student gets it, when they see
color, shading or perspective.
How did you arrive at your signature
teardrop? For all the joy in your paintings of
44 SUMMER 2018
children, your adults appear to have borne a
lot of responsibility. How do you paint such
expressive eyes?
I arrived at my teardrop paintings one day while in
the FCI-Florence Colorado hobby shop. My painting
buddy Calvin Treiber, as usual, had his radio on a
country station, and a song by Tim McGraw titled
“Grown Men Don’t Cry” came on. In the solitude
of the words, and while painting, I envisioned
my children and wife let behind, vulnerable
and unprotected in my absence. For a moment,
I could actually see them in various struggles, and
I became overwhelmed with grief and began to
cry. I could not believe I was actually crying over a
song. People were being physically assaulted and
sometimes dying as I watched, and I had never
shed a tear. I was hiding behind my easel, tears
rolling down my face, struggling not to make a
sound and become exposed. Ater I was in control,
I shared my experience, only to find that there were
many inmates crying—alone—for various reasons.
I decided to paint the images that triggered the
emotions, and thus, the first teardrop painting,
even if rather crude, was created.
Many inmates allow me to look at them unfiltered.
In confidence, they tell me unfiltered stories about
their family. I paint their eyes and I paint the truth.
Above: The Final, Judicial Experience For A Federal Prisoner, Oil on stretched canvas, 38” x 22”, 2015
Your daughter Ahneishia is a talent in her own
right. Her empathy and impassioned use of
words are remarkable. How did you maintain a
close relationship while you were in prison?
While in captivity, I continued, as best I could, to
be a father from afar. I wrote letters, sent cards,
shared the progress that I made in learning and
encouraged her in her schooling. I tried to keep
my presence in her life and in our home with my
shared talent, especially art creations featuring
her. Still, there was a void that lasted for years.
She is bright and if she puts her mind to it, she
will do well.
What or whom would be your next dream
project?
My dream has always been, without any restraint,
ridicule or persecution, to land a commission to
paint the President and fix myself in American
History. I started painting Obama as President
and Michelle as First Lady back in 2007 during
the early stages of the campaign.
www.artbywash.com
Follow Mr. Wash on Instagram @mrwashtheartist
 .com
DakotaArtMuseum
.South
6–805–7590 × www
ta × 86
ings, South Dako
Brook
6 Medary Avenue,
103

3.

2.

1.

4.

5.
1. Graham Kirk 6.
Supergirl and Mount Taranaki,
2009, giclée print
2. Jenny Parks
The Catvengers, 2013,
digital print
3. Simon Monk
Tim Drake, 2012, print
4. Peter & Madeline Powell
Take a Superhero to Lunch,
2014, acrylic on canvas,
courtesy of Scott Richards Contemporary
Art, San Francisco, CA
5. Laurina Paperina
Be Proud, 2014, m/m on paper,
courtesy of Fouladi Projects, San
Francisco, CA
6. Jason Yarmosky
Playing Cards, 2015,
pencil on paper
7. Lizabeth Eva Rossof
Xi’an-American Batman Warrior,
2015, concrete
June 12 - October 2
7.

My Hero! Contemporary Art & Superhero Action was organized by Carrie Lederer,
Curator of Exhibitions, Bedford Gallery, Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, CA.
TRAVEL INSIDER
The Original Burning Man
Celebrating Fallas in Valencia with Okuda
Valencia, Spain is an exotic melange of
culture. A fusion of traditional and futuristic
architecture, and fervent appreciation of art and
science, it is the annual home to the time-honored
celebration of Fallas, held in commemoration
of Saint Joseph. The festival is a lively week of
art, where a quarter of the population comes
together under the umbrella of 750 organizations
to construct a Falla, a massive sculpture that can
exceed 60 feet in height. Once the sculpture is
built and displayed in its colorful vivacity, it is
dramatically set aflame in a spectacular display
for everyone’s viewing pleasure.
46 SUMMER 2018
Founded as a Roman colony in 138 BC and one of
the oldest cities in Spain, Valencia emblazes a rich
history. During the 15th century, Valencia thrived
in an era known as the “Golden Age,” when many
of its finest buildings were built. Today, the
constructions of the Fallas parade through streets
lined with architectural masterpieces, completing
the wonderment of the scene.
The era also engendered a keen interest in the arts,
literature and culture. As the city transformed,
it began to assimilate with other cultures as it
became a major influence. Inspired by a tradition
that took place during the Middle Ages, carpenters
would hang pieces of wood called parots to hold
the candles that illuminated workspaces during
the darker months of winter. As spring dawned
with light, the workers would burn the wood to
commemorate the conclusion of those long work
days, as well as honor Saint Joseph, the patron
saint of carpenters. This sparked the inspiration
for the ninots, or the large sculptures set aflame at
the Fallas. Embellishment and personal touches
added an artistic element to the celebration,
building on the innovation that is seen in the
structures today.
All photography: Zane Meyer Above: City Arts and Sciences Building
 TRAVEL INSIDER

Top right and left: Okuda’s sculpture in various stages of life Bottom right: Okuda Bottom left: Scenes from Fallas JUXTAPOZ .COM 47
TRAVEL INSIDER
Chaotic explosions that continue throughout the
day, and sporadically throughout the night greet
visitors arriving during Fallas. The streets are
filled with people of all ages throwing fireworks,
some dressed in traditional Spanish regalia,
paying homage to history. People gather at 2:00
pm daily for the Mascletá, a fiery barrage of
coordinated fireworks that vibrate and illuminate
the sky with color, their commotion creating an
exhilarating and contagious energy that flows
throughout the crowd. Many parents bring their
young children to experience the festival, and a
local mother, remembering her early experience,
explained how the event is loved and appreciated
by people of all ages.
For this year’s centerpiece Fallas sculpture, the
mayor of Valencia invited visual artist Okuda,
making him the first street artist to participate
in the celebration. Okuda, no stranger to massive
site-specific work, has created a skate park-inside-
a-cathedral, the Kaos Temple in Llanera Oviedo,
Spain, which has been a massively-shared project on
social media. I’ve filmed with Okuda in 15 diferent
locations around the world, and he has recently
began experimenting with public sculpture. When
I first laid eyes on his latest creation, I was awed by
its 80-feet of striking, vibrant colors.
48 SUMMER 2018
Anticipating the main event, the ignition of Okuda’s
Fallas, chants could be heard a mile away, and
I witnessed one of the most beautiful firework
shows that I've seen ever. When the firefighters lit
Okuda’s Fallas, everyone started cheering, watching
as flames whipped for at least five minutes before
crashing down. Screaming and dancing was
accompanied by an opera singer in full throat.
Though I was only in Valencia for four days,
it was so exciting to experience the Fallas and
see my friend Okuda create this monster of a
sculpture. What an interesting way to create art:
work all year on a sculpture and then celebrate
by burning it down. I had a few questions for
Okuda about his time in Valencia, his museum
exhibition that opened concurrently at the
Centre del Carme, and his sculpture.
Zane Meyer: How long did you work on your Fallas,
and how do you feel seeing something that you
worked on for so long being burnt and destroyed?
Okuda: Of course, it’s very strange and contains
opposite feelings because my team and I worked
on the sculpture for a year and it gets burned,
but it’s a tradition of more than a 100 years. The
material and the money is not as important as the
feelings, the passion and the hurt.
Here at your museum show at the Centre del
Carme, I notice your entire history is shown,
from your early graffiti days, to photography,
sewing collaborations with you mother, as well
as your newer work.
Many people know about the Fallas but don't
know my work. People that don't know my work
can see my history. The first room is special to
me because it shows my letters. It shows my
beginnings. You can see how all the rooms are
so diferent, but you can also see how they mix
together. I paint a lot of patterns I see on my
travels, and you can see in that in my art.
Your Fallas is very different from others in
the city. How did the public, perhaps more
familiar with a traditional look, respond to
your work?
It was a very special change to the Fallas history
and, of course, I like to open the minds of the
traditional people. Many older people came to
me and said, “It’s diferent, it’s a new language in
Fallas history, but we love it.”
okudart.es/showcase
Above: Okuda’s Installation view at the Centre del Carme, Valencia
LAGUNA
COLLEGE
OF ART +
DESIGN

Artwork: Shane McClatchey, Island (4), Oil on panel, 30” x 37”, 2018

THE NEXT WAVE:

NEW MASTERS OF FINE ART
JUNE 7–JUNE 26, 2018 | RECEPTION: JUNE 7TH, 6–9 PM

LCAD Gallery 805 is pleased to announce The Next Wave: New Masters of Fine Art,
an exhibition of artwork by students and alumni in LCAD’s MFA program in Painting.
805 Laguna Canyon Road
Exhibiting artists: Mitchell Aiken, Aaron Berg, Daniel Berg, Barbara Brown, Laguna Beach, CA 92651
Kaela Carson, Elizabeth Congdon, Isabel Emrich, Gavin Gardner, Brandon Gonzales,
Harrison Halaska, Bryan Heggie, Yiming Hong, Kate Landry, Shane McClatchey, LCAD GALLERY HOURS
Matthew McMullen, William Neukomm, Dan Nguyen, S. Jacqueline Nicolini, 11AM-4PM Wednesday through Sunday
Aixa Oliveras, Pegah Samaie, Suzanne Shifflett, Mark Silverberg, Kelly Smith-Fatten, Closed Monday and Tuesday
Ray Vargas, Pamela Wells, and Sam Woodfin. LCAD.EDU
IN SESSION

Sage Sisters
Alicia McCarthy and Ruby Neri at UC Berkeley Art Museum
For art kids who grew up in the Bay Area and inspiration for the Bay Area’s art community, and For the recent Art in the Streets exhibition, Neri
beyond, Ruby Neri and Alicia McCarthy are folk however provincial it may seem, we’ll show up, threw up some of her signature horses painted
heroes. San Francisco’s lauded Mission School era show out, and celebrate this scholarly, museum- under the name Reminisce, a surprising and
is expansive but characterized by a few golden level recognition. endearing throwback to her roots. I remember
individuals, including these two dynamic artists. scanning the streets for those horses as a kid,
This critical movement born in the late ’90s was Ruby’s figurative ceramics and Alicia’s abstract desperate for any visual subversion, delighted to
a magical, incomparable time, and its influence paintings share an aesthetically similar know a girl was out there with a spray can at night.
continues to thrive worldwide. approach, inherent in their decades-long visual
dialogue, which originated as students at the San McCarthy and Neri are everlasting oracles of Bay
Neri and McCarthy are trailblazers with an Francisco Art Institute. McCarthy has also taught Area art, and with their super-powers combined,
enviable friendship; mutual afection can be there, known for her ongoing support of young their enigmatic kinship will be visible for us all
seen in their artwork and their cute Instagram artists and artist-run spaces. Like a lifelong to share. —Kristin Farr
posts about each other. When you idolize local favorite band, both artists represent a legacy
stars for so long, you feel like you’ve grown up and an era of good memories. And they seem to Matrix 270 will be on view at UC Berkeley Art
with them. Their upcoming show at the Berkeley embrace the past and future, recognizing that Museum (BAM/PFA) through August 26, 2018
Art Museum (BAM/PFA), Matrix 270, is an everything is connected.

50 SUMMER 2018 Left: Alicia McCarthy, Untitled, 2018; color pencil and spray paint on paper; 20 x 20 in. University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; Gift of the artist
Right: Ruby Neri, Untitled (Large Pot with Green), 2017; ceramic with glaze; 57 x 38 x 38 in. Courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles. Photo: Lee Thompson
ON THE OUTSIDE
Know Hope
The Serenity of Addam Yekutieli
When I visited Addam Yekutieli’s studio in
Tel Aviv, he graciously welcomed me at the door,
walking gingerly, as he recovered from an urgent
hip replacement procedure that followed a knee
replacement procedure. His shattered and scarred
body was reminiscent of his characters, similarly
supported by crutches in a recurring motif he
has employed for years. Whether drawing his
recognizable, fragile figures or being a voice
for the marginalized, he immortalizes feelings
through diferent mediums, opening a window of
understanding. Additionally motivated by living
in one of the most complex and troubled parts of
the world, he continues to explore the ways his
message can transcend boundaries, evolving and
maturing rapidly and beautifully.
Sasha Bogojev: Can you remember the first piece
you created that you felt was art?
Addam Yekutieli: Hmm, not really. Actually, I'm
now sitting right next to a childhood drawing
from when I was three, but I'm pretty sure it's
not the first “art piece” I ever made. Both my
parents are artists, and back then, they had a
collaborative studio practice, so I grew up around
it, always playing with materials and being
exposed to art. My parents would let me and my
sister, who is also an artist, have little exhibitions
in the living room.
Even though I didn't think anything of it back
54 SUMMER 2018
then, maybe that was the beginning of some sort
of mentality. I started drawing more and more,
so when that connected with a process of finding
myself through skateboarding and punk rock, that
was the second wave, because I was finally exposed
to things that felt relevant and urgent to me.
You grew up in the US and moved to Israel at
some point, right?
We moved to Israel in 1995 when I was almost 10.
I grew up in Huntington Beach, which is a skate and
surf epicenter of sorts. I wasn't really part of that
culture in an active way then, but once I was, a year
or so later, it wasn't nearly as developed in Israel. I'm
sure you know what I mean, with you growing up in
Croatia. There were certain things you knew about
but you had no way of reaching. I think that created
a curious drive, in the sense of needing to search and
do research to gain access to what I’m interested in.
You started creating in the street back in the "old
days," so to speak. When was that?
That was around 2005. Creating work in public
spaces started out just by understanding that
it was possible, and then allowing my creative
process to be influenced as a result. Before,
I always created, but was also puzzled as to what
the level of interaction a pile of drawings on
my desk allowed. At that age, I never thought of
exhibiting or really sharing my work. When
I started doing work on the street, I was exiting a
long period of a depression of sorts. It was ater
I graduated high school and everyone was going
to the military. It's a strange transitional process
that happens in Israel at that age.
It was probably easier to label “street art” as one
thing back when you started.
I wouldn’t say that, as there was so much curiosity
and experimentation and, I'm not saying this
in a bitter way at all, but not many other people
were involved in its production. There were fewer
external forces involved acting as mediators for the
artists. For me, the most important part was that it
was independent, immediate and intuitive. I just
think it's morphed into something else that doesn’t
serve these three things for me. Most of the current
work in public space, at least what’s being created
by artists, only takes place under sanctioned
conditions. I don’t mean this in the sense of legal
or illegal, but more in the sense of an organic
interaction that I feel is missing. I don't think there
is a right or wrong way, each serves a diferent
purpose. During the period where I was making
work like this it felt didactic, as if the relationship
between the viewer and the artist was dictated.
Re-introducing spontaneity was a big part of
stepping away from my image-based work towards
text-based and being able to interact organically
and suggest the image, as opposed to illustrating it.
Do you remember what triggered this change?
There were two moments that created the big shit
in the way I perceived my work. Once, I was in a car,
in the middle of nowhere in China, and there was
a big field with an old rusty gate. My first reaction
was to stop the car in order to paint this gate. My
work has always dealt with the ephemeral and
the passing of time, so all that was evoked in me.
It seemed strange that I was intent on creating a
piece about the passing of time, or a representation
of the passing of time, which felt vain of me. I felt
that it was doing a good enough job in evoking all
these metaphors on its own. Observation became
a larger component in what I was hoping for my
art to allow. I think the combination between
the immediacy that I described before, and this
mentality of not wanting to impose, but become
a part of something larger, brought me to making
smaller pieces. This is when I developed a more
philosophical, or more conceptual approach to
using text in public space, such as Truth and Method
or Vicariously Speaking, which are more about
suggesting a situation while still respecting the
environment and people around you.
And what was the second?
It was a piece I did in 2012 next to a really dirty old
wall near an old studio. Passing by one day, I wrote,
"A dirty thing," on it. I let it like that for a week or
so, allowing people to create their associations,
connotations and speculation about the text. About
a week later, I went back and placed a white flag on
the ground next to it. By chance there happened
to be a bundle of tied branches on the side, so it
created an even more layered meaning because
of its similarity to the imagery I use in my other
work. What I wanted was for the viewer to make
their own connection and take an active part
in creating the image through these suggested
elements. I didn't want to create an installation that
says, "this represents my views on nationalism and
patriotism,” but more of a situation that feels like
an interesting, unintentional coincidence to the
Portrait by: Sasha Bogojev
 PROFILE

Top: The Gambia, 2011, Photo by Jonx Pillemer Bottom: Our Insides Showing, Tunisia JUXTAPOZ .COM 55
ON THE OUTSIDE
viewer. This formed my mentality towards all the
projects I've done pretty much since, driving me to
revisit my text-based works.
Do you think that living in Israel influenced the
decision to start creating more engaged work?
Definitely. To an extent, my work has always
dealt with political topics, and I oten focus on the
emotional compositions of these topics. At the time,
it was almost like an ideological decision to focus
on subtleties. I perceived that the two are not only
inseparable, but are almost the same, and this had
an immense afect on my approach. I think that
growing up in a place like Israel, politically, but also
religiously and socially, is a very intense reality.
There are certain things that you don’t realize are
very unnatural about the environment you live
in. I remember when I understood this—I was in
Norway in 2008 for Nuart festival in Stavanger,
and it was my first time in a Scandinavian country.
Everything was so pleasant, so serene and so
peaceful, so quiet, and for some reason, I felt uneasy,
but couldn’t understand why. I then realized it was
one of the first places I've been to with no readily
visible presence of a degree of conflict. That was
very unfamiliar, and created a deeper personal
understanding of the reality in the Middle East.
How does it feel for an empathetic, big-hearted
person to live in a region with so much tension
and injustice?
I think that my decision to live in Israel is very
56 SUMMER 2018
layered. While I have roots in Tel Aviv and most
of my friends and my family are in Israel, it is still
very complicated for me energetically. I feel that
we are witnessing this huge political shit, a critical
time, whether it be relating to the Occupation or
Israel’s internal afairs. All the history that this
region bears, combined with multiple historical
narratives, some shared and some not, has
created a weird mutant of sorts. I feel we need to
understand this, reflect, and react.
Many of the projects you do are very emotive,
honest and weighty, which must be draining.
How do you cope with carrying all that
information, emotion, and experience?
It’s something that really has an efect on me, and
I feel that that's good, especially now, having to
take time out from life due to two major orthopedic
surgeries that I recently underwent to address a
longtime arthritic autoimmune condition. It has
changed my perception of pain, both physically
and emotionally, allowing me to re-evaluate many
things. While on the mend, I've started drawing
again, and have been creating these big indexes of
numbered hand gestures, each with a paired text.
It's hard to explain, but the texts feel like thoughts
or principles that aren't necessarily mine, but
suggest narratives, and again, through diferent
people, abstracted or fictive renditions of things
I've experienced. I've noticed they've been a way
for me to process all my thoughts, a product of what
I’ve been going through physically and mentally.
Like with my beginnings, it is a way to exorcise it
all and get a sense of understanding and relief from
bottling up all these thoughts.
Is it possible that all these projects with other
people are cathartic, maybe like bungee jumping
when you're afraid of heights?
In that sense, it is therapeutic, and there are
profound things I learn from these exchanges.
Whether they inspire, whether they are diicult,
these are all things that I take with me, and
I know it's a privilege to be exposed to them.
Like my physical situation, it's been almost 10
years, to some degree, and I know that it made me
experience certain things that most people will
experience later in life, like how to ask for help
and be patient. This gave an introspection that
wouldn't be possible in any other way, and I am
more at peace with certain existential thoughts.
I feel like I am exposed to a lot of truths. I see a lot
of parallels between the process I’m going through
physically and the process of working with with
other people revolving around diicult subjects.
You need to breathe into the pain and give it a
chance to let down its protective guards. There is a
lot of overcoming revealed on behalf of the various
participants, and this, for me, is the balancing force
to the more diicult aspects of the process.
Addam Yekutieli (AKA Know Hope) has an upcoming
solo show with Stolenspace Gallery in Paris in
December, 2018.
Above: Taking Sides, Cologne, Germany, 2015
Collin van der Sluijs Joseph Renda Jr. Cranio

Chicago’s premier urban-contemporary art gallery

June 2 - 23: Collin van der Sluijs “No Concessions” Solo Show
July 7 - 28: Joseph Renda Jr. | CROP | Pizza in the Rain - “Counterparts” - Three of Chicago’s top emerging artists
August 4 - 25: Cranio - His debut USA Solo Show

1RGPKPITGEGRVKQPUCTGVJGƂTUVPKIJVQHGCEJGZJKDKVKQPRO

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773-697-3846 www.verticalgallery.com
BOOKS
Takashi Murakami:
Lineage of Eccentrics
Some of you might expect the whimsically
wily artist to spring from the pages of his new
book, Takashi Murakami: Lineage of Eccentrics,
catapulted by a pair of co-branded slip-on
Vans bedecked with his dog, Pom. In fact,
the cherry blossoms wreathing the handbags
of his Louis Vuitton partnership reflect what
fans and associates of the virtuoso already
appreciate, and that is his knowledge and
absorption of traditional Japanese art. In this
184-page collaboration with art historian
Nobuo Tsuji and the Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston, Murakami’s work is presented along
with centuries of Japanese masterpieces. When
Nobuo challenged Murakami to create new
works from historical themes, “I humbly received
the ‘Lineage of Eccentrics,’ digested it myself
and added something completely diferent.” The
approving professor responded,
“I realized Murakami’s genius, rare in an artist, in
which he is able to assimilate wide knowledge
from others and incorporate it into his works.”
Recognizing various movements, traditional and
contemporary museums, so-called insider and
outsider art, this book encompasses Murakami’s
concept of Superflat. The artist gets baptized in
history, refines it with his own chimerical vision,
and through his trained technique, helps us
look at classics in a new way. Whether topping
sneakers or gracing hallowed halls, Takashi
Murakami demonstrates how art—and books—
pulsate with life. —GV
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
mfashop.com
60 SUMMER 2018
WHAT WE’RE READING
Jen Mann:
Endless Quest For Myself (ie)
Look closely, and you can see the human touch.
Toronto’s Jen Mann makes work that appears so
much like an altered photograph, you’d have to
put nose to canvas to tell otherwise. Sometimes
the oil-on-canvas work is done all in deep blue
hues, or pinks, almost like an Instagram filter,
but with such hyperreal command, it can be like
looking at stills from a film. Endless Quest For
Myself (ie) is Mann’s newest monograph, over
200 pages of what she notes as, “poems, essays,
short stories, one liners, paintings, sketches
and photographs.” This arrangement fits the
cinematic quality, as well as the book’s scene-
oriented editing. Paintings are surrounded by
narration, little thoughts that relate to the works,
not so much directly, but in an ethereal way.
Mann’s ability to create almost photo-perfect
works are playful nods to technology and
language, with marks reminiscent of touch-
screen scribbles atop her most stunning works.
Even the cover, a vibrant work with a "plz <3 me"
feels as if a graiti artist had tagged the works
when Mann left the studio. And yet some of the
text-based works, like Not the One, appear to
be almost projections. In the end, Endless Quest
For Myself (ie) touches on these dichotomies,
the beautiful and the damaged, the elegant and
the playful. Two versions are available: A regular
release, and a limited edition of only 100 books
with a unique Mann-designed bookplate signed
by the artist. —EP
Jen Mann Art, Inc
jenmann.com
Identity:
Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv
The Standards Manual imprint (the independent
publisher founded by Jesse Reed and Hamish
Smyth) has done it again. After successful
re-issues of the 1975 NASA Graphics Standard
Manual, the 1970 NYC Transit Authority Graphic
Standards Manual, and the 1977 United States
Environmental Protection Agency Graphic
Standards System, the publisher continues to
explore the golden eras of American graphic
design with Identity: Chermayeff & Geismar &
Haviv. Keeping with the theme, this collection
showcases the iconic work of one of the great
New York graphic design firms, from case studies
to graphic standards creations, final logo work
and full campaign designs. Digging into the
book unearths the arc of the firm’s best work:
the Mobil logo, NYU torch, PanAM logos and
ad campaigns, PBS’s logo, Barneys New York’s
iconic shopping bags, or even the legendary
NBC peacock: this is all Chermayef & Geismar
& Haviv. Creating even one of these logos would
guarantee a spot in the graphic design Hall of
Fame! Through testimonials from current clients,
interviews with Tom Geismar and Sagi Haviv,
as well as text from Milton Glaser and others,
this collection not only gives the breadth of the
firm’s repute for design, but proves how much
they have influenced art and culture over the last
60 years. Over 300 pages, you get more than a
story of graphic design, you get a full history on
American identity. —EP
standardsmanual.com
JAMES STANFORD
#shimmeringzen
Photo by Lucky Wenzel
 Every Day They

Write the Book

Interview by Sasha Bogojev Portrait by Martha Cooper

68 SUMMER 2018 Above: The layup afternoon train, Spray paint and sequins on canvas, 64.05” x 80.” x 2.13”, 2017
Recognition and respect from the general If I remember correctly, Barry Mcgee was big would happen with the police. And we made
public for something to which you've dedicated part of your introduction to the US, right? people understand—okay, it’s Sunday, if you see
your life is probably one of the most satisfying Yeah, but before he came to Brazil, we did somebody spray graiti, that's normal. Of course,
feelings a person can experience, even sweeter everything by ourselves. The information that we had problems sometimes, but we did a lot of
when that recognition becomes global. When we had wasn't much, but we had some, like walls. So when Barry arrived for his nine-month
that happens in multiple fields, for diferent Beatstreet, the heavy Breakin' movie, Subway Art residency in São Paulo, together with Margaret
kinds of activities, and in this particular case, and Spraycan Art books. That was the knowledge Kilgallen, he had no idea what he would find.
forms of creative expression, we're dealing we had, and we were exchanging it with other Everything was already there, back in 1994.
with an extra special, almost extraterrestrial guys all the time, like SPETO, for example,
individual. Multiply that by two, and the who was very important for us. We grew up So how did you guys get in touch?
prodigious product is Otavio and Gustavo together, painted together in the city in the late When he saw one of our works in the street, he
Pandolfo, better known as OSGEMEOS. 1980s in the way that we thought was correct. looked and found us. Back then, we were living with
We would paint in the daytime, and started our mother and didn't speak English, but she did,
The twin brothers, from the Cambuci district painting on Sunday aternoons to see what so our mother would translate everything. He just
of São Paulo, are recognized among the most
respected graiti writers of all time, but are also
considered pioneering forefathers of street art
as we know it today. Artistically active for over
a quarter of a century, they now regularly show
their studio works at blue chip galleries and big
art fairs like Art Basel. On top of this, OSGEMEOS
have become household names in their native
Brazil and synonymous with old school hip hop
culture. Eight years since their work last graced
our cover, we finally got a chance to sit down with
the twins during the opening of their newest solo
show, Déjà Vu, at Lehmann Maupin in Hong Kong
and take an expansive look at their inspirational
artistic career.

Sasha Bogojev: For the younger generations and

those not knowing the story, could you tell us
a bit about how you got introduced to hip hop
culture and graffiti?
OSGEMEOS: So, we were born in Cambuci in
1974, in a very calm, Spanish and Italian family
neighborhood. We grew up in the 1970s and ’80s,
when everyone played in the streets. We would be
staying in the streets 24 hours a day, just playing,
playing, playing. At that time, there were no
dangers in the streets like today, so we would be
outside almost the whole day. And next door from
our house was the place where all the b-boys hung
out. While we were playing football or whatever,
we saw these guys dancing. In time, we started to
hang out with these guys. They were a bit older
than us, but we thought, "Oh, I wanna do that!
I wanna spin like this!" It was very natural
because it was what we had in our neighborhood.

How did the breakthrough outside Brazil

happen?
That was much much later. We've never imagined
that one day we would be here, talking to you. Never.
Because, before we were into hip hop, we already
had this world that you see in our work, even before
we were born. And when we were three or four
years old, we started to draw Everything we could
imagine, just drawing, drawing, drawing. So, once
we discovered hip hop, we started break dancing
and doing graiti, and later, rapping and DJing. But
we never forgot these drawings that we were always
doing. So it was very natural to use them with the
graiti and express ourselves like this.

Above: Stockholm Sweden, 2017 OS GEMEOS JUXTAPOZ .COM 69

showed up at our house. Imagine that! He is the best
guy, not only because of his talent, but because of his
character. He is one of the best friends we have.
How did that look, what did you guys do?
He showed us for the first time how to tag, how
to make throw-ups, stickers, markers. He showed
us a lot of graiti magazines and Style Wars for
the first time. We still had never seen it, ten years
ater it was filmed. We took him bombing, but
we were just learning from him, watching him
tag, watching his hand style. We spent nights and
nights just sitting and tagging together.
Is the friendship exclusively graffiti-focused or
did you ever considering creating studio work
together?
We did it a lot of times, but only for us, not for
galleries or anything. Because the relationship we
have with him is much more than painting. It's
70 SUMMER 2018
like we know each other maybe from another life,
it’s very spiritual. He became really close with our
mother, and we are like family.
What happened when he let ater nine months?
When he went back to States, he started talking
about our work with people in San Francisco like
the the Luggage Store Gallery, and Marsea Goldberg
from New Image Art in Los Angeles, and they were
the first galleries we worked with in California. And
later, with Jefrey Deitch in New York, too. When
Barry met Allen Benedikt from 12ozProphet, and
told him he was in Brazil, they met us, and blah,
blah, blah. So Allen decided to come and visit with
Caleb Neelon, who wrote SONIK. They came to
make an interview with us in 1997 and did a huge
feature in 12ozProphet, so that was how people all
over the world found out what was happening in
South America—Brazil, Chile, Argentina. There was
no internet or social media back then.
Above: White Carnival, Media player, USB drive, bluetooth, amplifier, and mixed media on wood with sound, 38 parts, dimensions variable, 104.5” x 104.75” x 11.5”, 2016
As a 1990’s skateboard kid, I oten get
sentimental about how things used to be. Do you
miss the "good old days" and how things were 20
years ago?
We miss it in a way, but also, in a way we don't. We
miss it, because even though we still live there, it
was really, really special, that time in the 1980s.
We never thought it was going to end. But we don't
have photos! We didn't take photos, we didn't film,
didn't have Instagram, nothing. You had to just live
the moment, and that was very special. We'd go to
b-boy's bench every Saturday, back in 1986-87, and
it was always a special moment. We'd wait the whole
week for that moment. Even these days, sometimes,
we’d go paint with our friends and not take any
photos, just do it for fun. It's about living the moment
and not worrying about posting this, posting that.
Tell us about 12ozProphet and how that all
started.
Yes, Loomit from Germany saw the article and just
wanted to come and paint with us in São Paulo,
together with Peter Michalski. They were the ones
that said, "You guys need to come here to Europe
and show us what you do!" They were the first ones
to take us somewhere like that. The nice thing was
that, at this time, we had the magazines from Barry.
Now we saw the work from Europe and realized,
"Wow! People are doing all this all over the world!"
And at the same time, we were doing our thing in
São Paulo, just inspired by all of it.
That is what is so amazing about graffiti, how
it gets modified and appropriated in diferent
parts of the world.
When we started going to Europe at the end of
1999 and saw how strong graiti was in Germany,
France and Holland, it was really powerful. But we
brought our style there, and for everyone, it was
something totally diferent than what they were
Top: OSGEMEOS painted a Boeing 737 for Team Brazil, FIFA World Cup, 2014 Bottom: Wholetrain in Bahia, Brazil, 2016
already doing. So when we arrived, we already
had our style, which was good. People could see
that this was diferent because of where it was
coming from.
Is that when you started showing at galleries?
Once we arrived in Europe, we did some shows
in Germany, Portugal, and Spain, and Giorgio
Dimitri from Italy contacted us to do something
in New York. He then contacted Jefrey Deitch,
because he knew that he worked with Barry and
that Barry already talked to him about us. They
organized the exhibition for the first time in New
York. Before that, we already had exhibitions at
New Image Art in LA and The Luggage Store in
San Francisco. We did the show with Jefrey in
2005, and that was one of the big moments.
How does it feel to be where you are today,
working and showing with galleries like
Lehmann Maupin in New York or Hong Kong,
especially when compared to painting graffiti?
People that do graiti do it for themselves; it's graiti
life and we respect it very much. But for us, it was
necessary to have a space to create our environment.
And our shows are not graiti. Graiti is outside, in
the streets, where nobody has to tell you how to do,
where to do. You just do it. Since we started working
with Lehmann Maupin, they understood how we
work and give us total freedom and support to do
what we like. They are very special, and the way
we collaborate is really good. It's like, "The space is
yours, guys, you can do whatever you want cause
we believe in you." It's good when the galleries
understand the artist and support them in a way
that they can do whatever they want. For our NY
show, we did big installations in every room, we had
QBert DJ at the opening, and we dedicated one room
to old school hip hop. We have felt lucky with all the
galleries we worked with over the years.
OS GEMEOS JUXTAPOZ .COM 71
72 SUMMER 2018 Above: Procession, Spray paint, cotton balls, and sequins on canvas, 63” x 79”, 2017
Top: Parallel Connection, Times Square “Midnight Moment”, August 1, 2015 - August 31, 2015 Bottom: Vancouver Bienale, 2014 OS GEMEOS JUXTAPOZ .COM 73
To me, you feel like the "good ghost of old skool
hip hop," like you're on a mission to keep the
old school hip hop and graffiti people together
through all the collaborations you've been doing
with the likes of Doze Green, Todd James, Martha
Cooper, and all. Do you feel the same way?
For us, something that is really special—we come
from Brazil. We're not from the US or Europe,
where there is a big graiti scene. We have
influences from the US and Europe, but also from
Brazil. So we mix everything. And throughout our
life, our career, we got respect from everybody,
from everywhere. We learned with all those
people how to deal with the scene, with the street,
but also, how to experience life in a crazy place
like São Paulo. I guess that can be compared to
New York in the 1970s, the Bronx or something.
To experience a place where you never know
what's going on, it's very violent, but at the same
time very happy. It made us very strong. That
made us respect both the old school and new
school, and especially respect where all that came
from. Like the two wall murals we did last year in
New York, it's a tribute for hip hop. We wanted to
pay respect and preserve it, and include all these
guys who were part of that history, those still
here and the ones who passed away.
Is there a favorite collaboration you've done so
far, or maybe even one that is your dream?
74 SUMMER 2018
Everything has been incredible. The project we
did with Slava Polunin in 2008 was really special,
and painting with artists like Aryz, Doze, Barry
and Todd James has been very important to us.
Even the people who are famous, like Banksy, they
are like our graiti crew. We oten paint together.
It's about experimenting and seeing what’s going
to be the result. Or the project with Pharrell and
JR—Pharrell is music, but has an old school hip hop
background, JR is a photographer, but has a graiti
background, and we are plastic and painting. So it
was interesting to see what will come when you put
music, photographs and painting together. Or like
the piece we did with Banksy in NYC, which we did
a long time before and without any expectations. We
were just hanging at his studio, painting diferent
things, and the piece that ended up underneath the
High Line was one of them. I think art is about that,
about the moment and the improvising.
What about a dream collaboration that you
would like to do at some point?
Well, we could just repeat all those collaborations
with all of those guys.
Speaking of dreams, how do you construct your
paintings? Is there a certain work process? Are
any of them inspired by your actual dreams?
They are inspired by everything. Sometimes
dreams, sometimes it's things we've seen, things
we like, things we don't like, messages that we
need to put up.
How did the yellow characters happen in the
first place?
Very natural. Yellow has been a very spiritual
color for us since we started drawing. When we
were drawing at our mother's house, the sun
would come through the windows and the studio
would become yellow. So we always found it
mystical, peaceful and harmonious.
What about all the UFO or alien imagery that
you include in your work? Where does all that
interest in the extraterrestrial come from?
Maybe we are aliens and we don't know it.
It's a fun thing for us, something we’ve had a
connection with since we were kids. We'd love to
get abducted one day and see it, like I see you now.
It's also because of some people we've met. There
are guys you meet and you go, "Man, this guy is
not from here!" Really genius or really out there,
just glowing. Those people are too good to be from
here. But one thing that we know is that we're not
alone in this universe. We like to get inspired by
mysteries, by the unknown.
But you're also inspired by your family and your
family roots in Lithuania. Why do you feel it’s
important to portray those?
Above: Collaboration with Aryz, Lodz, Poland, 2012
Our grandfather was from Lithuania, so we grew
up listening to him talk about life there. We never
had an idea that we would get on a plane and
go there. So when we first had a chance to go,
when our mother got invited to do a show there,
it was an opportunity for all of us to go and for
her to have a show and to see the country of our
grandfather. She was doing embroidery and was
invited by the biennial there to show her work. It
was very special. Later, we discovered family still
there ater all the wars and everything.
I noticed that some of your street work has been
very straightforward about corruption, poverty,
and ecological issues in your country.
Sometimes we use the street to just talk. And we
don't care what happens ater. We just feel like
doing it, expressing ourselves, and we don't wanna
get influenced by what people say or don't say
about it. When you do something in the street, it's
more for people who are there. We don't believe
any politicians here, or anywhere in the world.
And what about the buffing in Brazil? There was
big campaign about it few years ago, I remember.
We don't care. If they buf, we're gonna paint
again. They can try. People that really like to do
graiti will keep doing it. They try cleaning it, but
Left: The Man That Has The Golden Record, Spray paint and sequins on canvas, 63” x 79”, 2017 Right: The Fishing Man, Spray paint and sequins on canvas, 63” x 79”, 2017
São Paulo is diferent than other cities—people
like graiti. People like to see colorful walls. So
when they fight against writers, they fight against
a lot of people. People really enjoy driving around
the city and seeing colorful walls. And this has
been happening since the 1980s—painting in the
daytime, graiti everywhere.
As seen from your recent shows, including
Déjà Vu, one of your key influences is obviously
music. Did you have any music influences
within your family?
No and yes. We grew up listening to opera and
classical music with our grandfather, and our older
brother was always into rock 'n' roll. He is a musician,
but he never studied music, just playing for fun.
And what about the beats you're doing? There was
the installation in Hong Kong with the speakers.
Do you have any interest in music careers?
No, not really, because we just like to experiment.
Sometimes with electro funk, sometimes
disco, sometimes just house. Again, a lot of it is
improvising.
You also use musical objects, like speakers,
drums, but other things, too, like doors, to create
work. Is that a challenge?
Not really. It’s a challenge connecting all those
together, but we're not afraid to try. We don't have
boundaries like that. Sometimes we feel like we
need more than one life to express everything
we want to. Like when you do a huge wall like
the ones in New York. It's very diicult to make,
and in the end, you're like, "Fuck! This was a lot of
work!" But when you really want do something,
you don't think about diiculties.
I heard you work really fast, too. How did you
learn to do that?
Practice. More than 25 years of practice [laughs].
Ater all these years, you come across very
motivated and inspired. What drives you to
keep producing and creating so much?
I think it's because we're writing our book.
Everything you see is our book. What we illustrate
is our history. Every day is a new text that you
need to illustrate. Sometimes it's a drawing,
sometimes it’s sculpture, music, dancing,
painting… everything. So we have to keep going
as long as we live.
OSGEMEOS’s latest exhibition, Déjà Vu, was on view
at Lehmann Maupin in Hong Kong this past spring.
OS GEMEOS JUXTAPOZ .COM 75
 KOAK
Bodies in Muse and Motion
Interview by Jessica Ross Portrait by Maria Kanevskaya
I’ll be honest, the whole “artist and muse”
relationship is a little irksome. Wander the halls
of any museum and you find countless classical
portraits of women: women bathing, women
dancing, women reclining—all demure and
stylized, just as the artist intended. Created by
men, for men. It’s these idealized depictions of
female-ness that are antagonizing, making me
resentful of this historical weight. San Francisco-
based artist KOAK, with her MFA in comics,
liberates her women.
Working in a range of mediums, KOAK’s paintings
of women vibrate with hyper-presence, even in an
abstracted, amorphous state. Reclaiming agency
one brush stroke at a time, KOAK portrays women
through a more thoughtful, honest lens. In her
paintings, she fleshes out her ideas and feelings,
and with each twisting limb and irregular feature,
communicates raw vulnerability and engages her
78 SUMMER 2018
viewers in what it means to be human. Following
some killer shows and projects this last year, we sat
down for a frank conversation about the inherent
power play that exists between artist and subject,
the ever-present stigma associated with comics,
and the therapeutic nature of creating.
Jessica Ross: What are some of your earliest
memories creating? Do you have a defining
moment in your life when something clicked, or
was it a more gradual process?
KOAK: I was sick a lot as a kid and remember
staying home from school and drawing from
comics. The women of X-Men were my favorite,
especially Storm. Looking back, there was probably
a connection between the lack of power I felt at the
time and what these women symbolized.
When I was a teen, I started making zines that
I sold at Caffe Pergolesi, a coffee shop in Santa
Above: Midnight 2016, Graphite and casein on powder blue rag paper, 11” x 14”, 2017
Cruz that was a sort of safe haven for local
artists and musicians. It’s also where I had my
first exhibition. There was something about
the act of making work and then sharing it
with others that gave purpose to what I was
doing. I had always had an incredibly hard time
communicating with people, and suddenly I had
found this language where not only was I able
to express myself, but people could understand,
and, more importantly, they could connect.
As a young girl, I didn’t really feel like I had
any power over my life, so finding a voice that
empowered both myself and others was a sort of
magic in its own way.
True connection is so vital when you’re growing
up. Is there anything you want to say to your
teen self now that you’re a bit older and wiser?
I wouldn’t say anything to myself as a teen. I have
regrets, but that’s how we learn—navigating those
diiculties is part of what shapes us.
I always get a tinge of uneasiness when I see
your work. There’s a tension that seems to
linger, something about the figures’ awkward
physicality—beautiful but challenging. Was
this an intentional move on your part, or am
I just a weirdo?
I am always trying to create moments of tension
in my work, because without conflict, it would be
one-note. To me, it is extremely important that the
figures do not exist in a single state of emotion,
as I find that to be very rare in life. Most things
are not easily defined or boxed neatly into their
own distinct categories, so to make work without
tension would be to make something that I feel
would be very alienating and dishonest to life.
Sometimes I like to think of it as if we all contain
a host of necessary archetypes within ourselves.
Specialized roles, developed specifically for us,
that bubble up to the surface when necessary.
I think this sort of duality coming to light through
a single figure is in part what creates that form of
tension in my work.
But, luckily for you, you’re probably also partially
a weirdo.
Providing agency to female subjects is a driving
theme in your work. Since smashing the
patriarchy is not an overnight afair, why do you
think it’s important to shit the way women are
depicted in art?
I don’t know if I would say it’s as necessary to shit
the way women are depicted in art as much as it
is to shit the narratives that are being told. When
the overwhelming voice of stories comes from a
small pool of individuals, we are getting only a
very limited experience through art of what it is to
be human.
Historical portraiture of women has
overwhelmingly been framed by the male
Above: The Infinite Loop, Graphite and casein on rag paper, 11” x 15”, 2017 KOAK JUXTAPOZ .COM 79
80 SUMMER 2018 Above: The Chariot, Pastel, graphite, chalk, and casein on rag paper mounted to panel, 48” x 60”, 2017
conception of what it is to be female, the same
voice that for centuries has treated those muses as
property or lesser citizens. Providing agency to the
women in my work is important, not only because
it gives them purpose and a sense of life on the
page, but also because, without agency, I would not
be able to be a creator. There’s a kinship between
me and the women I’m drawing because I am not
an outside figure looking in at them.
Are there any other women or non-binary artists
who really inspire you at the moment?
I’ve been very lucky to meet and work with some
amazing women through the gallery that my
partner ran: Brook Hsu, Mattea Perrotta, Alexandra
Tarver, Mindy Rose Schwartz, to name a few. My
friend from college, Nicole Miller, just opened a
show at CAAM in LA that I’m excited to see.
What is it about creating work that you find
to be therapeutic? There’s definitely a lot
of raw emotion revealed in your drawings
and paintings. Is there a methodology or
approach you take when fleshing out your own
experiences?
Left: Lunch Break, Pastel, graphite, house paint, and casein on rag paper mounted to panel, 12” x 16”, 2017
Right: Blonde, Pigment, pastel, graphite, chalk, and casein on rag paper mounted on wood panel, 48” x 60”, 2016
"Some of my favorite comments
were from people who got really
mad about the work."
When I was younger, my work was very much
drawn from my own experiences, and that was an
act of therapy. In those early zines and exhibitions,
I was dealing with unpacking all the diiculties
of being a teenager. Some of my closest friends
were struggling with addiction and I felt helpless
in giving them support. I was also unraveling
the buried pain of having been abused by my
biological father, who had been in my life only as a
distant figure since I was two. Creating work that
grappled with things that felt insurmountably
painful, oten with a layer of comic humor, gave me
an outlet for this sort of pressure that otherwise
may have caused me to explode.
Since then, my work and interests have shited,
evolving into something more detached from
my own experiences. Recently, my focus is
on universal narratives and archetypes that
encapsulate the feminine—experiences heard
from friends or caught through the news. There
is still an act of therapy in creating the work,
I have to be very present and allow myself the
space to create the emotion needed to give over
to the page. The method, I think, is to feel and
tap into states of being, which can be very taxing
sometimes. Our culture has strict, unspoken rules
about when, where, and in what context emotions
are appropriate, but I would not be able to make
these things if I did not give myself the space to
feel them. It’s funny—I think I would be a terrible
actor. I have the worst stage fright, but I am very
good at sitting alone in a room and conjuring up
a flurry of emotions from my past.
KOAK JUXTAPOZ .COM 81
What do you listen to in the studio? Is it
podcasts or playlists for you?
Today, Victoria Spivey. Yesterday, Brian Eno.
Tomorrow, maybe Shilpa Ray.
Since you and your partner, Kevin Krueger,
opened the now-closed Alter Space in 2011, can
you describe what it was like starting a gallery?
And how might it have influenced your own
practice?
Rough. Running an art space properly, supporting
the artists you’re working with, takes everything
you have. At the time, I was not exhibiting or
sharing my work, so putting all of my energy
into doing things for other artists that I wasn’t
able to do for myself was diicult. But we went
into it always knowing that I would leave and
Kevin would take over. He’s the one with an
eye for finding brilliant people to work with
and curating great exhibitions. Watching him
work, from behind the scenes, has given me so
much appreciation for how galleries run and the
dedication that it takes to make them work.
It’s influenced me in that I’ve really gotten to
see all the ways that diferent types of artists
82 SUMMER 2018
approach their work and problem solving. It’s
made me hyper-aware of the ways I work, and
taught me that some of my ingrained habits are
useless. I’ve always been very interested in the
ways diferent brains work, so watching how
artists I admire think has been very influential.
You seem to utilize almost every medium
(pastel, charcoal, oil, etc.) At the moment, what’s
a favorite in your toolbox?
Tombow’s sanding eraser. It can cure anything.
I’ve asked this question before, but it’s worth
repeating. I’m sure, as a female artist, you get
a range of idiotic and downright misogynist
comments surrounding the provocative and
sexual nature of your work. What’s your
response to those people, or perhaps other
female artists working in similar subject matter?
Part of sharing your work publicly is
relinquishing its narrative. During my first
exhibition at Pergolesi, I built a comment box
and put it out with the invitation for people to
respond. Some of my favorite comments were
from people who got really mad about the work,
where it just got under their skin and they
couldn’t let it go. I don’t say that from a place
of cruelty—I didn’t make the work to distress
people. But it meant that they were thinking, that
there was something about the work that took
them, however momentarily, out of their comfort
zone, and in that way, it was a compliment.
I know this is a little diferent than dealing with
creeps and misogynists online, and I don’t mean
in any way to make light of some of the horrifying
things female artists have to deal with. But for
me, the best thing to do with people like that has
been to give them nothing, because honestly,
their opinion to me is nothing. Whatever anger
or frustration I feel from their interaction with
me, I put aside and save for the next time I want
to make a piece that needs that anger. Using
my voice to shout down some internet vortex is
pointless; using it to make work that talks to other
humans who have been through the same thing is
the reason I make work.
You’ve been in the Bay Area for quite some time
now, and the ubiquitous question is about how
the tech scene displaced the art scene in SF.
Instead, I’d rather know what cool new things
Above: Eden, Graphite and casein on rag paper, 55.5” x 39.25”, 2017
you have seen pop up in the last few years. What’s
happening creatively in the Bay right now?
There’s been so many wonderful artist-run spaces
that have opened up over the last few years,
ones that address the diiculties of running a
space in a city with such high overhead. Cloaca
Projects, which my friend Charlie Leese runs out
of a shipping container behind his studio, and
Nook Gallery, which is run by Lukaza Branfman-
Verissimo out of her kitchen, to name a few. Kevin
is also moving on from Alter Space to partner with
Et al., an amazing SF-based gallery that has two
spaces in the city.

Your drawings read as comics, in that you

can follow each line and arrive at diferent
narratives. It’s very approachable and
understandable for the viewer. Obviously your
MFA in comics, I’m sure, has something to do
with it. Why do you love comics so much? What
about them just pulls you in?
I’ve always been drawn to the underdog, or the
thing that has the grit of being an outsider. There
are certain constructs in society that are just so
perplexingly “of” that they pull me in, like a math
equation of social norms that doesn’t fit. The U.S.,
with its strange relationship to comics, is one of
these. Here’s an art form that combines visual
art and literature—two of the highest forms of
art—and yet somehow, through that combination,
it becomes less. This conundrum is fascinating to
me, and even as comics are now becoming more of
a staple, part of my love for them will always
be their ugly duckling status.

There’s also the added pull that, at its heart,

comics are the act of telling stories through
a visual language, and storytelling is one of
the most powerful tools we have to connect to
others. They are entirely about how we convey
narrative and emotion through the use of static
lines, shapes, and tones—and their meaning shits
depending on those visual elements. Comics are
a fascinating puzzle about the use of space and
static imagery to create language.

What are some of your all-time favorite comics

or graphic novels?
Bottomless Bellybutton and BodyWorld by Dash
Shaw. Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life
by Ulli Lust.

You’ve said in the past that you’re not

necessarily flattered by being compared to
Picasso. Can you elaborate on that a bit?
Yes, I think Picasso’s work is great, but I don’t
believe that something in the realm of figurative
abstraction should be necessarily lumped under
his totem. There are too many brilliant artists
that were just as talented, had just as significant
voices. To look at figurative work that plays with
abstraction and just see Picasso is a simplification
of the world and a disregard of nuance. It also
generally tends to come from men, and from men
that only look at the surface of things, who are
focused on style over substance.
To some extent, the term salt in the wound comes to
mind. Here’s a man who told his lover that women
were either “goddesses or doormats,” who referred
to us as “machines for sufering.” I’ve read so
many articles where his friends or family recount
his obsession with submissive women, and this
ability to take the life from those around him in
order to feed his work. That’s the opposite of what
I am trying to do. When I work, it is my intention
to make something that sparks the feeling of life
in the viewer, to empower women, not to capture
and suppress them for my own gain. To give back
something that maybe this world has taken away.
koak.net

Above: Creep, Graphite, pastel, and casein on natural rag paper, 23” x 39”, 2017 KOAK JUXTAPOZ .COM 83
 Lamar
Peterson
A Self-Portrait
Interview by Evan Pricco Portrait by Rik Sferra
86 SUMMER 2018 Above: The Conversation, Oil on canvas, 72” x 77”, 2016
What refreshing innocence when an artist
reveals that one of their first influences in art
was Bob Ross. Nothing pretentious, this isn’t like
declaring that the first album you bought was
John Coltrane’s Ascension. This is a memory
shared by myself and Florida-born, Minneapolis-
based painter, Lamar Peterson. Whether through
Bob Ross, comic books or growing up in suburbia,
the man behind such elegant and, at times,
biting social-commentary paintings, has found
a way to channel an almost pop beginning into
series ater series of figurative and experimental
representations of Black America. The paintings
can be funny, bleak, enchanting, folkloric, historic
and darkly idyllic. Now an Assistant Professor
of Drawing and Painting at the University of
Minnesota Department of Art, Peterson’s recent
solo shows at Fredericks & Freiser in NYC,
including the recent A Self-Portrait in 2017, are
some of his most colorful, unconventional and
significant to date. I talked with Lamar Peterson
this spring to discuss my favorites amongst his
paintings, how teaching helps expand his output,
and the colors that move him.
Above: A Young Man with a Fish, Oil on canvas, 82.25” x 57”, 2016
Evan Pricco: I want to start this interview talking
about two paintings: First, The Conversation.
There is so much going on, the diferent styles,
textures and ideas. Can you walk me through it?
Lamar Peterson: I’ve been thinking of a shit in style
in recent works, and my other work was mostly
concerned with drawing, and the painting was
secondary. Flatness and color was an important
aspect to the previous work. Now I’m working in
oil paint and attracted to the visceral quality of the
medium and the ability to create action through a
brushstroke. So, I think I’m combining the old and
the new in the latest work, combining my love of
flatness and interest in gesture.
As for the subject matter, it evolved out of a
thumbnail sketch I made of an old couple sitting
in a pastoral landscape. I wanted to make this
ambiguous image of a couple enjoying their land
and home, but also engaged in a conversation
that appears serious and even intense. There is
a flower vase in mid-topple that is outlined in a
bold black line to define the object, almost as if it
were a children’s sticker on top of the scene. I like
the tension surrounding the woman in time, just
before something is about to break.
And the second painting I want to talk about is
A Young Man with a Fish, which, when I saw it
in person at Fredericks & Freiser, just floored
me. The colors were so vibrant, and the shadow
from the tree had this surreal quality. Again, it
enveloped so many styles: comics, surrealism,
portraiture. Can you talk about this one?
To be honest with you, I had been working on
several pieces that reflected the fear, anger,
hopelessness, and rage that was going on in
communities of color who were dealing with
police brutality, police acquittals, and the callous
indiference by politicians to these matters.
It would be an inaccurate title for my show (A Self-
Portrait) to not include such images as an African-
American man who feels these threats and dark
forces regularly. I did a series of depictions of
“Young Man with a Fish” almost as an antidote
to those harsher realities. The calm repose, the
dappled light, the sense of safety—I needed this
contrast to balance the horrors elsewhere in the
news and city streets. Like the toppling vase,
the bite mark in the fish indicates the lurking
presence of violence, however subtle, even in
this gentle scene.
L AMAR PETERSON JUXTAPOZ .COM 87
I think I bring these questions up because that
last show in 2017, A Self-Portrait, combined
a lot of styles and elements of paintings,
from these to some quite abstract works like
Twofold and Daylight. I liked that you were
going so far into all these styles, but in the
same room, and it told a good story. Were
any of those works a new style for you? And
does that indicate exploration in a particular
direction now?
Drawing is an important part of my process.
I draw what I feel like drawing, without being
concerned with style. Just as my accumulations
of drawings are oten dramatically diferent from
one another, I’ve been experimenting with trying
diferent styles in my paintings as well.
Have you ever worked in a medium that wasn't
painting for any length of time?
88 SUMMER 2018
Early on in my career, I made several sculptures
to accompany the paintings and works on paper.
I’ve been thinking a lot about sculpture lately and
have some projects in the works.
This is the first time we have had a chance to
talk, but you are the perfect artist to discuss
contemporary painting with. From RISD, to
Deitch Projects, to Richard Heller and now six
shows at Fredericks & Freiser, you have sort of
navigated various places in twenty-first century
figurative painting. I'm curious what you think
of the revival over the last ten years or so, or if
you even think of it as a revival?
Painting has always been there, and young
artists always pick up the brush. So, no, I do
not really think of painting as being revived.
Collectors and curators decide what is
important at any given moment, but there has
always been painting. Currently, figurative
painting is hot again, and I am excited to see
so many artists of color creating figurative
paintings and finding success.
Self-Portrait seemed like a deeply personal
series, and there did feel like a bit of uncertainty
going on. The portraits of bees stinging the
young black men stand out, especially with
the flower vases surrounding the works. It’s
this weird balance of quiet and serenity with
something sinister. Am I of?
I have never specifically set out to make racial
statements with my previous works, yet my
figures have always been unapologetically black.
People would oten read into my earlier works
some commentary they thought I was making.
A Self-Portrait, on the other hand, was delivering
a message. Your word, “uncertainty,” is well-
chosen. The impending sense of loss or harm,
whether by bullets or bee stings, permeates the
images of this collection, just as it does in our
socio-political environment.
You mentioned earlier, regarding The
Conversation, that there is tension in each
work. And that got me thinking, it’s almost
like you paint from a child's perspective,
watching the tension happen and trying to
decipher it; like the child sees the uncertainty,
but also possesses the innocence to try and
explain it. There's a darkness and a lightness.
I wonder if you get these dichotomies from
comic books?
I like the current work I make to be ambiguous
without a strong narrative. I want there to
be questions that invite the viewer to stay
longer, speculate meanings and create their
own answers.The dichotomies you address
do not come from comic books, but often
from films, especially films that were geared
toward children, yet also had some frightening
elements. I was a huge fan of Jim Henson as a
kid and even wanted to work for him. Movies
from the 1970s and ’80s like The Dark Crystal,
Labyrinth, and Watership Down were beautiful,
yet disturbing, and the emotional pull of them
is remarkable. It’s the same kind of effect you
find in copies of old children’s books. Folklore
and fables were darker and unsanitized in
their cautionary tales. I still pore through thrift
stores in search of these musty old copies.
You talked about feeling more at ease now as
a painter, and some of that must come from
teaching, and some from having a bigger space
to create for yourself. Has there been, at any
point in your career, an added pressure from
being a successful contemporary painter who is
also African-American, in terms of young people
looking up to you? Or is that something you
don't think about?
Above: Blue Asparagus, Acrylic and stickers on paper, 29.5” x 36”, 2010
Above: Tilt, Oil on canvas, 55” x 80”, 2016 L AMAR PETERSON JUXTAPOZ .COM 89
I do consider myself as a possible influence for
young painters of color. And I think that is a
common ideal for all artists, to be a source of
influence to the younger artist, but I do not feel
any particular pressure to be some influential
painter. I think my ease as a painter has to
do with my ability to remain playful and to
make work for myself without worrying about
whether a collector is going to buy it. If I am
true to myself and my work, eventually people
will get it, and the market and collectors will
follow. I guess, for me, the goal is to make the
work I feel I need to make and let the chips
fall where they may. And hopefully, younger
90 SUMMER 2018
artists, especially artists of color, will come to
appreciate the path I took.
I always find this a hard question to ask, but
what sort of painter do you see yourself as?
I wouldn't necessarily say political painter,
but I could be wrong.
I don’t think I’m a political painter, but we live
in a time where most things are now politicized.
People may read political statements into my
work, but that is not my intent. That said, my
own journey of making sense of our current
political realities is bound to show up in some
of my work.
What color moves you? Because you use color in
a way that I feel is completely original.
I’m a fan of comics and children’s book
illustrations from the 1960s and ’70s. I remember
my early experiences with these books as being
explosions of color. In Florida, where I grew up,
everything is bright and colorful: the green grass,
blue skies, full saturation. These early impressions
directly influence my paintings. All color moves
me, but I do feel I have a “signature” shade of blue,
green and brown.
What were your favorite comic books as a kid?
Spawn was a favorite comic as a kid in the
Above: Bliss, Oil on canvas, 70” x 65”, 2013
1990s. I loved Todd McFarlane’s anti-superhero
who happens to be black. The artwork,
storyline, and the fact that the protagonist was
African-American was a big influence on me.
Although I do not buy comics anymore, as a
kid, I collected the Spawn comics, as well as the
corresponding action figures, which are like
small works of art.

So you don’t follow comic book culture now?

No. I should get back into it.

I can't tell if the work is, at times, inherently

humorous, or if the brightness and sunniness
you put into the work is what makes me laugh
a bit. Because I see something like, Satin Sheets,
and I feel like it isn't actually funny anymore.
Or even Young Man With A Fish, as well... but
then I think of the Milk and Cookies series at
Deitch around 2004, and I laugh again. Is a little
chuckle okay?
I use humor or universal icons of giddiness
(smiley faces, comical expressions, etc.) as
superficial means of drawing the viewer in by
the seeming playfulness of it all. Ater spending
some time with the piece, it is not uncommon for
someone to walk away feeling some dissonance
with the more tragic elements of the pieces. We
were trained as kids to laugh at the colorful
cartoons of coyotes falling of clifs.

What are your foundations in art? What moved

you as a kid? What was life in Western Florida
like?
I had limited exposure to contemporary art as
a kid in Florida. I was a fan of Bob Ross’s Joy of
Painting show on PBS. I used my dad’s old oils to
paint along with Bob Ross on his show. I liked
the fact that Ross was making these utopian
worlds composed of carefully chosen, beautiful,
though fictitious, landscapes. I was “the art kid”
in school. School was diicult for me, but art was
what helped me make my mark as a child. It was
Eastern Florida where I grew up, first on military
bases, then suburbia. The suburban Florida
landscapes are a common backdrop to many of
my paintings.

I hadn't thought about those suburban

backdrops in your work, but that is a really
interesting point. If you were born in a city,
like NYC or LA, those lush backdrops and
dichotomies would be so diferent. It's like the
Florida backdrop allowed you to find a very
unique way of layering meaning.
It wasn’t so much the Florida landscape as its
colors. I compared the colors of real life in Florida Does teaching provide more opportunities to ideas related to painting has revived my work in
to the simple scenes of idyllic landscapes presented explore new styles in your own work? ways that I am still processing. I feel more at ease
in children’s books, oten with the same saturated, Having a steady income from teaching has at this stage of my life as an artist, and I hope that
bold palette. allowed me to play more and experiment with my is reflected in my work.
work. The paintings have become much larger,
As a professor in Drawing and Painting at which is a direct result of my having the physical fredericksfreisergallery.com
the University of Minnesota, teaching ability space to make my work. Also, being around young
becomes this important trait that you possess. artists and discussing contemporary issues and

Above: Satin Sheets, Oil on canvas, 57” x 85”, 2014 L AMAR PETERSON JUXTAPOZ .COM 91
 Carpe
Diem,
Kid
Oli Epp
Interview by Kristin Farr
Portrait by Ian Cox

92 SUMMER 2018
94 SUMMER 2018 Above: Carpe Diem, Oil, acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 51” x 67”, 2017
In the movie of your life, Oli Epp paints the
extras, most notably, himself. This London
artist took the gold in figurative freshness
this year, with unique portraits and moments
cropped and oddly abstracted, much like
random memories—they’re vaporous. On the
topic of being half in and half out, the duality
of digital and real life is another facet of the
artist’s exploration, digging into our values,
subtly exposing our motives and anxieties.
His art shines a light on the significance of
a new generation’s everyman, elevating the
mundanity of daily existence, often with a wry
wink, a wise nod, and a sun-tanned bod.

Kristin Farr: Tell me about these beings you

paint. Are they people? Do they have souls?
Oli Epp: They’re everyone and no one. They’re a
mirror of our consumer selves. Featureless, two-
dimensional, oten superficial; they’re attracted
to the things which are artificial in our world,
material things. But they are born from how we
experience identity online; oten anonymous
and changeable.

They’re defined by their choices. Most of the

intimate portraits of these characters are within
arms reach of a selfie stick. They might not have
expressions but they have aspirations and desires.
In my world, the Guinness Book of World Records
is the Bible. I find humour in the pathos of these
characters trying to reach beyond their two-
dimensional limits.

They appear self-conscious but they don’t have

a self to be conscious about—in this way my
paintings selfie the selfie—they reflect on our
desire to externally stage our inner lives through
the misdirections of the screen.

I love the reference in Buttercup, since
I remember doing that buttercup test as a kid.
Do you naturally tap into nostalgia, or is it more
calculated or symbolic?
I think about my childhood a lot when I’m
drawing. Childhood is a universal experience,
which evokes nostalgia in all of us. Cartoons
activate this as well, and I like to draw upon that.
I feel like the cartoon is a powerful tool through
which to talk about subjects that we might find
diicult: social divisions, sex, vanity, etc.
What are some examples of real life, everyday
moments that inspired specific parts of
paintings?
A lot of my work is derived from personal
experiences; things I have either witnessed or
taken part in. Ultra Vain and Atersun are sunbed
paintings. Last November, I had the holiday
blues, so I decided to get an unlimited monthly
package at the tanning shop, because I like to
make the most of an ofer. I went religiously
every day, and I was unseasonably tanned for the
winter season.
From the surprise of a static shock, the
humiliation of hiding a hickey, that desperate
attempt to be better, to that feeling of anger when
someone reclines their seat in front of you on an
economy flight, there’s inspiration everywhere.
Is the hickey on the figure in Carpe Diem from
personal experience?
Yes, I have had a hickey before, but my paintings
are a mixture of firsthand experience and
observations. However, that painting was a
response to the 24-hour McDonald’s drive-thru
I just moved next to. From my window, I can see
cars orbiting the place into the early hours of the
morning. In my work, I’m interested in this fast
consumer culture. I render realistic objects on the
surface of my paintings, ready for consumption
and enjoyment.
Is there part of the process where you stare at
the piece forever and contemplate whether it
needs an earring or a hickey?
I deliberate at length over the smallest of
decisions. I’m constantly thinking about
composition. Clarity is important to my work.
However, I’m beginning to enjoy confusing the
viewer with my imagery; on the one hand, I want
to make a clear dynamic and impactful image,
but on the other hand, I want something which
reveals itself slowly, with greater complexity, to
come through. I like it when my works have a
slower discovery time.
What are the most formalistic things you
consider when painting?
Principally, I think about flat bold planes of
colour, clean sharp edges, punctuations of detail
and moments of realism either floating on or
embedded in the surface.
The realism moments are startling, especially in
Bag for Life. What made you start combining the
abstracted and graphic with your realism skills?
I aspired to make very illusionistic portraits at
art school, which were always heavily criticized.
I guess I realised that I was simply borrowing
the style of other artists and that meant I wasn’t
putting my own voice into my work. Since then,

Above: Buttercup, Oil, acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 34” x 38”, 2017 OLI EPP JUXTAPOZ .COM 95
96 SUMMER 2018 Above: Orion’s Belt, Oil, acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 51” x 59”, 2017
I have been developing my own language by
combining a vocabulary of diferent techniques
and ideas, borrowing from the likes of Patrick
Caulfield, Philip Guston and George Condo; I’m
especially interested in what Condo has to say
about “Artificial Realism.”

The act of reducing something to the simplest

form possible that still communicates a full
object or situation is fascinating, and that
mastery seems to come naturally to you.
Well, I’m constantly looking at the grandaddies
of Minimalism, like the greats, Ellsworth Kelly
and Josef Albers. They’ve done most of the hard
work work for us, in terms of understanding
color relationships and compositional
structures. I’m constantly borrowing my
favorite elements of their work. In addition to
that, I understand something about cartoon
language, which allows me to distill situations
down to their simplest form.

What kind of emotions do you tap into most oten?

I like it when people smile at my paintings. Wayne
Thiebaud once said, “artists are in the leisure
industry,” and I agree with that. Most of my work
has a bright, pop aesthetic, but under the surface
of the paintings oten lies a more tragic and
sobering narrative.

Are the cigarettes symbolic? Do you smoke?

Yes, I smoke, and like many people, I wish I didn’t.
For me, cigarettes are a symbol of addiction,
objects which humans surrender to.

Art and smoking go hand-in-hand. Speaking

of addiction, social media’s been part of your
art networking system, and you grew up with
it. What do you think is next? Will there be an
enlightenment where everyone gets sick of the
algorithm and throws their phone in a river?
I read this meme the other day, “Imagine they
delete Instagram, and BOOM!!! You’re not an artist
anymore.” It scared me but it also made me laugh—it
was so spot on. I’ve managed to develop a following
for my paintings online, and because of it, my
work is able to reach tens of thousand of unique
accounts each and every week. Even if Instagram
does disappear, I have made great ties with artists,
gallerists, curators and collectors all around the
globe. I feel it has given me a great head start.

Your sketches are digital and your paintings

are oil, acrylic and aerosol, so you’re a bridge
across art histories. Drawing from photos
is a way to immortalize them, but how do
you describe the transformation of making
paintings from digital sketches?
A digital drawing is intangible, yet my work
is about materialism and consumerism.
I like these tensions. Through paint, I’m giving
material form to these ephemeral images and
encounters. I’m a millennial artist who grew up
with computers and lousy Nokia mobiles. I oten

Top: Pride, Acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 47” x 47”, 2017 Bottom: Bag for Life, Oil, acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 31.5” x 35.5”, 2018 OLI EPP JUXTAPOZ .COM 97
enjoyed using programs like Microsot Paint as a
child. And I’m still interested in that distinctive
’90s digital moment, where everything was a bit
cryptic and clumsy.
And how do you define post-digital?
I once called my work post-digital pop.
I understand post-digital, not as “ater” digital,
but as how we think about ourselves in the
context of the digital age, or even directly through
it—our relationship with ourselves and others
through screens. So, if our lives are an economy
of real and digital spaces, I use pop as a medium
to move between them because of the way that
advertising, etc. bleeds between the realms.
Which has been your most popular painting and
why do you think it’s a hit?
Carpe Diem was the painting which traveled the
furthest, in terms of shares online. I think that’s
because McDonald’s is recognizable to so many
people around the world. In my work, I’m interested
in painting people who have been underrepresented
in art history; these anonymous characters who play
small parts in our lives but who go by unnoticed.
98 SUMMER 2018
"My characters blur
into one homogenous,
faceless consumer."
You’ve mentioned that you create optical
confusion related to the blurry line between
digital and real life. How much do you consider
our dystopian present and future? Your
paintings seem really positive despite hinting at
Capitalistic perils.
I do posit a kind of dystopian outlook if you
think about the way that my characters blur
into one homogenous, faceless consumer. I
consciously think about the direction we are
heading, but in truth, my view is not at all
negative. I wholeheartedly embrace a consumer
lifestyle but I actively engage with it partly in
life, partly through my paintings; my life and
my work are a cycle in that respect. I’m always
drawing inspiration from the things I do whilst
participating in some of the more ridiculous
rituals, such as artificial mid-November tanning
in London. I’m always reflecting on what I’m
doing and why I’m doing it. I don’t, therefore,
think of myself as a passive consumer. I think
constructing the self is a constant battle, and
that’s what we’re all striving to do, but I celebrate
our futile and brave attempts to pull it of.
Tell me about your Pride painting.
It’s about shame at pride.
Above: Oli Epp in studio, London, England, 2018
Shame and pride are opposites.
Yeah, it is an antonym. The painting is about gay
shame at Pride: the personal distress caused by
the consciousness of being “wrong” or diferent.
The character in the painting found the courage
to show up to the march, doing his best to support
the cause, waving the rainbow flag and holding a
sparkler, however he’s wearing a balaclava, hiding
his identity.

The painting deals with these contrasting actions

of wanting to show up to the parade, but not
wanting to be recognized or outed. A lot of my
work deals with these ironies, conflicting and
co-habiting experiences. Not every emotion is
black or white.

True. So, what’s the last thing you took a

screenshot of?
Ha, I just checked. It was a spandex suit designed
to look like a blow-up sex doll.

“Add to cart?” What other kinds of things do you

collect?
I’m a big collector of things—little trinkets and
oddities. I’m a regular car boot sale goer… but
this last year, I have put 10% of my sales back into
buying new art. I own small artworks by Misaki
Kawai, Otto Ford, Jane Hayes Greenwood and
Ryan Christian Travis. I’m excited to eventually
frame them.

How’s life and art been going since you finished

school last summer?
It’s been amazing. I feel so lucky to have just
graduated and to able to paint full time. I have
my collectors to thank for that. I hit the ground
running ater selling out my Degree Show at
City & Guilds of London Art School. Since then,
I’ve been approached by a number of galleries
internationally. I’m currently preparing for my
first solo show at Semiose Galerie in Paris.

Tell me about it.
“The show is called Epiphanies. I’m using the
term in its informal use—“a moment of sudden
and great revelation or realization”—rather
than the religious event. That said, however,
it is a play on the manifestation of Christ (God
incarnate). The bodies in my paintings hover
between the real and not real, and they are
adorned with material items, loosely recalling
the gits of The Three Wise Men. The comedy
is in the use of a grandiose word to describe
mundane observations, but in transforming
those observations into paintings, I am raising
their importance beyond the trivial.
Who’s your most famous collector so far,
especially now that GQ has named you early
blue chip?
They’re all special, and yes, I have some very
exciting collectors on my waiting list, but for me,
it’s not about that. The greatest honor is when a
fellow artist wants to buy a painting, someone
who has to break their piggy bank and save up
for a few months to aford a work. For me, artists
trump even the biggest collectors.
Which of your paintings are most revealing
about your true self?
It has to be Multi Multitasking, a three-meter
self-portrait I made, adorned with signifiers
which are distinctly me. The chewed pencil
behind my ear indicates anxiety and nerves,
a Nike Cap to hide my receding hairline, a hairy
mole, ater Oliver Cromwell, who said, “paint me
with my warts and all,” bubblegum, because
I love artificial flavours, and tangled headphones
because I’m a mess. I called this piece Multi
Multitasking because of the joke that I’m not
really doing anything in the painting, apart from
getting lost in my own head, blowing gum and
listening to Spotify.
Listening to what?
“True” by Spandau Ballet.
What’s your favorite accessory?
It’s a ring I made when I was 18. People oten
mistake it for a class ring, but it’s actually a
repurposed twenty-pence coin. I never take it of.
Describe the painting you’re currently working
on.
It’s a drunk kebab shop painting called You Spin
Me Right Round.
What’s your cocktail of choice?
Long Island Iced Tea—no class, no shame.
See Oli Epp everywhere in 2018. His show at Semiose
Galerie, in Paris through June 9, 2018, sold out before
it opened.
Oliepp.com

Above: Multi Multitasking, Oil, acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 98.5” x 118”, 2017 OLI EPP JUXTAPOZ .COM 99
PROFILE
Whether it’s family, friends, teachers, or
strangers on the Internet, encouragement is oten
essential to providing an artist that confidence they
need to continue pursuing their crat. We spent
the last month traveling around the country with
Vans Vision Walks, a series of photo walks led by
photographers in their home cities. In Chicago, Alina
Tsvor led a group through the streets of Pilsen, the
neighborhood where she lives, sharing tips and
tricks; and more importantly, providing a space for
participants to inspire and encourage each other.
Juxtapoz: When did you first become interested
in photography?
Alina Tsvor: I first picked up a camera in a high
school yearbook class. At the time, I really didn't
know anything about photography, but with
100 SUMMER 2018
Alina Tsvor
Seeing Other People
MySpace and all these social media platforms,
I just kind of put it out there. And people would
tell me, "Oh, wow, this is really good," and
I thought, "Oh, okay, maybe I should keep doing
this." It was then that I decided to go to Chicago
and study photography at Columbia College.
I wouldn't say I had much experience before that.
It wasn’t really until I got thrown into it that
I realized that it was really happening.
How important was that encouragement from
others? Was it the combination of that and the
enjoyment of shooting?
I definitely enjoyed capturing candids of my
friends and because I knew them so well they
came out pretty naturally. I think it was because
of that that I thought it could be a good career
path. But also people saying they were good
encouraged me to think that there was something
in me that could do this.
How do you approach your commercial projects?
Do you usually pitch something or do they come
to you with something to execute?
If there's something that I'm really into, I’ll pitch
it, but usually clients come to me with something
in mind or at least a drat or a mood board of
what they're going for. Some clients know exactly
what they want and that's exactly what you're
going to produce. Others will say, "This is what we
want to do, but how would you approach this?”
Sometimes I’ll send back a few notes of my own,
and sometimes it's a collaboration, it depends.
Sometimes I'll have something really fun that

I want to do for the client and I’ll create my own
deck and send it out.
Who are some of your favorite photographers?
I love some of the classics, like Annie Leibovitz
and Steven Meisel. Currently, one of my favorites is
Petra Collins. I think she opened up this new style
for people to understand that it doesn't have to be
like all perfect, commercial, and glassy.
How do you think your view of the world
changes your photography?
I think I'm more of a storyteller so I mainly
do these fashion shoots, but it all comes from
imagining something that's not there. I think
that shapes my photography. But at the same
time, I feel I'm more of an introverted person,
so when I'm photographing people a lot of my
photography is introspective and a little bit
melancholy. I like to observe and I like to have
a feeling behind each thing that I do. I hope
those things show in my work.
Do you bring the mood to set or do you
conceptualize the mood before?
I like to concept everything before, but obviously
things always happen, so it's important to make
sure your team and model understands your
process. It helps to be able to tell a model to be
sad or happy, or whatever it is that I'm trying to
portray. That's important, but I usually try to be
really prepared in terms of knowing exactly where
we're shooting. I’ll know exactly what the final
product should look like, and then, once I'm on
Top right: Portrait by Michael Salisbury
FASHION
set, I allow for diferent things to happen. I allow
for spontaneity but I like to be prepared.
It's interesting about being introspective
because you think of photographers as being
extroverted and good with people, but a lot
consider themselves introspective.
Exactly. I have so many examples in my life of
photographers who just keep to themselves and
don't like to be out there too much. But they make
beautiful work, finding whatever it is that speaks
to them and bringing it on set somehow.
Just observing.
You learn so much from observing. I love going into
the busiest streets I can find, sitting there and seeing
how people interact with the world, and what they
do. You learn a lot.
What advice do you have for people who are just
starting to be interested in photography, about
how to approach furthering their crat?
If you're just starting out, you should really find a I suggest finding that one thing you're really good
mentor, or someone you can intern for. You will learn it, and just kind of keep doing that. Maybe it's
so much and you'll learn things that you wouldn't landscapes, maybe it's car photography, maybe it's
learn otherwise. Learn how they do business, how street stuf. I think people recognize people that are
they approach clients, learn how they are on set. I doing something well and consistently. Be consistent
think that's the first step for anyone. Because, if you in your crat, and I think the rest will follow.
don't do that, then you'll spend a couple years try to
do figure that out on your own. And besides that, Alina Tsvor was part of the Spring 2018 Vans Vision
just shoot everything and eventually find that one Walks series, with her Walk taking place in Chicago.
style you're good at and hone in on that one thing
because your portfolio really can't look like ten Stay tuned for a new series of Vision Walks this Fall.
thousand diferent things. vans.com/visionwalk
JUXTAPOZ .COM 101
 Vetting
a Vibe
Monica Kim Garza
Interview by Kristin Farr Portrait by The Artist

The women in Monica Kim Garza’s

paintings are full of joy and give zero fucks.
She’s been compared to painter Paul Gaugin,
whose colonizing male gaze captured Tahitian
women over a century ago, but his figures
appear uncomfortable, while Garza’s are
carefree. The trite comparison implies that no
other renowned artist has depicted women
of color on the beach in over a century, and
burdening today’s artists with the small
handful of patriarchal art history references
is mostly pointless, so let’s move on.
MK Garza is raw. She’s portraying audacious
women living life to the fullest. Some fans
mistakenly think this is a political act, but the
artist isn’t pushing an ideology, although she holds
open the door for interpretation. She is simply
painting a good vibe and trying to maintain it.
Ater living in New York, San Francisco, and
beyond, she eventually settled back in her home
state of Georgia. Holding it down in her Atlanta
studio, she is constantly surrounded by essential
oils, candles, and a dozen plants.
Kristin Farr: Do the women you paint look like
how you feel, or how you want to feel? And do
104 SUMMER 2018
the locations represent places you want to be?
Monica Kim Garza: It’s always a vibe. Locations
just go with the vibe, but otentimes they are
places I’ve been and am just thinking about, like
my apartment or the beach. And sometimes it’s
not even about the location, but about the action.
Why is relaxation such an important priority
for you?
For me, it’s about respecting your body and mind.
Everything you do to your body afects your
mind, and I’m into feeding my body good energy.
Tell me about your best homeopathic
concoctions and your athleticism, and how
these things feed your work.
I always do honey masks. Sometimes with
avocado, banana peel, or turmeric. I coat my body
with coconut oil. I also like working out. It feels
good. Gets the endorphins up... feel good, look
good, paint good.
What kind of music would the women in your
paintings work out to?
For working out, rap or deep house, sometimes
reggaeton.
Are you into basketball and weight liting, or
do you paint that type of activity with symbolic
intentions?
I do enjoy watching basketball. I’m not a diehard
fan, but I like sports in general. It’s amazing to see
what athletes can do with their mind and body. It
takes a lot of dedication to be a great athlete, and
I love and respect that. I also like working out for
my own mind and body. Sometimes I paint those
actions because I’m genuinely interested in the
act of it, as well as the new scenes or shapes I can
create. Everything allows you to explore other
ideas in painting when you switch scenes.
What do you love about Georgia?
When I was young, I wanted to escape Georgia.
It seemed so small and country. It’s always humid
here, and you feel like you are swimming through
air sometimes. But all the reasons I wanted to run
away are the same reasons that brought me back.
I missed the humid air, the pools, the birds, the
millions of trees, the peaches...
What are your general life interests?
I love nature, animals, traveling, food and music.
I really enjoy the beach and mountains. I’m into
the whole natty geo thing. I watch a lot of Planet
Earth and stuf like that.
Ten years ago, you went to Peru, and that
seems to be when your painting style started to
solidify. How has your work evolved over the
last decade?
I went by myself for a few months, and I really had
fun exploring. The experience shaped me, and I was
able to draw how I felt in a more directed way. I’ve
just kept going with that, and have had moments
where I concentrated more on technique, but I oten
find myself trying to go back to the old me.
Tell me more about the old you.
When I was in college, I made a lot of paintings
that were super geometrically inspired. I did a lot
of animals and sculptures, and so much texture.
It was fun, and I miss those pieces, but I’ve evolved
as a person and artist, so I’ll never be that person
again. I enjoy looking at those works and drawing
inspiration from that time, I guess it reminds me
of who I was and where I wanted to go.
I oten think about how we can never get back
to that “beginner artist” place. What are some
Above: El Mochilera, Acrylic, oil pastel and glitter on canvas, 36.20” x 48”, 2017
things you notice about your college work that
only your past self could achieve?
Back then, I had the same style that has evolved
and led up to now, but it was more like… I literally
painted everything I liked. I was super craty
and did a lot of glitter and collages. I made a lot
of sculptures—ceramic and sot. When I look at
them, they seem innocent and playful. I’m still a
playful person inside, and perhaps more raw in
my practice, but that innocence you have when
you are young melts away with age, and because
of that, I could never authentically recreate those
moments, but I enjoy reflecting on them.
Above: Ching Ching Ching Ching Ching Ching, Mixed media on canvas, 48” × 48”, 2017
People oten see your work as a political, body-
positive activist statement. How do you feel
about that?
It is what it is, and it ain’t what it ain’t. I’m a pretty
chill person, and my work, for me, is inspired by
life, not conceptual ideas relating to movements.
But art should be free for interpretation, so that’s
what it is.
Do you use photographs as source imagery?
I’ve been drawing the figure so long and so much
that I can see it in my mind.
What are all the essential things you need to
have around to feel right?
Good music and cofee. I like it to be sunny at all
times, and having the temperature right is key.
I don’t like being cold. I like walking around in
slides and a T-shirt. That being said, I don’t like
winter, but I do like jackets. I have a thing for
jackets and shoes.
Current favorites?
At the moment, I love Ader Error for their
jackets, coats and hoodies. This girl Tifany Hsu
(@handinfire) has a pretty sick jacket collection.
MONICA KIM GARZA JUXTAPOZ .COM 105
106 SUMMER 2018 Above: Portrait Of A Lady, Acrylic on canvas, 30” x 40”, 2017
Above: Ping Pong, Acrylic, oil pastel and glitter on canvas, 36” x 48”, 2017 MONICA KIM GARZA JUXTAPOZ .COM 107
 Maison Margiela had great jackets in their
runway too. I like all kind of shoes, from cheap to
expensive. I have a lot of white sneakers. I’m big
on all shoes, from sneakers, to boots, to heels, but
I wear slides the most.

What are some other elements of pop culture

you’re into?
Music—all kinds. I love J.Lo, of course. I also like
Top Chef and Shark Tank.

Which era of J.Lo?

I’ve loved J.Lo since Selena. As a kid, I loved Selena,
and when the movie came out, I discovered J.Lo
and I fell in love. I love her music, dancing, and
movies. I’ve grown up and I still love her. She’s
great at what she does and she’s never once let go.
I really respect her as an entertainer.

What’s the last song you played on a loop?

Young Scooter—“Jugg King.”

I noticed more dinner parties in your recent

paintings. Is that a reflection of your life?
Not necessarily, but I enjoy the elements of tables
and food. I love fruit and fish and the shapes they
create. I also like the shape of a table and how it
changes with diferent perspectives.

What's your overall process for painting?

I normally have an idea in my mind and just
paint it onto canvas and continue until it’s
done. I work on about four to eight paintings on
rotation because I have a lot of ideas and want to
chop through them. I also can’t concentrate on
one at a time.

What kind of experiments with textures or

materials have you done lately?
I normally mess around with wool, foam, glitter,
and sequins, but lately I have been using a lot of
yarn and rhinestones. I’ve been using glitter and
diferent specialty papers for about ten years. I love
texture and I enjoy the act of cutting and gluing.

Do you concentrate more on creating certain

shapes or on the content?
The subject matter is pretty obvious and easy to
me, so it’s really about everything else. Shapes and
colors create the entire feeling. The beautiful, the
ugly, and the “mistakes” that occur. I don’t think
about technique so much anymore, I just try and

"I feel like ceramics say what I want to say with each painting and let
the colors and the marks express themselves.

is the core feeling Your figures now appear more gestural and
painterly.
The idea of abstraction is a direction and vision

I have inside." I have wanted to go in for a really long time,

and I am finally on the way. I am a fan of classic
technique, as well as painterly strokes.

Your ceramics seem to have a folk art influence.

Is that an intentional reference?

108 SUMMER 2018 Above: Basketbol #1, Acrylic on canvas, 36” x 48”, 2017
My parents collected a lot of sculptures and
I always loved looking at them. They love Lladros.
Also, a lot of Asian or Native American sculptures.
My favorites are the big Japanese planters. The
scenes on those are cool, like there is a story being
told on the sculpture about war or kingdom,
something like that. That influence probably
drives a lot of the style I have. I feel like ceramics
is the core feeling I have inside, and when I finish
a piece, it’s exactly what I wanted to say, and how
I wanted to say it.

What colors are you most into right now?

Right now, blue and red, but I am always into
neutrals.

What’s your dream vacation?

Ideally, outside in the sun. Some fresh food and
drank in hand. I like laying by the pool or beach
and letting the sun massage my body. Good music,
good company, a couple deep tissue and hot stone
massages. I love traveling anywhere with a nice
beach, but not too overcrowded. Anywhere with
fresh fish and fruit is bomb.

What does your apartment smell like? How

many plants do you have?
Either food or candles. I cook a lot. I light a lot of
candles, too. I have about twelve plants give or take…
seems severe for an apartment, but I need greens
inside. I love nature and it makes me feel good.

What's up with your dog?

Tito is a fatty. He’s a French Bulldog, but
I actually gave him to my parents because they
have a nice backyard and I felt like he deserved
the space. I’m always traveling and felt he’d be
happiest with them, so now I just go visit him.
I don’t know how much longer I will last without
a dog, but I’m content for now. I throw him in
paintings because he’s funny and I want him to
be remembered.

Is there anything you want to do with your art

practice you haven't done yet?
Installations, more sculptural things, larger scale
everything. But all in due time, I hope.

Describe the overall vibe you're aiming to achieve.

It depends, but, in general, just one that is
authentic to myself.

What’s your catchphrase?

I do what I want, you do what you can.

Catch Monica Kim Garza’s work in a new group

show about Georgia O’Keeffe’s legacy at Crystal
Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas through
September 3, 2018.

monicagarza.com
newimageartgallery.com

Top: Down Here, Acrylic, oil, pastel, glitter, embroidery and string sequins on canvas, 36” x 36”, 2017 MONICA KIM GARZA JUXTAPOZ .COM 109
Bottom: Smoke, Drank, Coffee, Dank, Acrylic, oil and felt on canvas, 36.5” x 36.5”, 2017
The Fifth Season
at SFMOMA
Interview by Gwynned Vitello Portrait by The Artist
Enigma, so immediately onomatopoetic
in association with Rene Magritte, he who
made frequent appearances in his own works,
mysteriously anonymous in bowler hat and
tailored black coat. The precise images for which
he’s known are as sharp-edged as the hard “g” in
enigma, as in, “something or someone concealing
a hidden or known thing under obscure words
or forms.” Ater the war, his paintbrush shocked
with color flurries as he sprung Sunlit Surrealism,
and the outrage-inducing Vauch period, which
open San Francisco MOMA’s big new show. From
this startling start, The Fith Season presents
nine installations exploring the provocative
painter who pondered, “how we see the world,”
whether through a window, immersed in day
and night through dark and light, suspended
between gliding and gravity, or face-to-face with
a giant green apple. I spoke with Caitlin Haskell,
Associate Curator of Painting at SFMOMA, where
The Fith Season opens on May 19, 2018.
Gwynned Vitello: André Breton, the Father of
Surrealism, dubbed Magritte a Surrealist “in
spite of himself.” Your press release states that
112 SUMMER 2018
he rebelled against Surrealist orthodoxy in the
’40s. So, was he or wasn’t he, and either way, how
did this shit come about?
Caitlin Haskell: Yes, “Was he or wasn’t he?” If it
were possible to be both a Surrealist and not,
I think Magritte would have preferred that option.
The last big Magritte show in the United States
was a wonderful project called The Mystery of the
Ordinary, and it looked at the years between 1926
and 1938, which the subtitle called the “essential
Surrealist years.” And, yes, during that period,
Magritte was active in Brussels, Paris, and London,
and he was clearly part of the Surrealist group. But
he was also at the fringes, and as Breton indicates,
by appearing to be so bourgeois and looking so
normative, he went against the Surrealist grain.
Some of that was for show and some, I suspect,
was genuinely his temperament.
Of course, I have the image of Salvador Dalí with
a giant waxed moustache!
In some ways, he’s the anti-Dalí, totally buttoned
up and wanting to be ordinary, anonymous,
resisting any kind of outsized artistic personality.
Magritte was always very well-mannered, very
Previous Spread: Son of Man, 1964; oil on canvas; private collection; © Charly Herscovici, Brussels / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Above: La moisson (The Harvest), 1943: oil on canvas: Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
moderate in his behavior. And when it came to
his art, he didn’t want it to be about him, either.
He was much more interested in shedding light
on ideas that are common, or beliefs that are so
second-nature we aren’t aware of them.
The painting that opens our show is a terrific
example called Hegel’s Vacation, and it has two
elements: a water glass set atop an umbrella. Even
though Magritte’s name is on the canvas, and even
though he’s conceived of this rebus-like image—
which, as he might put it, solves the “problem” of
water—it’s not really about Magritte, but rather
about us, our unspoken associations with water,
which the composition teases out. It’s an absurd
picture, but psychologically, it resonates. The glass
contains water, the umbrella repels it. Spatially, it
also gets you thinking. What’s on top and what's on
the bottom? What’s inside and out? He’s creating
this provocative, mysterious complex of images
that you and I can puzzle over in our own heads.
Anyway, that is the type of Surrealist that Magritte
is, creating revelations by crashing images of of
each other. The viewer is always a participant, a co-
conspirator in creating the work. Our show, which
looks at the years 1943 to the end of his life in 1967,
considers a moment ater the Surrealist group had
largely disbanded. And it starts in a moment when
Magritte was very conflicted, and these images
from the Sunlit Surrealist and Vache periods do not
look like “Magrittes” at all.

Would an expert looking at the Sunlit Surrealist

and Vache pieces recognize them as Magrittes?
Were there any elements common to his
previous or future works?
People who know Magritte are aware of these
periods. But here you have an artist who is
so interested in visual similitude, and he is
deliberately not looking like himself. He’s saying,
“Well, now I’m going to do an Impressionist
painting for you. I’m going to do a pantomime of
Impressionism. And you’re not going to know how
I really feel about this.” To me, they’re very clearly
the work of an artist who has been thinking a lot
about truth and falsehood in art—the treachery of
images. And with Sunlit Surrealism, he’s trying to
find a new way forward for what Surrealism might
become, during and ater the war.

I didn’t know he coined the term, but it’s a

perfect description of the work.
He wrote a few manifestoes of “Surrealism in the
Sunshine.” Some people call it Sunlit Surrealism,
other people call it his Renoir period. If you look at
a painting in the show, Harvest, you’ll see that it’s a
nude straight out of late Renoir, a beautiful female
nude against a spring landscape, very pastoral.
But Magritte paints one arm in green, another in
red and the torso in purple, and he’s messing with
the audience—he’s taking all of the eroticism out
of the picture, and you start to think, “Why paint
this, what is this for?”

Is it true that this period was a reaction to the

war? It also sounds like much more.
Magritte is thinking about what an artist can do in
very troubling times. Some of the earliest writing
on the paintings in this style points out that
Magritte is trying to change the use of painting—
trying to use painting to raise questions about
what is good and bad in life and art. What good
can artists do when the world is falling apart?
And that, in fact, is a question that we pose
pretty directly in the exhibition’s first gallery. We
considered titling it, “What Good is a Painting?”
It looks at the Sunlit paintings and Vache pictures
together and tests this idea that some “bad pictures”
might be able to do some social good. They should
get you thinking about the assumptions that we
bring to a beautiful picture. Has the world changed
so much that painting shouldn’t be about beauty
right now? What is the place of beauty in war?
Should art have more critical objectives?
Magritte also maintains that if he had worked in
his earlier style, exhibiting something like The
Treachery of Images (“This is Not a Pipe”) he would
have been censored. So, in a way, this is also about
getting past censorship. It may look very banal, but
it’s serious work, what Magritte called a counter
ofensive, a deliberate mix of menace and charm.
He had a respected reputation and had sold
a number of paintings. Weren’t these just too
shocking?
Yes, they were shocking, despite not being
scandalous in a traditional way. And they were
not at all successful. They didn’t sell. They were
a recipe for financial and career disaster, but
Magritte really stood behind the ideas. He felt
that Surrealism should not just be a movement
bookended by two wars.
Why were the Vache painting so-called? It
couldn't be just straight from word meaning.
Vache, in this sense, does not mean cow. Vacherie
is French for behaving badly, being nasty. So don’t
think of the Laughing Cow rounds of cheese!
Magritte is a very complex character, and I feel
like I’m thinking too much when I look at his
paintings.
He is a very philosophical painter. In our
show, you go from this gallery about faux
expressionism into one which is very
philosophical and is about what he called “the
problem of the window.” He does a series of these
sort of self-suicient images, paintings about
paintings. He shows us an easel, for example,
unattended but seemingly still in use, with the
tacking margin of the canvas going down the
edge. And he sets this easel painting in front of
a window. And because the scene on the canvas
appears to be a perfect representation of what is
outside the window, you start to wonder if the
landscape you’re looking at is inside or outside
the room. Is the tree here, on the easel, or is it
over there in the garden? The same brushstrokes
represent both things. It’s this very clever play
where simply by putting a frame within the

Above: Les vacanes de Hegel (Hegel’s Vacation); 1958: oil on canvas; private collection / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York RENÉ MAGRIT TE JUXTAPOZ .COM 113
picture, Magritte gets you to sort of toggle back
and forth. Am I looking at a tree that is natural or
artificial? And the really beautiful thing about a
painting is that it can be both. It doesn’t have to
have just one identity.
He was also a photographer, so he is evidently
setting up the picture. I guess that gave him an
eye to see through to another dimension.
114 SUMMER 2018
Yes, it’s almost as though he is setting up a
photograph. He’s really a classic picture maker,
and he gets a lot of tricks from cinematographers
for still and moving images. It just so happens
that he carries them out in painting.
He was very prolific, and painted from home,
didn’t he?
Yes, he really worked meticulously, and here’s
Top: The Listening Room, 1952; oil on canvas; The Menil Collection, Houston, gift of Fariha Friedrich; © Charly Herscovici, Brussels / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Bottom: The Tomb of the Wrestlers, 1960; private collection; © Charly Herscovici, Brussels// Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
another part of his bourgeois persona: He didn’t
paint in a studio, but worked in his house—on
carpeted floors—dressed in his suit, keeping
very fixed hours. He’d paint in the morning, go
into town in the aternoon, play chess or watch a
movie, enjoy some conversation.
That’s funny because he was telling us to look at
things diferently, experience life diferently.
He’s sort of doing all of this through the powers
of his mind—critical thinking and using his
imagination, asking questions. Really, I think he
would say, “It’s not that I’m special, it’s that the
world is so special.” Once you start looking around
the world as this place of true inherent mysteries,
you don't need anyone to make it special. You
just need to be open to seeing it as such. We’re
living in a wondrous mystery, and we’ve sort of
trained ourselves, through habit and convention,
and through an excessive belief in rationalism, to
make the mystery normative.
Who are the writers and painters who
influenced him?
He was very aware of the whole history of
European painting; plus, he was Belgian, from the
place where oil painting originated. He could make
beautiful, very technically crated paintings, like
SFMOMA’s Personal Values. On the literary front,
he loved Edgar Allan Poe, Stéphane Mallarmé…
he also liked a good detective story. Among
artists who were his contemporaries, I would say
he was not at all tempted to become an Abstract
Expressionist. He was vocal about his love of
Giorgio de Chirico’s paintings, and had a very
famous encounter with a particular painting of
his—The Song of Love—that Magritte said set him on
the course of becoming a Surrealist painter.
He shared de Chirico’s belief that painting was
poetry, right? And Magritte also presented
unexpected and seemingly unrelated objects in
a painting. This gives me an opportunity to ask
if there will be apples in the show, and if it’s a
stretch to wonder if they have to do with Eve in
the Garden.
Well, he uses very loaded symbols, and you
can take it in that direction if you want, but
you’re never going to be able to fully resolve the
symbolism. However, we do have a lot of great
apples in the show, including The Son of Man, of
course, which might have prompted you to think
of apples in The Garden of Eden.
Since we don't exactly have access to him, we’re
using that for his portrait.
That’s a great one, and he identified it as a self-
portrait. We also have other apples—two versions
of the Listening Room—that will be in the show.
There are about 75 works in all.
Tell me a little about how it will be presented.
So, the Magritte experience will start right when
you exit the elevator, and you will move through a
 "It is not my intention to make anything
comprehensible. I am of the opinion that there are
sufficient paintings which one understands after
a shorter or longer delay, and that therefore, some
incomprehensible painting would be welcome."
–René Magritte

Above: Personal Values, 1952; oil on canvas; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, purchase through a gift of Phyllis C. Wattis; RENÉ MAGRIT TE JUXTAPOZ .COM 115
© Charly Herscovici, Brussels / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
116 SUMMER 2018 Above: Domaine d’Arnheim (The Domain of Arnheim), 1962; oil on canvas; Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
progression of theatrical curtains. The exhibition
itself is thematically organized, and it moves
from the 1940s at the start of the show, to the
1960s at the end of the show, but it’s not strictly
chronological. We start with the Renoir and Vache
pictures, and the Human Condition pictures, as
I was saying. Then you move into a gallery of the
Hypertrophy pictures—objects that are out of
scale with the architecture that contains them.

I didn’t realize until looking it up that the word

hypertrophy refers to enlarged growth and is
generally connected to physical organs.
It does have a medical definition. In the paintings,
there’s a connotation of magnitude but also
malignancy, or a type of swelling outside of our
control, like you want to stop it, but can’t. There is
a sense that these apples are swelling.

Apples again! And we, partly because of their

size, find ourselves scrutinizing them.
It’s as if they are under a microscope. We will have
the largest presentation of hypertrophy pictures
that has ever been brought together. One reason
for the show happening now is that 2018 marks 20
years since SFMOMA acquired Personal Values, a
major hypertrophy work in Magritte’s late career
that holds a prized place in our collection. We
wanted to show that painting in a robust context
of closely related works.

I’d like to hear about the gallery you're calling

“Hidden and Revealed.”
The title is a quote from a radio interview
Magritte gave in the mid-1960s where he says,
“Everything we see hides another thing,”
referring to how you are always seeing only a
portion of reality, how you can never get a full
picture anywhere. It’s about sight but it’s also
about desire and the impossibility of seeing it
all. We used this space to look at his gouaches,
and it’s a very eclectic grouping. Some are in the
Sunlit styles, others in the more classic palette.
There are works where you can really see his
hand as an artist and his invention. I hope there’s a sense that these images hit you got the animate and the inanimate, the strong and
right over the head at first, and then there’s fragile all coming together in the image.
Of course, there is a gallery of bowler men, and something that plays out over a longer period of
this is where the galleries start to feel more time. They should stick with you, even when the I hope this exhibit introduces more people to the
immersive. Then there is a gallery inspired by concept seems very distilled or self-evident. breadth of his work, not to mention the poetry and
a 360-degree panorama Magritte worked on philosophy of the man in the suit and bowler hat.
in the 1950s, which again, speaks to this idea In the gallery housing the Dominion of Light series, That’s my hope, too. For people who don’t yet know
of what is hidden and revealed. If you make a you have daytime skies and nighttime street Magritte’s work, The Fith Season will be a great
painting that’s 360 degrees, it’s assumed that it scenes, and there is a way to understand these introduction. And for people who do know Magritte
is more comprehensive than any other type of paintings as dealing with time. They might be and think they’ve seen it all, I can promise there will
painting. But then again, you cannot see all of it two moments in a single day where morning and be new discoveries. We are bringing together a lot of
at once because some will always be behind you. evening are disconnected. Or you could think of works that have never been seen in the U.S. before,
It’s a spectacular piece where Magritte took his them as presenting a time lapse, where you see the and ensembles of paintings that haven’t been seen
most famous motifs and put them together in a day start and conclude. together anywhere. It should be exciting.
continuous story that wraps right around you.
The last theme is about gravity and flight, and René Magritte: The Fifth Season is on view
He spoke about how one should react to we begin with the Domain of Arnheim, a gorgeous May 19 through October 28, 2018 at the San
paintings immediately, but that one should be piece that Magritte’s wife Georgette lived with Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
thinking about them. So, am I supposed to think during her lifetime. It shows an eagle in the form
or just react? of a mountain, or vice versa. In either case, you’ve sfmoma.org

Above: The Dominion of Light, 1954; oil on canvas; Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique; © Charly Herscovici, Brussels / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York RENÉ MAGRIT TE JUXTAPOZ .COM 117
 Jeffrey
Cheung
Unity and Community,
One Board at a Time
Interview by Eben Benson Portrait by Alex Nicholson
120 SUMMER 2018 Above: So Happy, Acrylic on panel, 24x36, 2018
One fascinating aspect of traversing the art
world is finding the myriad ways that artists
choose to make a statement. Amidst the pressure
of making work for galleries, paying rent,
challenging one’s self to improve, and maintaining
a personal life that fulfills, many artists have to
be themselves professionally, integrating their
interests, goals, hobbies, and beliefs into their
crat. This poses a unique problem because, when
all that’s on the table, many become exploited for
the very thing that makes them them, and are,
therefore, encouraged to express themselves in an
almost predetermined or formulaic way.

Jefrey Cheung has explored routes for self-

expression his whole life, slowly carving out a
space in communities that have been historically
exclusive. Ater beginning to discover a more
universal language with art that throbs with
vibrant color and characters unashamedly bursting
with life, he began to find other folks who were
denied an open space for expression, and expanded
beyond himself, using his art to give a platform
for others to feel comfortable and free. Instead of
focusing on a promising art career, he started Unity,
a printing press and skateboard company that aims
to support queer people, trans people, and people
of color (QTPOC), hosting a community in person
and online that celebrates their contributions to
art, music, and skateboarding. In bringing his
community with him, as a queer Chinese-American
man, he has been able to maintain and strengthen
his vibrant personal expression and open doors
to skateboarding and beyond for people who have
been unable to express their honest selves.

Eben Benson: You’re a painter, musician,

and skateboarder, all simultaneously and
successfully. How do you keep a balance? Does
it feel like you are stretched thin, or do you feel
that each one contributes to your life in a way
that makes the others easier?
Jeffrey Cheung: They are all passions of mine that
have given me an outlet in some way in diferent
periods of my life. I have recently been much more
active in skateboarding, but it was also a huge
outlet for me in my teen years. It was basically all
I did in high school, but I slowly grew apart from
it as I got older, shiting towards art and music
instead. I feel like they are all pretty related in
terms of being creative outlets, and I have a similar
outlook/mindset for all of them. In the past year,
it seems like I am doing all of these things at once,
which is exciting but can also be a little wearying. and then music. They were actually all mostly I feel fortunate to have gotten into art, music
Although I do all these things at the same time, separate things for me and didn't have too much and skateboarding at a young age, and to
I think I tend to focus and jump from one thing crossover besides maybe music and skateboarding, still be active in these things today. I've been
to the other when I start to feel burnt out. It keeps since I found out about a lot of music through really inspired again since starting Unity
things fresh for me that way. videos. They were all outlets for me as a teenager Skateboarding, and honestly didn’t think I would
and allowed me to direct my feelings in some way, be skating again ater not skating for about 10
What was your timeline for getting into visual but I spent most of my high school years really years. I feel even more enthusiastic about it now
art, skateboarding, and music? What was it like focused on skating. I think skateboarding, in than in my teen years. I finally feel like I can
growing up and beginning to engage with these particular, helped me because it gave me a way to tie all of these aspects of my life together while
things, and were they symbiotic? physically leave and find my own spaces, whether being openly queer, and being able to support
I think I got into visual art first, then skateboarding, I was alone or with friends. other folks in the queer community.

Above: Pancake, Acrylic on panel, 24x36, 2018 JEFFREY CHEUNG JUXTAPOZ .COM 121
What inspires you to stay in Oakland, even as the
city gentrifies and has lost so much of its creative
community? What do you envision for the future
of Oakland's communities of queer people,
skateboarders, artists, and counterculture?
I grew up in the area and my close family is still
here, so I will always have a connection to the
Bay Area. Despite all the negative changes and
displacement that has been going on, there is still
a lot of positive resistance and vibrancy in creative
and queer communities. I am also very much
inspired by all of the queer skaters I have met this
122 SUMMER 2018
year and the new community that we are helping to
build together, which gives me hope for the future.
We try to actively support other folks, especially
queer and POC, with our projects, providing space
and resources whenever we can, and we see many
others doing the same in reaction to everything
that is negative going on. I can only hope that as
long as we continue to support each other, we will
never be completely pushed out.
I find it fascinating that you seem somewhat shy
and remain so calm in conversation, while your
crats and projects are so ambitious and almost
loud. What makes you feel more comfortable
about expressing yourself through art rather
than verbally?
I oten do feel shy, and have never been a very good
speaker or liked talking about my artwork. I think
I started making queer visual art as a way for me to
deal with my own sexuality and identity because
I could do it in a private way, but also make it public.
I usually feel much more comfortable making
paintings or actions than talking about them.
What options do you see for young QTPOC in
changing the narrative and conversation around
the larger communities that they are a part of?
It seems that your approach has been to take
the cultural "thing," and create a parallel space
for folks who are oten pushed away from the
mainstream idea. Unity Skateboarding has led
to a truly beautiful change within skateboarding
where it seems many people feel more open to
not only be a QTPOC skater, but also for folks
who aren't, to see and increasingly celebrate that
community. Did you ever consider moving into
pre-existing structures, like skate companies or
businesses, and change from within?
Honestly, I never thought I would be in the position
that I am now, where I might be able to influence
the skateboarding world or companies. I started
Unity Skateboarding as a DIY and personal way of
supporting myself and my queer friends because
I loved skating but always felt like I had to hide
being queer. Now it seems like more and more
queer people are coming out skating and learning
how to skate and be themselves. When queer,
trans, and people of color simply exist visibly, are
active in their communities, and take up public
space, they can change the narrative both in and
outside of skateboarding. A new movement is
happening and it is amazing. Folks in the local
skate community, including 510 Skateshop and
DLX in SF, are showing their support, carrying our
boards, which we really appreciate. Jim Thiebaud
and Max Schaaf, who are very prominent people
in the skate world, have also been super sweet
and back Unity, which is pretty unreal to me. I feel
that seeing this happen is really inspiring to me,
knowing that we might actually be making changes
in skateboarding together, at least within our
immediate community.
One thing that I feel doesn't get enough attention
regarding Unity is that you hand-paint all the
boards that you make and sell. I've walked
into your studio and, at times, seen almost 100
boards strewn about and ready to paint. Why do
you hand-paint them all? Have you considered
getting them printed?
Yeah, I have been hand painting all the boards until
this day, and have painted about 1200 boards since
we started last January 2017. It started with the idea
of just painting a small batch of blanks for myself
and a handful of other queer skaters who were my
friends, but it just kept going. It’s really rewarding
Above: Blue Fun, Acrylic on canvas, 24x36, 2018
and fun to be able to personalize each one and make
my friends and other queer skaters’ "pro" models
knowing that I am able to empower them in some
way. Although I enjoy the process, it has gotten a
bit draining since I spend a lot of my time painting
boards on top of my day job and other projects.
I am planning on getting a series printed, hopefully
later this year, but I will probably still paint them for
friends and other queer skaters.

You also hand skateboards out to many femme

and/or QTPOC skaters at your skate days. When
did you start doing this and how are you able to
maintain that?
We started the queer skate meetups last July as a
way to connect with queer skaters in our area. They
have been going so well that we decided to keep
doing them monthly. We usually give out boards
and shirts and whatever other skate stuf to folks
that come. We have also done a couple skateboard
giveaway days for queer teens and QTPOC which
have been super amazing for us to be a part of. We
really want to support as many queer skaters as we
can by either giving them skateboards or a space to
skate, especially QTPOC because I feel like there is
still a lack of queer/trans black and brown folks in
skateboarding. So far we have been able to support
Unity mostly by also selling our boards, shirts,
and zines on top of working during the day, but are
looking into other ways to make this project more
sustainable as we continue.

Although this can totally apply to the above

questions, do you find that Unity and the skaters
involved are tokenized for their identity? What
is your relationship to that idea?
It is hard to tell. We have actually gotten a lot
of support and mostly positive responses from
people in and outside of the skate community,
and I want to think that their support is genuine.
Since starting Unity Skateboarding, a bunch of
folks have reached out to us about collaborations
or media coverage, and we do question their
intentions. We try to be careful about the media
outlets and people that we work with and cover
us, but it is a tricky issue that we are always
thinking about.

As an accomplished artist, do you keep painting

separate from Unity? Does the work you make
for a gallery contain diferent ideas?
I think it is mostly pretty similar. When we
started Unity Skateboarding last year, my focus
really shited towards painting boards and
hosting zine-printing days in our studio, so I have
been less active in gallery work. I do feel as though
I have always tried to convey the same imagery
and ideas in both my zines and paintings, just
as diferent mediums. With gallery stuf, I feel
like I am able to make more queer visibility in
representation in the art world through large-
scale paintings, but it seems like a much diferent
audience than with Unity, where I’m able to
directly work with folks in my community. Since

Above: Unity skateboards, Acrylic on wood, 2018 JEFFREY CHEUNG JUXTAPOZ .COM 123
devoting more time to Unity, I think my own
work has changed and progressed in a positive
way. Previously, in my artwork, I depicted imagery
that was based of more of my personal identity and
sexuality, and had mostly male-presenting figures,
which I realized was a little limiting. And, since
starting Unity, I have been painting boards for queer
people of all identities, orientations and colors, and
I realized I wanted my artwork to reflect that. In
both the gallery and my work with Unity, I want to
celebrate all queer identities and sexualities to create
more positive queer visibility and representation in
the world.

What artists and art movements do you see

happening now that get you excited?
I am out of the loop on a lot of what goes on in
the art world, but I feel like spaces are starting
to become more inclusive to marginalized
people, which is always great to hear about.
I am always excited when I hear about queer,
POC and womxn in the spotlight, and I feel like
it is happening a bit more these days. There are
also a lot of things going on in my immediate
community that I am excited about, friends
and people taking action and doing similar
things to support their own communities and
spaces. Lower Grand Radio, who we also share
a space with, is a DIY online radio that provides
a platform for all kinds of people to share their
voices and opinions. Take Care Tapes is an all
womxn of color based music label that supports
queer people of color by providing resources and
free studio recording time. These are just a few
examples that come to mind of people actively
trying to making positive changes and creating
space for others, which I think is very inspiring.

Since we have started doing monthly queer skate

meetups in the Bay Area last year, we have gotten
messages from queer skaters from all over the
country and the world asking us to host similar
meetups in their own cities, though we aren’t
always able to be there. There are now several
queer skate crews and groups that host their
own meetups, which is so inspiring. So far, there
are groups in Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles,
and Santa Cruz, and it continues to grow. We
always try to support them as much as we can
by promoting their events or with skateboards,
even if we are not in the area. Unity is also not
the only queer skateboard company, Pave the
Way Skateboards actually started around the
same time as we did, and they are amazing.
Catasstrophe Skateboards is also another queer
skate project that is newer and I hope to hear
about more soon. Skate Like a Girl, Skate Witches,
Brujas and other womxn-focused skate crews are
also inspiring. I really do feel like there is a new
queer skate movement happening.
Do you think the goals of Unity can also be
applied to the art world, even though it's a
diferent world than skateboarding?
Yes, I definitely think so, and we are trying to
achieve that through Unity Press by providing
a creative space and a platform for queer and
marginalized people. I think zines can be
just as empowering as skateboarding and can
create a sense of validation. Over the years,
Unity Press has shifted towards a more queer
focus and we have hosted free print days and
workshops, which we hope to continue to do.
We have a space where we welcome folks to
come and create zines and use our resources on
a donation basis. I think it is important to think
about the types of people typically represented
in art spaces and who has access to those types
of resources. Just as in skateboarding and the
rest of society, it is predominately white and
hetero-normative, and we want to see more
positive queer representation and visibility in
the world and all aspects.
Your work used to feel a little more chaotic, like
that mural you painted in the Mission District
in San Francisco. When did you start making
characters in this cleaner, kind of gestural way?
I think my style just eventually changed the more
I drew and painted, which I think happens
naturally for people. I feel like it is still similar, but
I have been thinking about shapes and form and
trying to be more simple. I still feel like it can be
pretty chaotic and messy at times, though.
Do you have a favorite movie and music album?
Do you have any go-to answers when someone
asks you this predictable question?
Not really, but I think one of my favorite movies
is Happy Together, which is a queer Hong Kong
film from the ’90s by Wong Kar Wei. It’s really
rare to see see films about queer relationships
with queer Asian main characters, so it definitely
stuck in my mind. Also big fan of Tony Leung!
He's so dreamy!
jeffreycheung.com
unitypress.com

124 SUMMER 2018 Above: Flower, Paper collage, 32x40, 2018

Above: Hello, Acrylic on canvas, 24x36, 2018 JEFFREY CHEUNG JUXTAPOZ .COM 125
Serena
Cole
An Alluring
Analysis
Interview by Gabe Scott Portrait by Graham Holoch
128 SUMMER 2018 Above: Search and Destroy, Watercolor, gouache, ink, colored pencil, gold leaf and photo transfer on paper, 36” x 48”, 2011
At a passing glance, it would be easy to
characterize Serena Cole’s imagery as meticulously
drated portraits of lavish, imaginative beauty,
but her characters are so much more. Their
ornamentation mesmerizes. Behind the piercing
eyes and provocative poses lie enticing clues that
unlock her psychodynamic material. The subjects
themselves may have roots in couture, but any
hollow ostentation has been stripped and replaced
by an ethereal depth.

This serves as the ultimate reflection of the

truth Cole airms: a middle finger to the
social hypocrisy of human appraisal. Her
process, combined with a unique ability to
psychoanalyze, emboldens her work with a
mythic power; a power to exist within her own
paintings and other individuals partaking.
Her imagery goes beyond self-reflection as a
mirror where she views herself from diferent
perspectives within both art history and
contemporary gender politics.

Gabe Scott: Looking back on your childhood,

what fascinated you about being able to change
identity? Have any of the things specifically
grown up with you and driven your imagination
as an adult?
Serena Cole: I had a lame childhood where I was
forced to live of the grid in the Sierra Nevadas
in Northern California, without any neighbors.
I spent all my time in my room drawing or
watching movies. Transformation was so much a
part of what I watched as a child. She-Ra becomes
a warrior princess, Alice in Wonderland morphs
over and over, and, of course, there's Halloween,
which I loved. I drew and thought about becoming
someone else because I was so isolated and
needed to think about other possible lives.
Now that I'm an adult, I still constantly think
about being someone else; I mean, that's what
advertising is getting us to do, right? “Get this
couch and you can be more like the person you
imagine having this couch.” I don't actually want
to literally be someone else, but it's something we
do without realizing it, trying on diferent selves,
mentally, that is. We do it through social media,
acting diferently around certain people, etc. who look at that stuf are secretly into, even on into the darkness that is in me. But when I also
a subconscious level. So my work got a little find that darkness in other places, I find it super
For some time, you’ve worked with found more pointed by using advertising as a mirror inspiring and connect to it like a power source.
source material from fashion advertising. Is for portions of society. I am also consciously
this the primary source for your figurative thinking more about relationships to art history Can you expand on your fascination with
subject matter? and politics. dystopian conditions?
Yes, and I still do that. For me, it’s a way of I think the concept of a dystopia is so interesting,
narrowing my options, otherwise the world just Many of those expressions involve a degree and also, contrary to most narratives, humans
seems way too big. I look for stuf that appeals of irony, like those featuring the dystopian have dreamed it up over time. Of course, it makes
to me intuitively or emotionally and then go landscapes populated by emaciated, feral- sense to develop utopian narratives as it's a form of
from there. In grad school, I started researching looking individuals apparently tortured before self-preservation. But where does a dystopia fit in?
psychoanalysis and looking at all this dark, being let on the side of the road. Except that What makes us also fantasize about our demise?
subconscious stuf. What I thought was really they are dressed in a $10K wardrobe for the That is so fucking weird! Psychology posits there
interesting was that it could exist in a fashion apocalypse… is something known as a “death drive”; essentially
magazine. For instance, something on fire in Yeah, it’s still really visually appealing, and the a subconscious desire to end things. I think it is
this crazy, dystopian world was being used to dystopia itself is fucking fascinating. I don’t want a psychological landscape that reveals a lot more
sell you pants. It said a lot about what people to paint happy pictures. I’m way more into delving about what humans are really about, what life is

Above: Heart of Stone (For A.G.), Watercolor and graphite on paper, 17” x 20”, 2018 SERENA COLE JUXTAPOZ .COM 129
really like, and what we fear. We're so not perfect.
I guess, in a way, I make art about that.
I want to know more about the “darkness.” Can
you speak more specifically about what you
embrace, what is frightening, and what compels
you to explore deeper within your own psyche?
Do you think of it as a fact-finding mission?
When I think of darkness, I'm thinking about
feelings people generally hide or repress:
anger, sadness, disillusionment. It’s like Nick
Cave's manic stage presence versus someone
like Tom Jones, you know? It is a more genuine
feeling instead of just pretending everything
is so blissful, and experiencing that through
someone's music is comforting. For me, painting
a portrait lets me explore the emotions I have but
usually keep a little below the surface. Changing
the expressions lets me channel those things
130 SUMMER 2018
through them, and they reveal themselves over
time, as they are drawn. So, in that way, they
are vehicles for revealing my own subconscious
to myself and letting that darkness exist on
someone else's face.
Do your portraits reflect diferent perceived
perspectives of yourself?
I think so, because I feel like I can own them and
communicate through them in a way that I don’t
feel when I draw a dude. I don’t think the dudes
are really me, and I can’t fully imagine it, but in
some way, they are a mirror, because sometimes
I want to be a dude.
Just to take it for a spin?
I think we all wonder, at times, what it would be
like to live as the other gender. There is such a
diferent power dynamic to becoming a man.
When did you start exploring the possibilities of
male subject matter, such as the two Better Than
Real paintings?
I paint dudes every once in a while, but my
options are limited because I’m not interested
in many of the diferent male variations that are
presented in the magazines I source. I have to
find a dude that I can identify with, and there are
very few that I see and think, “If I was going to be
a dude, I’d be that guy.” I had to change the Better
Than Real guys by adding the flowers in order to
take the masculine edge of enough for them to be
interesting to me.
What about working with live models or
painting people within your circle?
I’m just not interested in “real” stuff. I like
the power of finding something that already
exists. The photo exists but the person in the
picture doesn’t really exist in the context in
which they are presented. It’s an image that
has gone through photoshop, make-up and
direction to create a fictional identity, which
I often juxtapose with other images to create
new narratives. The only time I’ve ever wanted
to use my own photos were those of the high
school students I teach. There’s something about
being one, and I really identify with the angst
and the horrible, awkward beauty of being a
teenager. I want to go there; I just haven’t made
any of those drawings yet.
Have you ever heard the term baroco, an
Italian word for an irregularly shaped pearl?
I feel a connection to that term when looking
at many of the people you depict and the way
you shape them.
Well, I love the Mannerists and that is kind of
the same thing, where they’re distorted a bit, but
still really beautiful. I think decay or distortion is
about knowing there is never a perfect thing. Even
if you were to look like that beautiful person, it
would still not be enough; there’s never any kind
of final satisfaction, so I kind of like to show them
unsatisfied or a little deformed.
Is there a period of painting or portraiture that
you are particularly fond of or that has been
influential?
I look at the whole history of portraiture,
especially Mannerism, but also the Flemish and
early Renaissance painting. I really love Ingres
and that Neo-Classical stuf, too. I go to that stuf a
lot, way more than I look at contemporary work.
I feel like I’m having a conversation with them,
sort of just continuing down the path. Even
though I could never be that good of a painter,
I do feel a sense of satisfaction in continuing the
tradition of painting portraits.
You have a unique ability to beautify and
sensationalize the various components within
the picture plane. I also love the way you combine
your own decorative elements with aspects of
Above: Gimme, Watercolor, ink and colored pencil on paper, 22” x 30” , 2014
Top: Ecstasy Face II, Watercolor, colored pencil, and gouache on paper (diptych), 36” x 24”, 2010 Bottom: Black Mirror II, Colored pencil and gouache on paper, 36” x 24”, 2012 SERENA COLE JUXTAPOZ .COM 131
132 SUMMER 2018 Above: All Seeing Odalisque, Watercolor, colored pencil, and gouache on paper, 22” x 30”, 2016
mysticism and even psychoanalysis. Don’t Even
Fucking Try It is particularly interesting, as well
as other recent works, for their focus and detail in
the clothing or other ephemera.
I’m really excited about layering spaces together.
My whole studio is currently pictures of shit that
I never used to look at before. I’ve opened the
gaze past the fashion magazines and have stuf
burning down, lions eating other animals, dead
bullfighters and other stuf I’ve Googled, like
all this art history stuf. Even though Don’t Even
Fucking Try It is from fashion magazines, I don’t
want it to look like fashion. I’m trying to have
more than one person and more than one space
exist together, so they can have a conversation
about how I currently feel.

The way that particular piece is constructed

strips away the fashion-forward aspects of
some of your earlier work. You share a physical
harmony with the subject, as opposed to a found
couture.
My style has changed a little bit too. I see the
detail and describe it better, though I think that
people prefer my older stuf, which is a little
more flowery, while this work is getting more
descriptive. I think the newer work is more
explicit by being more detailed and slightly more
realistic, but with the detail comes more specific
expression. I think the people I am drawing are
more individualized than the older work, their
faces a combination of my interpretation of the
photos and what I want them to look like.
I wasn't technically able to get to such a unique
face in my older work. Also, my subject matter
has become more pointed and I understand
the content better. Rather than make a portrait
of a person, I am more conscious and specific
about the gaze; both their gaze toward you and
referencing you gazing at them. I want them to
acknowledge being seen, and to reference their
discomfort with being seen.

I was intrigued by the show you recently

curated, TAKEOVER. Reacting to the current
socio-political upheavals is a common practice,
but you’ve included the issue of major art
institutions, galleries and critics actively
discriminating against female and gender non-
conforming artists. How did that aspect of your
focus come about?
It wasn’t one specific thing that happened to me,
but I started to become really aware of the fact
that every aspect of what I’m doing definitely
leans towards the female side— my materials, my
subject matter, the emotion and intuition—really,
all of the things I’m interested in are shoved on
to one side of the fence, and it’s not that well-
received. It’s not obvious discrimination, but
there is definitely a tendency by the art world to
favor male artists. I’ve really come to notice that
the artwork gaining recognition is not all made
by men, but definitely speaks in a more male
language. Everything is really cold and logical.
By default, my more emotional, personal, work
feels “too girly” for the art world. I was having
a really diicult time communicating my ideas
with certain people and I started to feel, just,
really uncool. Then I would see these landmark
shows, and I’m not an expert on all the art that
ever happened, but there were suddenly all
these much older women whom I’d never heard
of who were finally having big solo shows. Had
they sort of proven something by being around
a super long time that, eventually, curators took
them seriously? What does a woman have to do
to show she is worthy of the same recognition as
her contemporary male artists? And how do we
open the lens of appreciation to factor in other
kinds of work that are not currently as validated?
Long story short, I noticed a definite connection
between a woman having to really prove her
legitimacy in the art world and the legitimacy of a
woman running for president with all that happened
before the election. I started my zine and show out of
sheer frustration at the obvious misogyny all around
us. I asked my female and non-binary friends to
contribute their work and thoughts to the zine
because I knew they were bound to feel the same
way I did. I also wanted to celebrate the talent all
around me that oten goes under-recognized. It was
the one thing I could do to “rattle the cages.” I try to
celebrate my own community and create the shows
that I would like to see.
www.serenacole.org

Above: I’m Dead, I’m Dead, I’m Dead, Watercolor, colored pencil, photo transfer and gold leaf on paper, 36” x 46”, 201 SERENA COLE JUXTAPOZ .COM 133
EVENTS WHERE WE’RE HEADED

David Wojnarowicz: History Keeps Me Awake at Night

@ Whitney Museum
July 13–Sep 30, 2018 whitney.org
How many times have we had to utter the sentiment that rings all too true, that we lost a truly great person
way too early? David Wojnarowicz was only 37 years old when he died, and like contemporaries Keith Haring
and Basquiat, the East Village stalwart left behind not only an immense body of work, but one of the most
lasting, and one that warrants re-examination. David Wojnarowicz: History Keeps Me Awake at Night
continues a socially and political conscious program at the Whitney Museum, and will also be the first survey
of Wojnarowicz’s work in well over a decade. The exhibition feels timely. Wojnarowicz, a prominent gay man
working during the onset of the AIDS epidemic, produced a breadth of work; sculpture, installation, writing, and
film that presaged the current generation of mixed-media artists who defy labels or one-practice. Even more
noteworthy, his work was first displayed in “raw storefront galleries,” providing an interesting link between the
Situationist process and contemporary interventionist street artists that we see today. Wojnarowicz once wrote
so profoundly, “These are strange and dangerous times. Some of us are born with the crosshairs of a rifle scope
printed on our backs or skulls.” History Keeps Me Awake at Night pulsates with the immediacy and urgency of
the artist’s career, almost aware that its brevity demands a full-on exploration of his entire being. “I can feel the
pressure,” Wojnarowicz wrote, “all I can feel is the pressure and the need for release.”

RESPECT:
Hip-Hop Style & Wisdom
@ Oakland Museum of California
Through August 12, 2018
museumca.org
Museums, galleries, corporations, politicians,
magazines, and many, many others have tried to
chronicle the history of hip hop in a significant
way. However, aiming to commodify a culture
born out of freedom and empowerment often
comes of as tone deaf, resulting in a disservice to
both themselves and hip hop by misrepresenting
and misappropriating it. Now that hip hop
has been brought into the mainstream, gone
worldwide, and defined American popular
culture for over 20 years, an accurate depiction
of the history of hip hop is more important than
ever. The Oakland Museum of California has
consulted with hip hop historians, practitioners,
and community members to present their latest
exhibition, RESPECT: Hip Hop Style & Wisdom.
A compilation of art, fashion, rituals, relics, and
a number of other incredible pieces of hip hop
history have been gathered for this dynamic
view of a significant culture and movement. The
exhibit provides historical context, underlying
principles, and contemporary examples
narrating hip hop's journey from New York City
to Oakland and beyond, displaying not only
an illustrative pictorial of hip hop music, but
also its cultural connection with graiti, cars,
skateboarding, chess, and various forms of
Afrocentric art. In addition to many others, the
show includes original pieces from Mickalene
Thomas, Kehinde Wiley, Martha Cooper, Apexer,
Hank Willis Thomas, Nick Cave, Jamel Shabazz,
and Jean-Michel Basquiat, as well as trophies
like LL Cool J's sweatsuit, skateboards adorned
with paintings of Too $hort, Casual, and Hiero,
and Grandmaster Flash's original DJ equipment.

134 SUMMER 2018


Beyond the Streets @ 1667
N Main Street, Los Angeles
Through July 6, 2018
beyondthestreets.com
It has been seven years since the MOCA's
groundbreaking Art in the Streets exhibition
opened in 2011, joined by a few other shows and
presentations that have tried to capture the
global phenomenon that is graiti and street
art. After all, we are in the midst of what might
be the most enduring art movement ever,
spanning nearly 50 years, with an incredibly
diehard following developing in the twenty-first
century alone. There hasn't been a major United
States presentation since Art In the Streets,
but curator Roger Gastman, who along with
Jefrey Deitch and Aaron Rose brought AITS to
MOCA, will expand on the subject, once again,
in his newest exhibition, Beyond the Streets, on
view in Los Angeles on through July 6, 2018.
Gastman will take an in-depth look at just how
expansive street culture has become in the
worlds of contemporary art, photography and
other mainstream pop and art movements. BTS
will feature the stalwarts: Barry McGee, Shepard
Fairey, LEE, Invader, Swoon, FUTURA, Martha
Cooper, and Lady Pink. It also sheds a light on how
these street pioneers influenced contemporary
and protest art. Guerilla Girls, Jenny Holzer, Takashi
Murakami, Dennis Hopper and Ron Finley will
also be highlighted. “Graiti and street art have
continued to evolve, and today they stand as very
important art movements that are established and,
more importantly, influence other genres within
contemporary art,” Gastman told Juxtapoz. “Art
in the Streets was a huge success, but there was
still so much more to say, artists to explore and
narratives to teach. Everyone has been wanting
more, the next chapter. I feel that it’s necessary to
continue this conversation.”
WHERE WE’RE HEADED
Caroline Wells Chandler
and Kari Cholnoky
@ Left Field Gallery,
San Luis Obispo
August 3–September 2, 2018
leftfieldgallery.com
Caroline Wells Chandler’s crocheted paintings
were memorable at last year’s Miami Art
Week, and we’ve chased them ever since. His
Queertopia is made up of cheeky characters
such as the B.E.R.T.s (Bareling Energy
Resonance Transmitters), who levitate with
capes and uninhibited joy, and the Buttheads,
who kick it in colorfully-striped tube socks.
At Left Field Gallery, he’s showing alongside
another textural artist, Kari Cholnoky, whose
work Chandler describes as, “extraterrestrial
hard drives spliced with bufalos, sex toys, and
Cheetos for programming human desire.” Being
from Queens and on the topic of the best coast’s
art, Chandler also explained, “California artists
lack seasonal afective disorder because the sun
is so euphoric, and that’s why the vibe is totally
diferent and pleasant, which is a bit of a stark
diference from a brooding and moody New
York painter tone.” We’ll take it, but our editors
note that you might also get S.A.D. from a lack of
opportunities to wear fashionable parkas. Head
to Left Field on your way to the beach for a rare
opportunity to see a couple of New York artists
with California souls.
EVENTS
Fintan Magee: The Big Dry
@ Thinkspace Gallery,
Culver City
June 2–June 23, 2018
thinkspaceprojects.com
Our August 2017 cover artist Fintan Magee is one
of the world's leading social realist muralists and
has been able to take his socially conscious work
and translate it for diferent communities around
the world, from Aberdeen to Sydney. Since our
interview, the Australian artist, also an exceptional
realist painter, has been working on a new series,
The Big Dry, which will be on view at Thinkspace
in Los Angeles this June. Memorable paintings
feature day laborers and refugees from around
the world, their portraits painted onto suburban
white picket fences. Fintan says of the series,
“This Work presents the white picket fence as a
symbol of the American dream and white, middle-
class suburban living, a monument to American
opulence that stands as a divider between the rich
and the poor. Acting as a metaphor for the ‘build a
wall’ mentality of the Trump era, the United States
is a country built on the hard work of immigrants,
and when I first visited Los Angeles and saw
the day laborers working in suburban gardens,
I remember wondering how many of them had
installed white picket fences. The juxtaposition of
workers painted onto these wooden palings aims
to highlight the role of immigrant labor in building
the modern USA while asking a simple question:
Who built the American dream?”
JUXTAPOZ .COM 135
SIEBEN ON LIFE

On Shaky
Ground
Risking It All For Art
Last month, my buddy Tim Kerr and I painted
a mural at an elementary school in Austin, Texas.
I spearheaded the project and had to manage all
aspects of the mural’s production, part of which
included renting a scissor lit to access the wall
upon which we were to be painting. The ground
underneath the site was dirt, and I proposed to
the school the idea of pouring a concrete sidewalk
on which to drive the scissor lit. No dice—too
much red tape involved. The backup plan was
hiring a landscaping company to level the soil
and laying down three-quarter-inch plywood
as a surface. Seemed like it could work, but the
hypothesis was untested. Sometimes you gotta
roll the dice, though.

I called a machinery-rental company the week

we were to begin and explained what I needed.
For some reason, I gave up the information that
we’d be driving the scissor lit on dirt/wood and
the guy I was talking to immediately said, “Yeah,
that’s not gonna work.” He told me he wouldn’t
rent the equipment if it was to be driven on wood,
so I hung up and called another company, this
time leaving out some information. Delivery
scheduled. Payment made. At this point in the
project, I was about $700 in and realized I hadn’t
factored plywood into the budget. Gulp. I made a
call to a buddy who has a rotting skeleton of a vert
ramp in his backyard to see if we could borrow
some sheets. “No problem,” was his response.
So, rather than picking up fresh, crisp sheets of
plywood from a lumberyard, we ended up laying
down gray, weathered wood that was definitely
past its sell-by date. DIY, right?

The day the scissor lit was delivered,

I intentionally had the company drop it of in
an area where they couldn’t see our worksite.
Then, ater they’d let, I drove the lit around
the corner onto the plywood where I could
hear the sheets splintering and cracking under
the machine’s weight. With a small audience
watching, I crash-test dummied the platform to
the top of the building while staring down at the
makeshit runway, wondering with every elevated
foot whether the guy that told me “…that’s not
gonna work,” actually knew what he was talking
about. As I rose into the sky, I couldn’t help but
envision the lit tipping over, seriously injuring
me (or worse). That didn’t happen, but the entire
experience was pretty terrifying/exhilarating.
We drove the scissor lit back and forth across the
wood for a week and it worked just fine. Perhaps
it’s sometimes good to scare yourself and put your
life at risk for art. Or maybe the moral of this story
is that I’m too dumb to create a safe workplace.
Either way, we finished the mural and nobody got
hurt. Well, my feelings got a little hurt when some
people said they didn’t like it, but that’s something
all of us deal with every time we put something
into the world. If everybody likes what you’re
doing, you’re probably doing it all wrong. Rise
above. —Michael Sieben

136 SUMMER 2018 Photo by: Michael Sieben

POP LIFE TOKYO, HONG KONG, NEW YORK CITY

Perrotin Gallery, Tokyo

1 Despite opening two consecutive
solo shows at Perrotin in Tokyo and
Hong Kong, we were able to snag
KAWS at his Tokyo show, back in the
city where his career took flight.

Art Basel, Hong Kong

2 The illustrious one, James Jarvis,
made an acclaimed return to
the Nanzuka booth at Art Basel
Hong Kong.

3 One week, Tokyo, the next, Hong

Kong. Madsaki turned the Kaikai Kiki
Gallery booth into his own personal
wonderland.

4 The legend himself, Mark Ryden,

was all over Hong Kong, but we
found him surrounded by his art in
a solo show at Art Basel with Paul
Kasmin Gallery.

5 The friendlies: Takashi Murakami

and Juxtapoz x Superflat standout,
Otani Workshop.

Lehmann Maupin,
Hong Kong
6 Summer 2018 cover artists,
OSGEMEOS, pose at Déjà Vu in
front of their sound installation,
making a buzz at Lehmann Maupin
in Hong Kong (read the full
interview on page 66).

Joshua Liner Gallery,

NYC
7 Painter Angela Heisch and
Printed Matter’s Leslie Lasiter
took in a superb Johnny Abrahams-
curated show, Superposition, at
Joshua Liner Gallery.

8 NYC’s Vanha Lam teaches her

own geometry in a series of these
great Broken Plane works. . .

9 . . . Tessa Perutz splits her time

between Brooklyn and Iceland, and
brings the flavor of each.

138 SUMMER 2018 Photos: Evan Pricco (1), Sasha Bogojev (2—6) and Jess Ross (7—9)
POP LIFE NEW YORK CITY, LOS ANGELES, BROOKLYN

Nicelle Beauchene
Gallery, New York
1 With perhaps the best painting
titles in the world, Andrea Joyce
Heimer opened her new solo show,
Fountainhead, at Nicelle Beauchene
Gallery, New York.

Jack Hanley Gallery,

New York
2 Modelo and flowers, perfect.
Danielle Orchard set the mood
at the opening of her brilliant show,
A Little Louder, Love, at Jack Hanley.

Thinkspace Projects,
Culver City
3 Bird of Flux: Amy Sol’s elegant
new works on display at Thinkspace
Projects.

Over the Influence,

Los Angeles
4 European union: Herakut came
out to support Vhils, whose solo
show Annihilation grandly opened
Over the Influence’s new downtown
Los Angeles space.

5 Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco

obeys Shepard Fairey.

6 Power dudes in a meeting:

Tristan Eaton, Cleon Peterson,
APEXER and Shark Toof . . .
7 . . . while power couple Dabs Myla
flashed their pearly whites.

Superchief Gallery,
Brooklyn
8 Juxtapoz celebrated the launch
of Spring 2018 with an issue release
party at Superchief in Brooklyn, and
along with friends at Carhartt WIP,
made a night of art, music and T-shirt
tossing. Superchief’s Edward Zipco
and Ruben carried the party vibe.

9 After giving the gallery a few

signature looks, L'Amour Supreme
celebrated with his girlfriend, jewelry
designer Kt Ferris.
10 Superchief’s Jetaime Pizarro
with Radimir Dragnborn.

11 There Will Never Be A Gallery Big

Enough… we saw all our old friends
and made some new ones.

140 SUMMER 2018 Photos: Jessica Ross (1—2), Birdman Photos (3—7) and Zach Nesmith (8—11)
PERSPECTIVE
Priest and Prophet
The R-Rated ABCs of Rammellzee
Elaborating on the ornate and abstract visual
language of wild style graiti, Rammellzee decided
to create his own alphabet, arming the letter for
assault against the tyranny of our information age.
A visionary, polymath and autodidact, Rammellzee
infused urban vernacular with a complex and
hermeneutic meta-structure that was informed
equally by the illuminated manuscripts of the
Middle Ages, the history of military strategy and
design, radical politics and semiotics.
A persistent and formidable figure in New
York’s Downtown scene since he moved from
his childhood home in the Rockaways and
relocated to a studio in Tribeca in the late ’70s,
Rammellzee garnered a legion of followers
(notably including A-One, Toxic and Kool Koor)
of his school of Gothic Futurism and stormed
public consciousness with his performances in
142 SUMMER 2018
films like Charlie Ahearn’s Wild Style and Jim
Jarmusch’s Stranger Than Paradise. His most
famous collaboration, however, was with his
one-time friend and life-long nemesis Jean-
Michel Basquiat, who immortalized him in his
masterwork Hollywood Africans and produced
Rammellzee’s signature single “Beat Bop,”
releasing it on his own label, Tar Town Records. To
this day, it is considered one of the foundational
records of hip hop. Ater enjoying much success
in the art world in the ’80s, Rammellzee would
turn his back on the gallery system and spend
the rest of his life producing the Afrofuturist
masterpiece The Battle Station, in his studio lot.
Guided by his treatise on “Ikonoklastik
Panzerism,” the first manifesto he wrote while
still a teen, Rammellzee was at once the high
priest of hip hop and a profoundly Conceptual
Left: RAMMЕLLZЕЕ as ‘Crux the Monk’, July 2002. Photography by Keetja Allard Right: RAMMЕLLZЕЕ at the Whitney Museum
of American Art’s Hip-hop ’til you drop performance, New York, 1989. Photography by Brian (B.Dub) Williams
artist. In his expansive cosmology, born of
b-boy dynamics, the wordplay of rap and the
social trespass of graiti, Rammellzee inhabited
multiple personae in an ongoing performance
art where identity and even gender became fluid
and hybrid. Over the past two decades of his
life, increasingly focused on his studio practice,
he created a mind-blowing universe of Garbage
Gods, Letter Racers, Monster Models and his
surrogate form, the vengeful deity of Gasolier.
Though his art, working with toxic materials, and
lifestyle brought about an early death in 2010,
his ideas and art remain a legacy we’ll be trying
to figure out for generations to come.
—Carlo McCormick
Carlo McCormick is co-curator of RAMMELLZEE:
Racing for Thunder, on view at Red Bull Arts New
York through August 26, 2018.
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