Bill McMullen’s exhibtion ‘Check’s Cashed‘ continues this weekend at the HVW8 Art + Design Gallery.
Bill McMullen:
Checks Cashed
HVW8 Art + Design Gallery
661 N. Spaulding Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Opening: July 31, 2010, 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm Closes: September 14, 2010
http://gallery.hvw8.com/category/current/
“Bill McMullen wields a light-saber wit all his own… Think Bruce Nauman meets blaxploitation: funky but chic, subversively milking high art for cheap laughs.”
– Flavorpill
Checks Cashed is the new gallery show by beloved/notorius artist Bill McMullen, opening July 31st, 2010 at Los Angeles’ HVW8 Art + Design Gallery. Checks Cashed is all about subverting history with absurd pop-cultured imagery. The new work from the Southern California bred, NYC-based McMullen embraces both Situationism and situation comedy, landing in between with its confrontational black-and-white monochrome language of punk rock flyers and escort-service ads. It’s at once familiar, entertaining, and disturbing, especially to a new generation of consumers who’ve never had to deal with anything like the economic failure, war, or the environmental disasters of today.
McMullen is renowned for his witty, pointed combination of high art presentation, graphic design immediacy, and street art’s confrontational boldness. He’s as well known for his KidRobot toys, Adidas designs, and Beastie Boys album covers as he is for his gallery shows, and he blends that provocative sensibility into Checks Cashed. Rooted in the visual language familiar to those living paycheck to paycheck, Checks Cashed picks up where McMullen’s previous exhibition at L.A.’s Constant Gallery, 2009’s Hype, Hustle, Rip Off, left off (“Fantastic cutting-edge art – definitely worth seeking out,” SlamXHype raved; “McMullen’s work ultimately resonates because it does more than brand, copy, market, and elevate,” noted Limité). But where Hype… demonstrated McMullen’s multimedia ADD (turning R2D2 into a boombox, reconfiguring Starbucks and Coca-Cola logos into camo combat gear) in his new work, McMullen strips away his relentless, Times Square-meets-Roppongi color palette. Instead, he focuses on the iconic, harsh black-and-white half-tone of old-school newspapers and pre-Internet Xeroxed ‘zines –
even down to painting the exhibition walls black, contradicting the traditional gallery “white cube.”
Here, McMullen combines the radical photomontage of Barbara Kruger and John Heartfield, the pop appropriation of Richard Prince and Andy Warhol, and the irreverent cut-and-paste sampling of hip-hop – all with the flavor of someone known for, say, designing Method Man album covers. Ultimately, Checks Cashed compels because of that same contradiction: putting his money where his mouth is, McMullen balances conceptual toughness with advertising’s seductive surfaces and the irreverence of urban culture. – Matt Diehl
Noah Butkus is interviewed at the HVW8 Art + Design Gallery.
Images of the Noah Butkus’ Artwork currently on display at the HVW8 Art + Design Gallery.
Slippery People
New Works by Noah Butkus
Opening Night: Saturday June 19th 7 – 10pm
with support from Stussy, The Standard and adidas.
bio:
Growing up, Noah found himself spending all of his time with skateboards and comic books. This is where he found all his inspiration, and for the most part still does. Aside from art and design for the band Death Threat, his first widely recognized output appeared on graphics for Burton Snowboards. This work was followed by commissions for posters, ads, catalogs, and product applications from a wide variety of companies.
INTERVIEW OPENER:
There is an intangible feeling of nostalgia embedded in so much of Noah Butkus’s work. It’s a quality that’s vividly displayed in his stark black and white illustrations and whimsical paintings, but nearly impossible to explain, and his illustrations often delve into darker, even stranger territory. Mysterious hooded men disembowel one another with swords while jousting on skateboards; squishy, intestine-like tubes (with tongues) serpentine through homes that are actually hamburgers; and skull-faced men with empty eye sockets look on, faces melting. And while it may sound like the work of a deeply troubled mind, Butkus flawlessly pulls it of, treading a thin line between serious and surreal.
A child of the 1970s, and a self-taught artist, Butkus cites comic books as a key influence on and inspiration for his work. But not just any comic books, Mr. Butkus has standards, referencing the output of artists who dominated the scene in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Illustrators like Jim Steranko, Moebius, and Richard Corben are among the names he quickly rattles off. But there is more to Mr. Butkus than illustration, he is also a successful graphic designer, having done work for a range of clients from Burton Snowboards (where he honed his design skills) to Stussy to Nike. And while Butkus mentions that he’s been drawing most of his life, he claims he originally got the bug to pursue art after doing t-shirt and album cover art for his brother’s hardcore band, Death Threat . A five-year stint in the trenches at a screenprinting shop followed before he broke off to design snowboard graphics at Burton.
Originally from Hartford, Connecticut, Butkus now lives in Manhattan. At 32, he has already paid considerable dues in the art world. No longer tied to a company desk he spends his days at his studio, balancing commercial and personal work. In recent years he has also begun exhibiting his work in both solo and group exhibitions. Having worked with Mr. Butkus in the past, he contributed a page to an anthology I edited in 2005 called Young & Reckless , I wanted to catch up with him and talk at greater length about his work. I hope you enjoy.
here’s the rest of the interview
http://matthewnewton.us/madeyoulook/noahbutkus#6slideshow-325-field_multiimage
Blog links:
Thanks to everyone who came out to enjoy our transformed pop up parking lot extravaganza. Our biggest event at the gallery to date. Great food, good people, art, drinks, sunshine and Music courtesy of Hawthorne Headunters, Crown Royale and Mayer Hawthorne and the County. It was an amazing night!
Thanks to adidas originals for making this happen and Hit + Run for the amazing shirts.
More Photos and Video will be posted shortly, please check back.
other blogs:
Charles Munka at HVW8 Art + Design Gallery from HVW8 on Vimeo.
Charles Munka Interview during his show at the HVW8 Art +Design Gallery.
Images from last week’s Installation of the One Way Or Another exhibition featuring artwork by Eric Anthony, Todd Bratrud, Mark Fos Foster, Greg Pnut Galinsky, Ben Horton, Matt Irving, Andy Jenkins, Michael Leon, Geoff Mcfetridge, Travis Millard, Donny Miller, Mat O’Brien, Dennis McNett, Andrew Pommier, Michael Sieben.
Look for prints from the show now posted in the HVW8 Online shop.
More information on the One Way Or Another traveling artshow on Color Magazine.
Thank you to everyone who came by the opening of Charles Munka’s Double Knock Out at the HVW8 Art + Design Gallery.
Show runs through June 13th.
A few photos of the newly renovated HVW8 Gallery shop.
Please come by and visit Tuesday through Sunday, 1 to 6pm.
