JUXTAPOZED Group Exhibition / Robert Williams 'Slang Aesthetics' Museum Exhibition


WHERE: 311 E Main Street Fort Wayne, Indiana 46802 www.fwmoa.org (260) 422-6467
Further info call Copro Gallery Ph: 310/829-2156

E-Mail: CoproGallery@Live.com
Web: www.CoproGallery.com

WHAT: 'JUXTAPOZED' Group Exhibition / Robert Williams 'Slang Aesthetics' Museum Exhibition
WEB-PREVIEW

WHEN: OPENS Friday April 21, 7:00 - 10:00PM
Saturday, April 22, 1:00 PM - Robert Williams Artist Talk and Exhibit tour

Exhibit runs; April 21 – July 9, 2017

Contact:  Gary Pressman, Gallery Director Copro Gallery

JUXTAPOZED Museum Group Exhibit

Robert Williams: SLANG Aesthetics!

Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Indiana
April 22 - July 9, 2017

(Fort Wayne, IN) - Opening April 21, 2017, at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art are Juxtapozed and Robert Williams: SLANG Aesthetics! , co-curated by Andrew Hosner of Thinkspace Gallery, Gary Pressman of Copro Gallery, and Adjunct Curator of the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Josef Zimmerman. A reinforced mission to garner institutional exposure and recognition for New Contemporary Art, its history, founders, key players, and artists, the exhibitions celebrate the impact of one of its most enduring magazine platforms, and the work of one of its most iconic trailblazers. Now widely considered the largest and longest running art movement in history, the New Contemporary Art Movement encompasses everything from Street Art and Muralism to Pop Surrealism and Hyperrealism.

The New Contemporary Art Movement has been largely self-sustained through a network of alternative cultural platforms, primarily outside of the mainstream and institutionally vetted art markets, including social media, blogs, zines, underground collectives, galleries, and urban and alternative spaces. Copro and Thinkspace galleries in Los Angeles are two of the movement's most visible and active proponents, taking the work to art fairs, collaborating with galleries internationally, and opening institutional channels for its exhibition and appreciation. As the movement continues to expand on a global scale, its diversity, inclusivity, and vitality set it apart from more exclusionary art world models.

Co-founder and Curator of Thinkspace Gallery, Andrew Hosner, says, "Our plan is to continue to knock on the door of the establishment until more listen, more take notice, more start to add these artists to their permanent collections, and start to give the movement the attention it has earned and deserved."

Juxtapozed , a show title drawn from the magazine of the same name in the imperative tense, celebrates the legacy made possible by Juxtapoz. The access the publication has facilitated since the early 90s to a widely cast variety of media and expressions, has shaped the movement itself and preserved its continued relevance. Founded in San Francisco in 1994 by Robert Williams, Craig Stecyk, Greg Escalante, Eric Swenson and Fausto Vitello, Juxtapoz evolved from the intent to foster and support the art and culture of the underground. The magazine provided an alternative voice and narrative as a counterpart to the dominant New York-centric discourse of contemporary art and featured artists who straddled the boundaries between “high” and “low” culture. Aligning itself with the aesthetics of contemporary street culture, figurative art, California car culture, gig posters, tattoos, graphics, psychedelia, and comics, the publication became a conduit and forum for an entirely new generation of artists who were latching on to a populist visual vernacular.

Juxtapozed features an installation by Laurence Vallieres and murals by Cinta Vidal & Bumblebeelovesyou. The group exhibition features individual works by 48 New Contemporary artists, including 1010, Aaron Nagel, Alex Garant, Allison Sommers, Amy Sol, Bec Winnel, Benjamin Garcia, Chris Mars, Cinta Vidal, Craig ‘Skibs' Barker, Daniel Bilodeau, David Rice, Derek Gores, Dulk, Erik Siador, Erika Sanada, Fernando Chamarelli, Frank Gonzales, Fuco Ueda, Ian Francis, Jeff Gilette, Joe Sorren, Joel, Daniel Phillips, Jolene Lai, Jon Swihart, Josh Keyes, Juan Travieso, Kazu, Kelly Vivanco, Kikyz1313, Lauren Brevner, Liz Brizzi, Mark Ryden, Martin Whatson, Martin Wittfooth, Mary Iverson, Mike Davis, Meggs, Ron English, Sepe, Sergio Garcia, Shag, Shepard Fairey, Stephanie Buer, Telmo Miel, Travis Louie, Wiley Wallace, and Yosuke Ueno.

Shown alongside Juxtapozed , is Robert Williams: SLANG Aesthetics!, featuring recent works by an artist widely upheld as the godfather of the low brow and pop surrealist art movements, direct antecedents of the New Contemporary Art Movement. As both patriarch and Outlaw, Williams' enduring influence on the movement is undeniable. A true maverick who sought to create vital work that channeled the shifting energies and immediacy of the countercultural, from the 60's onward, Williams' self-described "Conceptual Realist" paintings invoked a return to craftsmanship, figuration, and demotic imagery that rejected the more elitist tenets of conceptual minimalism.

Fort Wayne Museum of Art

311 E Main Street Fort Wayne, Indiana 46802 www.fwmoa.org (260) 422-6467

About the Fort Wayne Museum of Art

Beginning with art classes in 1888 given by J. Ottis Adams and later William Forsyth, the Fort Wayne Museum of Art has evolved into a center for the visual arts community in Northeast Indiana. Regularly exhibiting regional and nationally acclaimed artists, the FWMoA also boasts an extensive permanent collection of American Art as well as prints and drawings from artists such as Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol. The Museum is committed to the collection, preservation, presentation and interpretation of American and related art to engage broad and diverse audiences throughout the community and region, and add value to their lives. The Fort Wayne Museum of Art is a funded partner of Arts United of Greater Fort Wayne. www.fwmoa.org


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