April 22 - July 9, 2017
This exhibit, a collaboration with Los Angeles-based gallery Thinkspace, showcases the New Contemporary movement, widely considered the largest and longest running art movement in history. The exhibit celebrates the impact of one of its most enduring media platforms, Juxtapoz Magazine, and is presented in conjunction with a major retrospective of the work of its founder and most iconic trailblazer, Robert Williams.
The New Contemporary Art Movement has been largely self-sustained by a network of alternative cultural platforms outside 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. Boasting over 400,000 followers through its various social media outlets, Thinkspace has helped to bring the work to a wider international audience. 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, 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 byJuxtapoz Magazine. 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 installations by Laurence Vallieres and Icy and Sot, plus site-specific murals by Cinta Vidal & Meggs. 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, Kazuhiro Tsuji, 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.
This exhibition has been organized by Andrew and Shawn Hosner, curators and co-owners of Thinkspace Art Gallery, Josef Zimmerman, curator of New Contemporary Art at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, with the assistance of Gary Pressman of Copro Gallery in Santa Monica, CA.