“E Pluribus Venom” by Shepard FaireyJonathan LeVine Gallery
Gallery I / Solo Exhibit
June 23, 2007 through July 21, 2007
Jonathan LeVine Gallery exhibits Shepard Fairey’s first solo show in there named “E Pluribus Venom”. Furthermore, this exhibition is also held in the Dumbo Installation Space (June 21 – July 7), so we can see his collections, including stencils, paintings, mixed media on canvas as well as large-scale murals. Jonathan LeVine Gallery of Chelsea exhibits works inspired by some comic books, illustration, graffiti etc. The original name of the gallery was the Tin Man Alley Gallery of Philadelphia and New Hope, PA. After four years later in Pennsylvania, the gallery moved to Chelsea in 2005 and now, the owner and curator, Jonathan LeVine brings fresh atmosphere of art from famous and unknown artists. Exhibitions usually rotate every six weeks.
Shepard Fairey (1970- ) is a contemporary well-known artist in America because of his “Obey Giant” street campaign. In 1989 he first started his experiment with stickers of “Andre the Giant has a Posse” when he was a student at RISD. After that, he became a famous artist using the slogan “The Medium is the Message” and we can find his stickers or some parodies easily around the streets all over the world.
The OBEY stickers can be seen as experiments in phenomenology. People wonder about the meaning of the sticker and try to find out the relationship between the sticker and the environment around them. Actually the sticker means nothing. It is a kind of commercial for nothing and people just react to it. This tiny vandalism can make people perceive their view of value or personalities.
According to the introduction by the gallery, the title of the exhibition “E Pluribus Venom”, which means “out of many, poison,” is derived from the early motto “E Pluribus Unum” (“out of many, one”) by the American government and we can see this slogan on dollar bills. Fairey thinks that becoming one in a mechanical society is the symptom to the decline of the city. Therefore, he refers to a metaphor about the poison of American system and the people affected by the system. We can see the symbols and implication about politics and humor of American dreams. Also we can hear Fairey’s critique about people who support blind nationalism and war.
When I saw his works for the first time, I could not enjoy his art because the concept is hard to understand. I am not familiar with political problems and the perceptions about society like capitalism, fascism. Actually I like his sticker campaign because stickers are so simple as a medium but they give the public the meaning of the artwork easily. However, after reviewing the gallery introduction and some articles, I started to be interested in the clear meaning of his works. You might feel that his works are very similar, but you could find some clues to understand his thought. I want you to take time in the gallery and experience phenomenology while seeing his works.
1 comment:
Heeyoung’s post tells me specifically about Shepard Fairey’s show and Jonathan Levine Gallery which is Fairey’s show is exhibited, though I had no idea about both of them. While reading Heeyoung’s post, I could obscurely think of the OBEY stickers in somewhere. The meaning was nothing but I was surprised at his intention that people tend to react to the message. After reading this post, I saw the picture again and I couldn’t hold laughing. At first, when I saw the picture, I thought it was a praying girl and the painter’s name was SHEPARD Fairey. It seemed quite harmonized. However, after reading her post, praying girl was somewhat not matched with him. The girl wasn’t praying. She was holding a hand grenade! I didn’t think of uploading picture with post is this effective but Heeyoung made me totally understand about the purpose of this show and want to know about it more. Next time, if I have a chance like this situation, I’ll may imitate this explanation method.
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