Arts Do It
I don’t know much about “urban contemporary” art, and in fact the term makes me feel a little queasy, but what I do know is that Kirsten Anderson has run Roq La Rue for 8 years, and has earned your respect doing so, and if you have even remotely liked anything she’s done (it’s not easy being a gallerist, you know), then get over to the opening of her new venture tonight from 6 to 10 pm. The place is called BLVD, the address is 2316 Second Ave (next to Roq La Rue), and she says “urban contemporary” means stuff influenced by graffiti, hiphop, DIY, and skateboard culture.
“The kids who do pop surrealism (RLR’s specialty) grew up listening to punk rock,” she told me in a recent interview. “The kids who do urban contemporary, as we’re calling it, grew up listening to hip-hop and rap.”
Anderson sees her gallery in opposition to conceptual and abstract art, and the way she expresses her opinion about that is funny: “The whole thing is, people want to see pictures of people doing stuff.”
You decide. Get down there.
Here’s an image from the opening show, by Iosefatu Sua.
That picture reminds me of stuff by Gajin Fujita, who would also seem to fall into the "urban contemporary" category. I saw a little exhibition of his paintings in LA, and I found myself impressed.
In case any artists or gallerists are reading this: I'm a young person, and I'd like to see pictures of inanimate objects doing stuff. Even better, how about stuff doing people?
John Constable sketched a bunch of clouds doing stuff, and it was really great.