It’s been awhile since I have blogged or curated an exhibition. I took a little bit over a year off due to many issues, mainly my lack of enthusiasm for how the scene was going and headed. What once was a passion for me felt more like daily struggle to keep myself interested in what was going on. The oversaturation of mural festivals, lack of actual collectors buying into the culture other than superficial murals and corporate installations it seemed like a good time to take a break and get some perspective. After what seemed like forever I started to check instagram again, look at the scene again after unplugging. Not much has changed but being unplugged did allow me to recharge a little and get ready for the next chapter of graffuturism. This leads is to today, 3 months ago I was offered a position at Mirus Gallery San Francisco as Director which after contemplating for some time I decided to take. Selling artwork in a gallery wasn’t what I thought I wanted to do, especially when we are a bit ahead of the curve and people are yet to understand what we are doing. Yet I took the challenge to engage this issue directly instead of complaining about it. I have not been impressed with the general direction of commercial galleries and artists in general who have regressed instead of progressed in the past 3-4 years. What was fresh has staled in many ways, but there is hope and I do see valid inspiration still in the scene. This is why I am here and hoping to reengage those who are also stuck in this same dilemma.
Coming full circle I decided to bring back one of the first large exhibitions I ever curated “A Major Minority”. This time instead of large group of artists I wanted to decrease the list of artists. This is the way I currently see things, the cliché Less is more makes more sense to me today as I have had the opportunity to gain some perspective. What I’ve learned is that by focusing my attention on smaller samples I can relate a clearer message and have greater impact. So for this exhibition I was able to create a dynamic group of artists with great range in mediums, subject matter, and aesthetics while still keeping to my original exhibition concept and essay which you can read in full length here. I hope you can appreciate this exhibition as much as I did. I plan to keep this blog updated when its important and continue to curate and engage in todays conversation about other contemporary urban art. I stand behind my work and hope you take time to reread the essay linked above, I curated this show based on that essay not some catchy art phrase like New Contemporary art which really means nothing. #fucknewcontemporary I hope you appreciate this post and I challenge all the curators out there to stop being lazy and stand behind some art catchphrase, write about what you are doing, do your artists a service and help them progress to new elevations.
GF
A Major Minority is an international exhibition consisting of urban artists from around the world. The concept and title of the show were developed by graffiti artist, Poesia, who is also the editor of Graffuturism.com and the cultural instigator at the center of the growing interest in abstract, progressive and hybrid Graffiti art forms. This will be the 3rd installment of A Major Minority and a much more intimate exhibition than previous ones, which incorporated hundreds of works of art. Poesia elected to exhibit this smaller quantity and particular group of artists in order to display a more condensed spectrum of progressive hybrid aesthetics within the Othercontemporary Urban Art community. This intensive and extensive sampling of stylistic specimens illustrates a broad continuum of approaches and aesthetics that fall under the purview of this art form, without focusing on any one sub-genre exclusively. The exhibition is free and open to the public for viewing through September 9, 2017.
Featured Artists:
Alex Kuznetsov
Augustine Kofie
Cain Caser
Carlos Mare
Chad Hasagawa
Christopher Derek Bruno
Demsky
Fillipo Minelli
Gris 1
Jan Kalab
Jaybo Monk
N.O.Madski
Sabio Mazza
Seikon
West Rubenstein
Zeser