Subversive Beauty
This year in Miami during the annual Art Basel there was a new art fair. The Vanguard Fair organized by Gen Art. Eight galleries were chosen to represent a new art movement, and perhaps a new breed of contemporary art. Francesco LoCastro curated the Vanguard Fair. Among the invited galleries was the Satellite Gallery of Asheville, North Carolina. I was lucky enough to be asked by William Thompson the owner of Satellite to show in his space. As an artist deemed part of a new art movement, I am certainly honored. I came away from the experience full of new ideas on how my work is connected to the work of other artists all around the globe.
"I realized that I wasn't thinking where did we come from?"
In describing this new contemporary art, emphasis is usually placed on the cultural and stylistic influences of certain artists. Pop-surrealism is a term often associated with the kind of art at the Vanguard Fair. References to graffiti and comic book styles are also frequent, and in many cases quite relevant. But, while these kinds of descriptions may be helpful in conveying a basic genre into which one might lump this new art, they tend to focus on pointing backward, away from the art that is currently hanging on the wall. In the midst of a bustling and exciting show, I realized that I wasn't thinking where did we come from? Instead, I found myself looking around and thinking what are we doing here really?
For me, the most striking and universal trait of all the artists representing this new movement is our luscious unabashed aesthetic. None of us are afraid of making beautiful objects. The Vanguard Fair was full of carefully crafted, exquisite hand-made art. Beauty is perhaps a perilous term to introduce into a discussion about art. Not only is it in the eye of the beholder, it is culturally formulated—doubly subjective. For me, as an artist, beauty is a simple choice. When I imagine my next painting I choose that every aspect adds to its over-all exquisiteness. The colors, vibrant, the composition, intricate, and the light is glowing. I make it delicious. Perhaps a little too delicious?
The subjective nature of beauty allows it to be twisted. That twist is what I saw over and over at the Vanguard Fair. We all twist things a little differently. Some of us take the bold, eye-catching style of graffiti and make precious objects of something that is an inherently subversive act. Others make relics of characters who are rooted in comic books, sumptuous heroes from an imagined, fantastical world. I blend technology and nature into a mythic realm, and borrow from artists like Rembrandt and Bocsh. We are delicious deviants holding a deep-fried uprising.
"We are delicious deviants holding a deep-fried uprising."
"We claim beauty, shape her to our will."
Our hip little fair was situated in the Wynwood arts district. We were surrounded by more standard fairs and single galleries. Pulse was just across 1st avenue and Scope was a short walk away. Walking through both fairs allowed me to gain a sense of perspective on what was unique about the Vanguard Fair. When I spoke with LoCastro, his method for curating the show was simple, "I just invited my favorite galleries." This may seem rather obvious. But generally in the art world it is not obvious at all. What I saw at the more standard fairs was not necessarily about presenting satisfying content. While I did indeed see art that grabbed me throughout both fairs, so much of what I saw was an attempt on a dry, back-handed statement, rather than about making something you might really want to look at.
It is as if beauty itself is too suspect to be courted by much of the art world. Are we really so interested in making art that we don't actually like? At the Vanguard Fair everything was made to be liked. That was obvious even of the pieces one might not personally like. We claim beauty, shape her to our will. Behind many of our paintings there are stories, mythologies that uphold our particular, personal idea of beauty.
I once asked one of my professors if beauty could be subversive, he laughed and said, quite unequivocally, "no." Beauty is seen as bourgeois. There is always the risk that you might make something pretty. I saw that our paintings laugh in the face of this danger. While the larger art world might be tentative about courting beauty, we on the other hand, have eloped with her. There is a tinge of sinful indulgence to our relationship. I know that I set out to try to make the viewer like my paintings more than they think they should. I try to make their mouth water and their skin crawl. To manipulate and stroke the eye using every trick I have. The Vanguard Fair showed me that I am not alone. Our beauty is subversive because we make it ours.
