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Beautiful Losers: Contemporary Art and Street Culture opens at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts featuring works by Shepard Fairey, Andy Jenkins, Ed Templeton, Barry McGee, plus Basquiat, Haring, Warhol and more
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts presents Beautiful
Losers: Contemporary Art and Street Culture and
Free Basin, two exhibitions that explore the
intersection of art and street activity. On view in the
Center’s galleries from July 17 to October 10, 2004, both
exhibitions celebrate the independent spirit of street culture
and offer insight into vital underground activities normally
unheralded and largely unknown by the mainstream.
YBCA Visual Arts Curator René de Guzman notes that while the artists in Beautiful Losers may, “occupy the edges of society, they are nonetheless key to the forward movement of our culture in general. The social substrate they occupy is the breeding ground for new ideas and forms of expression.”
Beautiful Losers: Contemporary Art and Street Culture, organized by the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, is a first of its kind, multi-disciplinary exhibition of art and design from a diverse group of visual artists who participate in, or are inspired by, the street culture organized around skateboarding, graffiti, punk, hip-hop and other D.I.Y. (Do-It-Yourself) subcultures in U.S. urban centers. Guest curated by Aaron Rose and Christian Strike of Iconoclast Productions with René de Guzman, Thom Collins and Matt Distel, the exhibition includes a variety of similarly inspired art forms and material culture such as installations, paintings, sculptures, photography, film, video, and clothing and product design from the last decade.
Concurrently, Gallery One premieres Free Basin, a full-scale hand-crafted skate bowl designed by SIMPARCH, an art team of Steve Badgett and Matt Lynch. Free Basin’s presentation will be the only occasion for its experience on the West Coast after having astonished audiences all over the world in exhibitions from New York to Germany. This unique and fully functional installation combines aspects of architecture, performance art, sport and sculpture.
BEAUTIFUL LOSERS: Contemporary Art and Street Culture
Beautiful Losers is organized into five sections: Roots examines the work of cultural producers who have directly influenced the current generation of artists; Beautiful Losers, the core of the exhibition, showcases multimedia art inspired by popular underground youth subcultures; Soundscape is an audio project by former professional skateboarder Tommy Guerrero; Ephemera includes album covers, clothing, toys, and interactive media; and a film and video program includes works by Spike Jonze, Harmony Korine, Mike Mills, and others.
Beautiful Losers presents works by established artists—including Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring—as well as artists making their exhibition debut. Also featured are works by Phil Frost, known for his complex installations on the New York streets and for found object constructions and bold, graphic works on canvas; Shepard Fairey, a graffiti artist who captivated the masses with his Andre the Giant/Obey iconic image; and Cynthia Connolly, a Washington, D.C.-based photographer who helped define “punk photography.” Other artists are local favorites Mark Gonzalez, Chris Johanson, Margaret Kilgallen, and Barry McGee, as well as Thomas Campbell, Brian Donnelly (KAWS), Evan Hecox, Jo Jackson, Todd James (REAS), James Jarvis, Andy Jenkins, Geoff McFetridge, Ryan McGinness, Stephen Powers (ESPO), Clare Rojas, Ed Templeton, Romon (Rostarr) Yang, and Tobin Yelland.
Beautiful Losers: Contemporary Art and Street Culture is accompanied by a four-color illustrated catalog (275 pages) , edited by Aaron Rose and Christian Strike with essays by Alex Baker, Thom Collins, Jeffery Deitch, Carlo McCormick, Arty Nelson, Aaron Rose, Christian Strike , James E. Walmesley, and Jocko Weyland, and an introduction by René de Guzman and Thom Collins.
The exhibition is made possible by the generous support of Nike and Agnes b. Promotional support provided by The San Francisco Bay Guardian and San Francisco Magazine.
FREE BASIN
Free Basin is a monumental sculpture in the form of a kidney-shaped pool that doubles as an indoor skate bowl. Free Basin was created in 2000 by Simparch, an artists’ collective that produces works operating on the borders of architecture, design and popular culture. Free Basin was designed to be explored from both above and below—when visitors enter the gallery underneath the skating surface they experience the rhythms and sounds of the skateboarding taking place in the bowl above.
Free Basin ranges in depth from 7 feet at its deep end to 3-1/2 feet at its shallowest, and occupies an area that measures 24 feet at its widest and 40 feet at its longest. The structure is elevated, with two stairwells leading to a platform where visitors can view the inside of the bowl and see how the skateboarders respond to the particular character of its sculptural form.
Uniting Simparch’s projects is an overarching concern for the work’s social potential—Free Basin connects the vocabulary of art and architecture with a desire to bring together a diverse group of participants, and ultimately functions as a site for communal interaction and social exchange. During the exhibition, Yerba Buena will provide regular access to skaters and present programs that will include skate team demos, musical events and other public programs. Audiences will be able to “skate” Free Basin Tuesday, Wednesday, Sunday from 12 noon to 4 pm and Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 2 pm to 7 pm . Promotional support for these programs is made possible by Thrasher. Free Basin, was commissioned by the Hyde Park Art Center in Illinois and has been presented at the Wexner Art Center , Columbus , Ohio ; in Kassel, Germany at Documenta, and in New York at Deitch Projects. The project is made possible by the generous support of Vans and the Tony Hawk Foundation.
The Opening Night Party will feature SF underground bands including the Coachwhips and Erase Errata, and DJ Quest and others spinning hip-hop, breaks, techno and rock . The night will also include pro-skater demos on Free Basin , a full-scale hand-crafted skate bowl, screenings of skate-related films , silent auction of customized skateboards and r affles and giveaways. The Opening Night at YBCA is supported by Tokion.
YBCA Visual Arts Curator René de Guzman notes that while the artists in Beautiful Losers may, “occupy the edges of society, they are nonetheless key to the forward movement of our culture in general. The social substrate they occupy is the breeding ground for new ideas and forms of expression.”
Beautiful Losers: Contemporary Art and Street Culture, organized by the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, is a first of its kind, multi-disciplinary exhibition of art and design from a diverse group of visual artists who participate in, or are inspired by, the street culture organized around skateboarding, graffiti, punk, hip-hop and other D.I.Y. (Do-It-Yourself) subcultures in U.S. urban centers. Guest curated by Aaron Rose and Christian Strike of Iconoclast Productions with René de Guzman, Thom Collins and Matt Distel, the exhibition includes a variety of similarly inspired art forms and material culture such as installations, paintings, sculptures, photography, film, video, and clothing and product design from the last decade.
Concurrently, Gallery One premieres Free Basin, a full-scale hand-crafted skate bowl designed by SIMPARCH, an art team of Steve Badgett and Matt Lynch. Free Basin’s presentation will be the only occasion for its experience on the West Coast after having astonished audiences all over the world in exhibitions from New York to Germany. This unique and fully functional installation combines aspects of architecture, performance art, sport and sculpture.
BEAUTIFUL LOSERS: Contemporary Art and Street Culture
Beautiful Losers is organized into five sections: Roots examines the work of cultural producers who have directly influenced the current generation of artists; Beautiful Losers, the core of the exhibition, showcases multimedia art inspired by popular underground youth subcultures; Soundscape is an audio project by former professional skateboarder Tommy Guerrero; Ephemera includes album covers, clothing, toys, and interactive media; and a film and video program includes works by Spike Jonze, Harmony Korine, Mike Mills, and others.
Beautiful Losers presents works by established artists—including Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring—as well as artists making their exhibition debut. Also featured are works by Phil Frost, known for his complex installations on the New York streets and for found object constructions and bold, graphic works on canvas; Shepard Fairey, a graffiti artist who captivated the masses with his Andre the Giant/Obey iconic image; and Cynthia Connolly, a Washington, D.C.-based photographer who helped define “punk photography.” Other artists are local favorites Mark Gonzalez, Chris Johanson, Margaret Kilgallen, and Barry McGee, as well as Thomas Campbell, Brian Donnelly (KAWS), Evan Hecox, Jo Jackson, Todd James (REAS), James Jarvis, Andy Jenkins, Geoff McFetridge, Ryan McGinness, Stephen Powers (ESPO), Clare Rojas, Ed Templeton, Romon (Rostarr) Yang, and Tobin Yelland.
Beautiful Losers: Contemporary Art and Street Culture is accompanied by a four-color illustrated catalog (275 pages) , edited by Aaron Rose and Christian Strike with essays by Alex Baker, Thom Collins, Jeffery Deitch, Carlo McCormick, Arty Nelson, Aaron Rose, Christian Strike , James E. Walmesley, and Jocko Weyland, and an introduction by René de Guzman and Thom Collins.
The exhibition is made possible by the generous support of Nike and Agnes b. Promotional support provided by The San Francisco Bay Guardian and San Francisco Magazine.
FREE BASIN
Free Basin is a monumental sculpture in the form of a kidney-shaped pool that doubles as an indoor skate bowl. Free Basin was created in 2000 by Simparch, an artists’ collective that produces works operating on the borders of architecture, design and popular culture. Free Basin was designed to be explored from both above and below—when visitors enter the gallery underneath the skating surface they experience the rhythms and sounds of the skateboarding taking place in the bowl above.
Free Basin ranges in depth from 7 feet at its deep end to 3-1/2 feet at its shallowest, and occupies an area that measures 24 feet at its widest and 40 feet at its longest. The structure is elevated, with two stairwells leading to a platform where visitors can view the inside of the bowl and see how the skateboarders respond to the particular character of its sculptural form.
Uniting Simparch’s projects is an overarching concern for the work’s social potential—Free Basin connects the vocabulary of art and architecture with a desire to bring together a diverse group of participants, and ultimately functions as a site for communal interaction and social exchange. During the exhibition, Yerba Buena will provide regular access to skaters and present programs that will include skate team demos, musical events and other public programs. Audiences will be able to “skate” Free Basin Tuesday, Wednesday, Sunday from 12 noon to 4 pm and Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 2 pm to 7 pm . Promotional support for these programs is made possible by Thrasher. Free Basin, was commissioned by the Hyde Park Art Center in Illinois and has been presented at the Wexner Art Center , Columbus , Ohio ; in Kassel, Germany at Documenta, and in New York at Deitch Projects. The project is made possible by the generous support of Vans and the Tony Hawk Foundation.
The Opening Night Party will feature SF underground bands including the Coachwhips and Erase Errata, and DJ Quest and others spinning hip-hop, breaks, techno and rock . The night will also include pro-skater demos on Free Basin , a full-scale hand-crafted skate bowl, screenings of skate-related films , silent auction of customized skateboards and r affles and giveaways. The Opening Night at YBCA is supported by Tokion.
