It's All About The Way You L.H.O.O.Q.

I went to the new MoMA for the first time this weekend since it relocated in 2004. Despite the mass of people at the museum, which emulate America's obsession with assemblage, I was able to view Gabriel Orozco's exhibition before closing March 1st. Gabriel Orozco is a Mexican artist who finds beauty in the normality of our surroundings. The show gave you a retrospect of his work since he first emerged into the art world in the early 1990s. Orozco resists from confining himself to one medium, instead he uses his eye as an apparatus to discover beautiful composition and abandoning common conceptions of “what is art”. Much like Duchamp pushed the limits of what is considered art by altering the composition of an everyday object (Fountain, 1917), so does Orozco with a poetic and less abrasive approach. Like a photographer he discovers the art in something by manipulating the way you look at it discovering a beautiful composition rather than making it.

In his series, First Was The Spitting I-IV, 1993, Orozco experiment with chance and restricted control of mark-making to create beautiful compositions. And other pieces such as, My Hands Are My Heart really show the honesty of his work where these pieces resemble a sophisticated version of what a child might create.

I OBEY Giant

I first came to find out about Shepard Fairey during my freshman year at RISD when I saw the OBEY sticker that had placed him on the map on graffiti art. I was educated by a friend on the brief history of this artist and the massive attention this one sticker that displayed Andre the Giant. He pioneered graffiti art and introduced guerilla art to a larger audience. I’ve always been interested in art where the subject matter is a commentary on pop culture.

There is a current show in the ICA (The Institute of Contemporary Art) that I was able to visit this weekend while I was in Boston. The show exhibits a range of work from the contemporary and sometimes controversial graphic artist, Shepard Fairey. Fairey has become a worldwide cultural phenomenon, which seemed to have come overnight with the image of the century, the iconic “Hope” portrait which pictures our current president, Barack Obama (image above). It displays Obama looking out into the distance with a look of optimism, the image has become such a strong statement for our historic year of change. The image also exhibited Fairey to the mainstream audience, although Fairey has been making work since the early 1990s. His first piece which gained mass recognition in the art world was a campaign sticker her designed while he was studying at RISD.

Pieces also featured in the show…