Shepard Fairey
Jesse Goldstein
Amy S. Kauffman
Erin McDade
Todd St. John
Adam Wallacavage
Andrew Jeffrey Wright
Dave Delaney
John Freeborn
Joseph Hart
Jim Houser
Jordin Isip
Andrew Kuo
Thom Lessner
Tim Lewis
Shelter Serra
Shelley Spector
Issac T. Lin
Rebecca Westcott
and Ben Woodward
John Freeborn
This group exhibition features artists who have contributed to the emerging contemporary art movement in Philadelphia. Curated by John Freeborn.
Curated by John Freeborn
SUBLIMINAL PROJECTS is pleased to announce Big Kids / Little Kids, the
traveling art exhibition curated by John Freeborn. Inspired by his
book, the exhibition features artists who have contributed to the
emerging contemporary art movement in Philadelphia. The Los Angeles
exhibition marks the third stop on the tour after its east coast
launch and presents new drawings, paintings, photography, prints and
mixed media works by featured artists Shepard Fairey, Jesse Goldstein,
Amy S. Kauffman, Erin McDade, Todd St. John, Adam Wallacavage, and
Andrew Jeffrey Wright. Works by artists Dave Delaney, John Freeborn,
Joseph Hart, Jim Houser, Jordin Isip, Andrew Kuo, Thom Lessner, Tim
Lewis, Shelter Serra, Shelley Spector, Issac T. Lin, Rebecca Westcott,
and Ben Woodward will also be on view. Big Kids / Little Kids will run
from July 19 through August 8, 2008, with an opening reception held
for the artists on Saturday, July 19 from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.
The focus of the exhibition is “the artists from the book, and the
intertwined connections that we all have,” Freeborn explains. “The
show itself is an evolving exhibition, changing from venue to venue.
The work at each show is specific to the venue, and aims to exemplify
the interconnected, cross-influences, and friendships across this
dynamic group of people.” Big Kids / Little Kids also supports the
recognition and awareness of the Philadelphia art scene on a global
scale. “Most people do not understand the breadth and variety in the
work, and don't see the influence that Philadelphia has had on the
larger emerging art scene. The people who have been touched by this
energy is really a testament to the people and culture created by the
individuals involved.” Big Kids / Little Kids is an opportunity for
visitors and collectors alike to discover the history and evolution of
a kinetic art movement and explosive energy of creative talent.
Big Kids / Little Kids chronicles the first eight years of the newly
emerging contemporary art movement in Philadelphia. It features native
Philadelphia artists from SPACE1026, 1Pixel, 222gallery and Spector,
as well as artists from outside the city who have shown in these
spaces demonstrating the inspiration and influence of the Philly
scene. The book showcases the artwork along with short dialogues with
each artist. John Freeborn, one of the founders of SPACE1026, tells
the story through his viewpoint, guiding the reader through the
multi-layered connections that have helped fuel a new generation of
artists from the city of brotherly love.
In conjunction with the exhibition opening, Subliminal Projects will
be featuring the third in a series of the limited edition dust jackets
for Big Kids / Little Kids designed by artist Shepard Fairey. The
120-page book features 55 full-color pages and is 8.5 x 11 inches. The
new edition will be released and available for sale at the opening
night reception. Urban Outfitters and uwishunu.com are proud sponsors
of the Big Kids / Little Kids traveling art exhibition.
Jesse Goldstein has been a member of SPACE1026 since 2001. He is
mainly a printmaker and a mess-maker. Recent projects include a
children's book, Sullivan’s Solo, illustrated by Ben Woodward and a
curatorial project at Temple University Gallery called Manybody. He
splits his time between Philadelphia and New York, where he is
currently working on a PhD at the City University of New York.
Amy S. Kaufman was born in South Korea and earned a Masters of Fine
Arts in Painting at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.
Kaufman creates works made of paper that draws upon the artistic
legacy of Korean paper arts and her training in the United States. Her
installations focus on a practice of repetition and accumulation of
hand-folded paper. The activity of these pieces placed in different
locations reveals an intimate act performed or displayed in a public
space (this sentence doesn’t make sense). Her first solo exhibition
From Scratch at Painted Bride Gallery in Philadelphia in 2007,
featured a large-scale, labor-intensive installation. “Repetitive
Acts”, a film by Danielle Lessovitz documenting Amy Kauffman’s Painted
Bride installation, recently received an award for Excellence in
Artist Profiles on Ovation TV and was recently screened at the
Portland Women’s Film Festival. She has exhibited at numerous
galleries in Philadelphia as well as in a group show at the Art
Institute of Philadelphia.
Todd St. John is an artist, designer and filmmaker living in New York
City. He grew up on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. His work consistently
spans across many different mediums, including drawing, sculpture,
photography, printmaking and animation. He often explores natural
forms and their repurposing or distortion through unexpected modes of
representation. St. John produces both commercial and experimental
works through HunterGatherer, the studio/workshop that he founded in
2000. He has created animations, illustrations and graphics for
everyone from MTV to Money Mark to The New York Times. In 1994, while
living in California, St. John co-founded the graphic T-shirt label
Green Lady with Gary Benzel. Nylon Magazine described Green Lady as
"to the designer T-shirt world what RunDMC is to hip-hop". St. John
regularly has work published, broadcast and exhibited internationally,
and was included in the 2003 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Triennial.
He teaches as a graduate critic at the Yale School of Art.
Adam Wallacavage is an acclaimed photographer and founding member of
the Philadelphia-based artist collective, SPACE1026. Known for his
photographs of artists and skateboarders, Wallacavage has long
documented the skating and art collective underground, as well as
shooting for Thrasher Skateboard Magazine, Transworld and Shepard
Fairey's magazine, Swindle. In 2006, Wallacavage released Monster Size
Monsters, his first published book spanning fifteen years of
photography.
Andrew Jeffrey Wright is a current and founding member of
Philadelphia’s SPACE1026 art commune. He has a Bachelor of Fine Arts
in Animation. The collaborative animation “The Manipulators,” which he
made with Clare E. Rojas, won the top prize for animation at the New
York Underground Film Festival and the New York Comedy Film Festival.
Wright’s highly limited edition handmade books have gained an
international following. His works include painting, animation,
drawing, collage, photography, sculpture, video, installation and
screenprinting. He has shown at art galleries on the east and west
coasts, including The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and Institute
of Contemporary Art, which are both located in Philadelphia, and at
the Foundation Cartier in Paris, France. He has shown with Barry
McGee, Paper Rad, Leif Goldberg, Clare E. Rojas, Marcel Dzama and
Michael Dumontier.
Shepard Fairey was born in Charleston, SC, in 1970 and currently lives
and works in Los Angeles. In 1989, as a student at the Rhode Island
School of Design, Shepard Fairey launched his ambitious street
campaign of stickers featuring Andre the Giant. Fairey became an
internationally known artist using the slogan “The Medium is the
Message” in his “Obey Giant” street campaign. Since then his
propaganda has become something of an anomaly and a design empire,
encompassing stickers, clothing, skateboards, posters, stencil based
graffiti, and film. As founder of Studio Number One, a design firm in
Los Angeles, Fairey has worked with numerous high-level corporate
accounts and co-founded Swindle magazine and Subliminal Projects
Gallery. In 2005 Fairey was a resident artist at Honolulu’s The
Contemporary Museum and designed the poster art for the feature film
Walk the Line. The following year, Fairey contributed eight vinyl
etchings to a limited-edition series of 12" singles by alternative
rock icons Mission of Burma and has also produced work for Interpol
and the Black Eyed Peas.
John Freeborn is co-founder of SPACE1026, the Philadelphia-based
artist collective. He is creator of Milkcrate Digest zine, designer,
teacher at the Art Institute of Philadelphia and University of the
Arts, and skateboarder. He is also founder and president of Nested
Group, an innovative design company based in Exton, Pennsylvania.
Freeborn released the book Big Kids / Little Kids in January 2007 at
the ICA in Philadelphia coinciding with the Locally Localized Gravity
show produced by SPACE1026. In December 2007 Freeborn announced the
book was being turned into a traveling art show to launch in
Philadelphia in 2008.
SUBLIMINAL PROJECTS is a multifunctional gallery space promoting
diverse forms of art while providing a forum for contemporary
dialogue. SUBLIMINAL was originally created by Shepard Fairey and
Blaze Blouin as an artist collective in 1995. The group played an
integral part in introducing skateboarding culture and design to the
art world, showcasing artists such as Phil Frost, Thomas Campbell,
Mike Mills, Dave Aaron, and Mark Gonzales. Shepard and Amanda Fairey
continued to host and curate exhibitions that have featured artists
such as Ryan McGinness, HunterGatherer, David Ellis, Doze Green,
Aesthetic Apparatus, Space Invader, Jim Houser and Andrew Jeffery
Wright. In 2003, the Subliminal Projects gallery was officially opened
in the Los Angeles offices of Studio Number One. The scope of the
gallery remained true to its roots while embracing new forms of
graphic art, illustration, photography and time-based media. Now
located in the historic Los Angeles neighborhood of Echo Park,
Subliminal Projects continues to offer a platform for artistic
exploration and innovation. The 2008 schedule includes art exhibitions
by established and emerging artists, as well as a lecture series,
workshops and featured artist publications.
Opening Reception: Saturday, July 19, 8:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.
Subliminal Projects Gallery
1331 W. Sunset Blvd - Los Angeles
Hours: Tuesday thru Friday 1 p.m. - 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday by appointment
Free admission