Shepard Fairey is a contemporary graphic artist from Charleston, South Carolina who specializes in creating stickers, posters, and silk screen tee shirts with bold and many times political images. Fairey was born and raised in South Carolina. Fairey was into main stream sports like soccer and basketball when he was a child, until some of his friends started skateboarding. A friend of his left his skateboard over at Fairey's house, and from then on he was addicted to skateboarding and the new skateboarding scene. He started making stencils, stickers, and simple graphics for screen print t-shirts for him and his skateboarding buddies during high school. One of his friends saw a picture of Andre the Giant in a magazine and thought it would make a cool stencil/sticker so he told Shepard to make a sticker out of it. Thus the infamous “Andre the Giant has a Posse� sticker was born. This is the first major thing that Shepard did that people started to recognize, and he began making print screen tees and posters of his Andre the Giant stencil and put them up all over the city. The Andre the Giant face was later changed into the Obey stencil that many millions now recognize on posters, tagged on walls, and on t-shirts.
Shepard Fairey is heavily influenced by punk rock and the skateboarding scene in his area and all over. He grew up on listening to punk rock and skateboarding with his friends and it is seen in his artwork. Fairey gets many of his ideas from old propaganda posters from the World War/ World War II era, posters of famous dictators and tyrannical leaders, and other propaganda type artwork done during war time and election time. A recent work of his that is very famous is the colored stencil of Barack Obama's face which reads “HOPE� underneath the stencil of his face, which can be seen on posters, stickers and t-shirts all over the place. Fairey says that he makes art to make people question things such as politics, government policies, and the power of money, so he travels the world putting up posters and tagging walls with his artwork. For this, Shepard Fairey is regarded by many as “The Godfather of Modern Street Art�. Another artist who is seen in this light, and has a large influence on Fairey, is the British street artist known as Banksy.
Shepard Fairey's artwork is not very similar to any of the artists we learned about in class, but the way in which he has changed his outlook and artistic process is somewhat similar to that of Thomas Kinkaid. The way they produce art is similar because Kinkaid mass produces art for the masses so that many people can enjoy and own his art. Shepard also mass produces his artwork through t-shirts, posters, stickers, books, buttons, album artwork, and he now even has his own clothing company called “Obey�. Some people call Shepard Fairey a sellout for this reason, he has used his artwork to turn massive profit and now it seems like the underground nature and purpose of his artwork, and the underlying message of his artwork even, is somewhat lost because it is now massively popular and artwork seems like that of a corporation.
I would definitely recommend the artwork of Shepard Fairey to a friend, because I really enjoy his style of art and the culture behind all of his work. I would recommend to friend to check out the modern street art scene, and also investigate into the artwork of Banksy. Shepard Fairey's artwork has a large influence on my own artwork, as I have tried to get away from merely realistically recreating an image and have tried to get more to the stylistic representation of artists like Shepard Fairey and Banksy.

by John Kurczewski

The artist, William Kentridge is from South Africa. He works in video and drawing mediums primarily, usually mixing the two, as in his relatively well-known “Felix in Exile,� which can be found on Youtube along with other videos of his. He has also produced tapestries with drawings on them, though the bulk of his projects are video animations of sorts. The ‘classic’ Kentridge work is a video with animation that, unlike traditional cell-based animations, show the drawing process, as Kentridge makes visible erasures on the same drawing, then redraws the figures, moving the action along in his films.
Most of Kentridge’s work deals with political and social themes, coming often from a highly personal point of view. Coming from a tumultuous political area, he he is inspired by the personal struggles of people in this setting, and being a white man from South Africa shapes his viewpoint. Perhaps his most famous series of films are centered around two semi-autobiographical characters, Soho Eckstein, an “avaricious businessman,� and Felix Teitlebaum, the “romantic and somewhat lost soul.� In these pieces especially, it doesn’t seem that he is trying to entertain so much as take the viewer deep inside some mental state. He uses strong visual symbols in his pieces, and reality doesn’t contain the sometimes fantastic things that happen to characters in his films. It does seem he’s motivating us to see the world differently, as a sad but mystical place where emotions kind of reign supreme. There is also quite an existentialist aspect to his work, most of which is focuses around the travails of the individual in the context of an oppressive socirty/environment.
Compared to Lorna Simpson, an artist discussed in class who also works in film, Kentridge is quite the other side of the spectrum. Firstly, Simpson background is is photography rather than drawing, which may be part of the reason why her films feel more theatrical. Also, Simpson’s movies do not deal with history, at least in such a strong way as Kentridge. His work is deeply rooted n the history of his region, political history especially, and the same can not be said for Simpson. Simpson’s work is more geared toward a gallery space than a single screen, as she has several installation-type pieces that create a sense of environment.
I would definitely tell a friend about William Kentridge, I find his work compelling, and perhaps more importantly, I really enjoy his aesthetics. His drawings look good to me, and his films can be disturbing, but are excellent. He is artist that clearly thinks about his work a lot, and about life a lot, but also that works a lot, which I admire and which shows in his work.

Hindsight is Always 20/20 by R. Luke DuBois and is an astounding art exhibit at the Weisman Museum. It features 43 pieces that organized in a chronological order and represent the State of the Union addressed by all presidents in U.S. history. I would have to conclude that it is a group exhibition seeing as it represents a minority of leaders, all of which are United States presidents. The images are all charts, such as the charts you would see at an eye doctor representing words decreasing is size from top to bottom. I believe DuBois chose this type of format to make it catchier yet easy to understand the true meaning behind the art.

The exhibition, as stated above, is mainly concerning presidential State of The Union speeches and shows what generations before us struggled with. From World War 2 to the War in Vietnam, each generations ‘popular’ difficulties were displayed. The idea behind this, along with the title, leads me to believe the DuBois is pointing out that it is easy for politicians to call out problems and mistakes but usually lack the ability to correct them properly. With hindsight, most of these problems are talked about as though they were something that could have easily been fixed.

It’s difficult for me to point out a specific work in this exhibition because they are all as equally as fascinating, however, I tended to focus more on the works which featured the most recent presidents such as Bush senior, Clinton, and Bush junior seeing as these presidents are more prevalent to me and my daily life.

I would definitely suggest this exhibition to anyone who has an interest in political issues. I believe many people today could learn a lesson from this exhibit, simply because the issues it covers are ones that are very easy for us to miss and not take into account when debating what is the best route our nation should take when facing difficulties.

As I went around the exhibit, I began to compare each piece to the next. I found it interesting to try to pick out the style of each president’s address according to the words they used most. They also seemed to give snapshots of the United States at the point in time at which the address was made. It was also intriguing to compare the first print (that of George Washington) with the last (that of George W. Bush). I believe that one objective of the exhibit is to display the change in the state of our country under each president. Another focus of the exhibit may be to highlight the use of catchphrases and words manipulated by the government and the press. The first word is the largest and is centered, catching the audience’s eye and demanding a person’s attention. The next two are smaller and certainly less impressive, and anything after that becomes a jumble that most can’t be bothered to read. This demonstrates how most speeches given nowadays carry all their importance in a few repeated words that are used to intimidate or otherwise influence their audiences.

The last work, which used George W. Bush’s State of the Union address, was the most interesting to me. The first and largest word – and thus the most frequently used in the speech – was “terror,� a word that America has gotten very used to hearing. I was surprised to realize that Bush has been coining this word ever since his State of the Union address, and not just since the attacks on September 11th.

I would suggest this exhibit to a friend, because it gives a different perspective on the progress of our country as well as all 43 of our presidents. It offers clips of history that can be viewed both chronologically and comparatively.

George Washington:

Ronald Reagan:

Friedlander does an excellent job of capturing experience in the way that you would see them in person, which gives them a special advantage in connecting with the viewer. His images capture fleeting moments and often evoke stronger emotion than a posed portrait would have. Friedlander clearly enjoys capturing people in their own environment as was displayed in his images of people working at the office in their desks. There is a humor in these photographs, which is expressed through the awkward and intrusive positioning of the camera. His humor is also reflected in his self-portraits, all of which are unflattering and messy. One of my favorite images of his is titled “California�, taken in 1997, and one of his many self-portraits. The photograph was intentionally taken with bush branches between the camera and himself. His photographs don’t seem to relay a specific message, only to capture spontaneous moments and to make images from strange angles and perspectives to create more inventive, imaginative photographs.

Title: California
Work Date: 1997
Medium: gelatin silver print

Seeing this exhibit gave me valuable insight into the real-life production of a working photographer, and motivated me to get out there and start taking some pictures. All too often I am frustrated by my desire for perfectly composed pictures, and Friedlander’s collection has given me the confidence to take more spontaneous and playful photographs. I would definitely recommend his exhibition to a friend.

2.) The theme was the symbol of American Culture, and people that were a part of that culture. Other themes included depictions of nature and wildlife, but mostly the art work was focused around gorgeous representations of nature; (forests, shores, etc).

3.) "Chicago, November" by John Salmien was my favorite; it was an amazingly realistic dipiction of Chicago, using water color. The artist wanted to capture and represent the culture of the city, and its people. He wanted to capture the realism of city life.

4.) I would recommend many people to visit the gallery, because the work I've seen there was one if the most beautifully done work I have ever seen in my life.

I recently had the opportunity to visit the Walker Art Center's retrospective exhibition of Tetsumi Kudo, a Japanese artist, titled "Garden of Metamorphosis"

The exhibition was interesting as it was laid out so that the first work you would see would be that of early in his career, and as you moved through the gallery the work was also set out in chronological order. This allowed the viewer a true insight into the developing themes in the art as well as any major break throughs or different artistic paths the artist made. The gallery was filled with between 40-50 works, including sculptures, prints, paintings and installations. These used a wide variety of mediums, from the more traditional paint, metal and plaster, to the use of everyday objects such as plastic bags and duct tape.

A recurring theme present through most of the show was the image of the phallus/cocoon. These appeared in several different forms, from the first installation of hanging phalluses to very phallic mushrooms exhibited in many of his scultpures. Another recurring theme was his depicition of nature in a very psychadelic way, incorpotating a very fluorescent color palette, even creating a giant die which had a black light room inside. The artist statement explained that the image of the phallus as a singl object removed from the body renders it useless, and therefore became a symbol for impotence or defeat. However, the phallus also played the dual role of the cocoon, which held new life inside of it and created a sense of hope. I believe that these feelings may have been stirred up in the artist's consciousness by the fallout left in Japan after the bombings in WWII. This left many feeling powerless and helpless, but at the same time their was the hope that inside of this empty shell a more beautiful Japan could grow.

Kudo's work was altogether very different from any of the work we've seen in class, but I was most able to relate it to artists Liz Miller or Chris Larson. Liz Miller in the sense that the color palette was very similar, and Chris Larson in the complexity of some of the sculptures.

My favorite work of the exhibition was titled, "Homage To The Young Generation - The Cocoon Opens, 1968." It was created using a baby carriage, shoe, paperbag, cotton, plastic, polyester, paint and a strobe light. The sculpture was what appeared to be a tapeworm-like figure pushing a baby stroller which held a peanut-shaped cocoon, which was split open. Inside of this cocoon were several diodes and a pink surface, which was printed with what seemed to be assembly instructions to a motherboard. The figure pushing the carriage had one shoe on, an umbrella, and a bag from an upscale shop in France. Furthermore, exiting the cocoon were nine jellied yellow brains connected with tubes. One of the tubes comes outside of the cocoon and reaches to a large brain on the ground. The placard indicated that the brain was originally mechanical and moved on it's own. Inside of the cocoon the strobe light would flash in pulses, which reminded me of a heartbeat. The piece follows the gallery theme along the ideas of metamorphosis and the evolution of society. The tape worm with it's nice things represents the tradtional values and older generation, and the brain babies emerging from the cocoon are inundated with new technologies and hi-tech devices before they even hatched.

I would highly recommend this exhibit to anyone. It was one of the few exhibits I have been to where I was actively having fun by being immersed in the garden of metamorphisis. I enjoyed taking a part in Kudo's constructed world, and at the same time was able to grasp his artistic vision and intent. GO SEE IT NOW!