"Swell, Art 1950 – 2010" Exhibition
Petzel Gallery
This event has ended.
Nyehaus, Friedrich Petzel Gallery and Metro Pictures present SWELL—with curatorial team Tim Nye and Jacqueline Miro—a survey of surf-themed art produced by city dwellers. Swell will include work by most members of the group of Venice Beach artists known as Light and Space and Finish Fetish (all of them surfers) including De Wain Valentine, Peter Alexander, Larry Bell, Billy Al Bengston, Laddie John Dill and others. To quote Dave Hickey in his essay about Primary Atmospheres:
"In its initial vogue, these works spoke directly to a new kind of artistic decorum—less aggressive than pop, less ideological than Minimalism, and less maidenly than post-painterly abstraction. It had a kind of gallantry—the cool courtesy of a well-born rake. California Minimalism created a gracious, social space in it's glow and reflection; it treated us amicably, made us more beautiful by gathering us into it's dance. It still does this today, so I am not amazed by the renewed interest in this work. I am still amazed, however, that my beach-bum pals could have created such a capacious and courtly art, although beach bums, I suppose, have dreams like everybody else."
Media
Schedule
from June 30, 2010 to August 06, 2010
Artist(s)
Billy Al Bengston, Peter Alexander, Charles Arnoldi, Natalie Arnoldi, Jay Batlle, Barrett Becker , Larry Bell, Tony Berlant, Wallace Berman, Susanne Melanie Berry, Ashley Bickerton, Sandow Birk, Wolfgang Bloch, Esteban Bojorquez, Olaf Breuning, Ben Brough, Vija Celmins, Bruce Conner, Ron Davis, Peter Dayton, Gregory de la Haba, Laddie John Dill et al.