“Keith Boadwee 1989-2000” Exhibition

Brennan & Griffin

poster for “Keith Boadwee 1989-2000” Exhibition

This event has ended.

Brennan & Griffin presents Keith Boadwee: 1989-2000. Boadwee’s practice combines the mediums of painting, photography, performance and collaboration.

Boadwee’s early photographic work is a result of his background in theater, alongside interests in Viennese Actionsim, German Neo-Expressionism and other influences he encountered during his time studying with Paul McCarthy, Chris Burden and Roger Herman at UCLA in the late 80’s. The earliest works on view are stills taken during the performances Birthing Piece (1989) and Pink Smurf (1990) staged solely for the camera in Boadwee’s studio. These documentary-style images represent the linkage of performance art and his growing interest in painting. Taking the form of joyfully scatological staged tableaux, Boadwee’s images are quickly crafted with the low-tech economy and aesthetic of amateur theater.

In his subsequent works, Boadwee was in direct conversation with painting and its history, as in Swans (after Polke), Iris (after Van Gogh), and After Kirchner (Thumbing Nose) (all 1991). Here, the artist engages his painting influences by re-staging and inserting himself directly within their images and motifs. The artist, often nude and fully painted, serves as figure, surface, and material within the painting. Boadwee’s interest in queer identity and Dandyism serve as a counterpoint to the straight male hegemony found in many of his influences.

The following body of work is more formally structured with the artist’s painted torso and genitals tightly cropped, and merges pop culture elements directly with the body. In Pocahontas Swami and Bert Swami (all 1997), Disney and Sesame Street figurines are inserted between the artists legs with the artist’s scrotum becoming simultaneously disturbing and hilarious headwear for these children’s characters. Similarly, Pop Art and Op Art (all 1997) utilize the artist’s body and genitals as a central prop and ground to reference characteristics of these art historical movements. Throughout, Boadwee’s work is characterized by his exuberant handling of the abject.

Keith Boadwee (b. 1961, Meridian, Missippi) lives and works in Emeryville, California. Exhibitions of note include Hacienda, Zurich, PLAID, a collaboration with AA Bronson, Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, Austria, Bad Girls curated by Marcia Tucker, The New Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art Portfolio Exhibition curated by Cindy Sherman, MOCA, Los Angeles, Performance Behind the Curtain curated by Bill Arning, White Columns, New York, Into Me / Out Of Me curated by Klaus Biesenbach, MoMA PS1, NY (traveled to the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin). This is Boadwee’s first exhibition with Brennan & Griffin.

Media

Schedule

from September 12, 2015 to October 25, 2015

Opening Reception on 2015-09-12 from 18:00 to 20:00

Artist(s)

Keith Boadwee

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