RJ Rushmore
Post Show thoughts from our valiant curator RJ Rushmore
By now, most of the hype and stress surrounding The Thousands has died down and I’ve had a chance to look back at the experience. Over 1000 people visited The Thousands in just 5 days, and with no print or television coverage, that’s way more than I expected. The book and exhibition got an overwhelmingly positive response, and my personal highlight was when there were people at the opening who I didn’t know. This wasn’t just some affair for friends and family, it really did reach the wider art community. Would I do it again? Yes, but it would probably be an entirely different show with a different purpose, and there aren’t any plans in place just yet.
Right now I’m taking a 1-month holiday of sorts in the states.
To start the trip off, I went to Miami for Art Basel and the satellite events there. The experience has made me realize how mainstream some street art and graffiti has become. Primary Flight and Deitch’s Wynwood Walls projects introduced the city of Miami and the art tourists to over 100 talented artists and writers who pretty much took over the Wynwood district with their murals. Inside Basel, there were a surprising number of galleries showing artwork by street artists, and the Deitch Projects booth was probably 50% street artists. The Artwhino, SCOPE, Aqua and Fountain fairs were full of low-brow, street and urban art and there were projects like BKMIA and Graffiti Gone Global that showcased street art and graffiti (or perhaps my favorite new catchall term for the street/urban/graffiti art genres: urban folk art).
When Shepard Fairey appearances generate amateur paparazzi and 50-something suburban moms are admiring a wall-of-fame or gushing about the brilliance of a certain pair of Brazilian twin artists that they have just discovered, it might be a sign that street art has reached the mainstream. This year’s Basel Miami Week has propelled some street art even further into the mainstream contemporary art stratosphere.
Then again, Keith Haring and Basquiat have been art fair staples for years, Futura has been mainstream ever since The Clash have been mainstream and it’s been years since Barry, Todd James and ESPO managed to spice up the Venice Biennale.
And back at The Thousands, I put Jenny Holzer’s art in the same room with Gaia’s, and had paintings by artists like Tek33 and Adam Neate nearby. Most visitors didn’t even realize that Jenny started out as a street artist, but it was pretty apparent that Tek33 is a writer.
One thing that became very apparent while putting on The Thousands, and which was confirmed in Miami, is that street art will always have one foot in the mainstream and one foot in the underground. There will always be artists like Shepard Fairey to make covers for Rolling Stone, but artists like Know Hope and Mighty Mo will be around too, working outdoors in relative obscurity and on the cutting edge of art. That’s what’s so amazing about street art: there is a constant renewal of talent who are trying to test society’s boundaries and connect with the public. Every time an artist like Kaws “graduates” from working on the street, there are a dozen artists like PosterBoy just starting out, young and wanted by the police for vandalism.
THE THOUSANDS
Updates from RJ Rushmore
15 December, 2009