Icons & Vandals - NYC

APRIL 23 - MAY 21

Richard Hambleton, Battle Scene Painting (1983)

Cey Adams / Charlie Ahearn / Ai Weiwei / Banksy / Beeple / John Baldessari / Bill Barminski / Blek le Rat / Mr. Brainwash / Chen Quilin / Chuck Close / Cope2 / Crash / Robert Crumb / DAZE / Defer / Delta 2 / Al Diaz / Jim Dine / Dot Pigeon / Shepard Fairey / Fab 5 Freddy / Sam Francis / Futura / Giz / Bob Gruen / Richard Hambleton / Keith Haring / Damien Hirst / Robert Indiana / Paul Insect / JAZZ / JR / Alex Katz / Mari Kim / Kobra / Jeff Koons / Lady Pink / Steve Lazarides / Li Tianbing / Liu Bolin / The Love Child / Gary Lichtenstein / Roy Lichtenstein / Mad Dog Jones / Robert Motherwell / Takashi Murakami / NessGraphics / George Ortman / Lee Quiñones / Fiona Rae / Rammellzee / RETNA / RISK / James Rosenquist / Ed Ruscha / King Saladeen / Tyler Shields / David Shrigley / Donald Sultan / Bill Tavis / Sage Vaughn / Vhils / Andy Warhol / Tom Wesselmann / Yue Minjun / Zhang Xiaogang / Zhong Biao

For more information and pricing, please contact us by phone, email, or at one of our two locations

WEST CHELSEA CONTEMPORARY NEW YORK CITY - CHELSEA 646.590.0352 231 10th Ave | New York, NY 10011 Hours: Monday – Wednesday 10am - 6pm Thursday – Friday 10am - 8pm Saturday 10am - 6pm; Sunday 12 - 6pm

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INDEX FOREWORD ........................................................................................................ 1 - 2 ICONS....................................................................................................................... 3 - 48 MODERN + CONTEMPORARY MASTERS........................................... 5 - 22 JOHN BALDESSARI............................................................................ 7 - 8 CHUCK CLOSE...................................................................................... 9 - 10 ROBERT CRUMB.................................................................................. 11 - 12 BOB GRUEN............................................................................................ 13 - 14 ALEX KATZ............................................................................................. 15 - 16 LYORA PISSARRO.............................................................................. 17 - 18 FIONA RAE.............................................................................................. 19 - 20 ED RUSCHA............................................................................................ 21 - 22 POP ART.......................................................................................................... 23 - 32 ROBERT INDIANA................................................................................ 25 - 26 GARY LICHTENSTEIN........................................................................ 27 - 28 ROY LICHTENSTEIN........................................................................... 29 - 30 JAMES ROSENQUIST........................................................................ 31 - 32 NEO-POP......................................................................................................... 33 - 40 DAMIEN HIRST...................................................................................... 35 - 36 MARI KIM................................................................................................. 37 - 38 TAKASHI MURAKAMI....................................................................... 39 - 40 CONTEMPORARY CHINESE ART...................................................... 41 - 48 AI WEIWEI................................................................................................ 43 - 44 LI TIANBING............................................................................................ 45 - 46 ZHANG XIAOGANG............................................................................ 47 - 48

VANDALS................................................................................................................. 49 - 88 GRAFFITI............................................................................................................ 51 - 62 DAZE............................................................................................................. 53 - 54 AL DIAZ....................................................................................................... 55 - 56 LADY PINK................................................................................................. 57 - 58 RAMMELLZEE.......................................................................................... 59 - 60 RISK............................................................................................................... 61 - 62 STREET............................................................................................................. 63 - 82 CEY ADAMS............................................................................................. 65 - 66 BANKSY...................................................................................................... 67 - 68 BLEK LE RAT............................................................................................ 69 - 70 MR. BRAINWASH................................................................................... 71 - 72 RICHARD HAMBLETON...................................................................... 73 - 74 JAZZ............................................................................................................. 75 - 76 KING SALADEEN.................................................................................... 77 - 78 RETNA.......................................................................................................... 79 - 80 VHILS............................................................................................................ 81 - 82 DIGITAL ART: NFTs...................................................................................... 83 - 88 BEEPLE........................................................................................................ 85 - 86 NESSGRAPHICS..................................................................................... 87 - 88

FOREWORD Recognizable

by

name

and

respected

for

their

invaluable

contribution, the artists featured in Icons & Vandals have subverted the contemporary art world throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.

Categorized by their emergence, whether through normative or non-normative means, these artists have distinguished themselves through disruption. Icons & Vandals seeks to celebrate and highlight monumental works by notable innovators.

With artwork spanning 60 years, Icons & Vandals features art-world agitators from across the globe. Modern Masters—such as Alex Katz and Jim Dine—challenged the status quo through aesthetic and technical innovation. While Pop Art icons—like James Rosenquist and Robert Indiana—mined everyday culture and transformed it into fine

art.

Contemporary

Neo-Pop

legends—such

as

Takashi

Murakami and Mari Kim—re-explore the conceptual underpinnings of Pop through the lens of global contemporary culture while pushing the visual language of the movement even further.

Contemporary

Chinese

Artists—like

Li

Tianbing

and

Zhang

Xiaogang—critique their country’s collectivist society on a global scale.

1

Street art pioneers—from Cey Adams and Richard Hambleton to Blek le Rat and Banksy—disrupt physical urban space while challenging the boundaries of what can be considered art. In this same vein, artist-licensed Skate Decks and Vinyl Art bring both toy culture and the subculture of skating into the upper echelon of the art world and redefine what it means to be a collector.

By contemplating ground-breaking movements from the past six decades, Icons & Vandals allows viewers to rediscover and redefine the art world’s most iconic and contentious household names. These artists have left their mark on the development and progression of contemporary art by subverting the norms of their own time.

Through this show, it becomes clear that these two labels are not mutually exclusive but in fact ingrained in their interconnectedness.

2

Art should be something that liberates your soul, provokes the imagination, and encourages people to go further.

― KEITH HARING 3

ICONS

4

MODERN + CONTEMPORARY MASTERS

JOHN BALDESSARI ROBERT CRUMB CHUCK CLOSE JIM DINE SAM FRANCIS

5

ROBERT MOTHERWELL LYORA PISSARRO FIONA RAE ED RUSCHA TYLER SHIELDS

BOB GRUEN

DAVID SHRIGLEY

ALEX KATZ

DONALD SULTAN

“To talk about paintings is not only difficult but perhaps pointless too. You can only express in words what words are capable of expressing-- what language can communicate. Painting has nothing to do with that.” ― Gerhard Richter Not confined to a certain style, these artists have broken ground in their respective movements through their innovative approach to the historical tradition of art-making. Throughout the twentieth century, art has been defined and narrowed into specific movements and periods held together by their stylistic, philosophical, or conceptual underpinnings. Other artists, such as Alex Katz, Jim Dine, and Ed Ruscha defy categorization with their prolific and long-lasting careers. Contemporary masters, from YBA's Fiona Rae to Rock and Roll photographer Bob Gruen continue to innovate their respective medias.

6

JOHN BALDESSARI American, 1931–2020

It is hard to characterize John Baldessari's varied practice— which includes photomontage, artist’s books, prints, paintings, film, performance, and installation—except through his approach of good-humored irreverence. Baldessari is commonly associated with Conceptual or Minimalist art, though he has called this characterization “a little bit boring.” His twodimensional works often incorporate found images, composed in layers or presented as distinct pieces with an element of surprise, like a brightly colored geometric shape in the place of a face or a starkly printed sardonic caption. Baldessari has demonstrated a lasting interest in language and semantics, articulating these concerns through the use of puns or the juxtaposition of seemingly unrelated images and words, as in his 1978 work Blasted Allegories. His self-referencing photomontages and use of text have been sources of inspiration for countless artists, including Cindy Sherman, David Salle, and Barbara Kruger.

7

John Baldessari Table Lamp and It's Shadows (A1-A6), 1994 Monotype, photo intaglio, cut-out and hand-colored acrylic additions on handmade paper, laminated for thickness 38.25 x 27.25 in

8

CHUCK CLOSE American, 1940 - 2021

In the 1960s, Chuck Close pioneered Photorealism with his monumental, exquisitely detailed portraits, whose subjects he took from photographic sources. Playing with ideas of color, scale, and form, he later gained renown for gridded paintings that appear abstract from up close and highly realistic and pixelated from afar. Close has exhibited extensively since the ’60s and enjoyed solo shows at the Walker Art Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the State Hermitage Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, among other institutions. He has featured in group exhibitions at the Venice Biennale and Documenta on multiple occasions. At auction, his work has sold for seven figures. Close has often depicted his family and friends, including fellow artists Robert Rauschenberg, Cindy Sherman, and Richard Serra. His work links him not only to other Photorealists such as Richard Estes and Audrey Flack, but also to the Conceptual art movement.

9

Chuck Close Roy Lichtenstein (PP/Aside Edition of 12), 1999 Digital inkjet prints on Somerset paper, four panels 92 x 69 in

Chuck Close Alex Katz (/10), 1996 Monochrome digital pigment print on Arches Aquarelle, cold press paper 92 x 69 in 10

ROBERT CRUMB American, b. 1943

Robert “R.” Crumb emerged in the late 1960s as a leading figure in the “underground comix” movement, publishing the first issue of cult favorite Zap Comix in 1968, and his most recognized comic, Keep on Truckin’ in the late 1970s. Crumb is known for a signature raunchy style, through which he expresses his "contempt and disgust with America." He created the notorious characters Devil Girl, Fritz the Cat, and Mr. Natural, and was the subject of Terry Zwigoff’s 1995 documentary, Crumb. In 2009, he published his illustrated graphic novel version of the Book of Genesis, including annotations explaining his reactions to Biblical stories.

11

Robert Crumb Green Girl, 1980 Oil paint on canvas 20 x 16 in

12

BOB GRUEN American, b. 1945

Bob Gruen is one of the most well-known and respected photographers in rock and roll. By the mid 1970s, he was already regarded as one of the foremost documenters of the scene. While living in New York, he notably befriended John Lennon and Yoko Ono and captured intimate moments from their personal lives. Gruen is perhaps best known for an iconic photograph of Lennon wearing a New York City t-shirt. He also photographed major acts such as Bob Dylan, Tina Turner, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Elton John, Kiss, and others, while also covering the emerging New Wave and Punk bands including The New York Dolls, Patti Smith, The Clash, The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, and Blondie. Among his many books of photographs are "The Sex Pistols - Chaos," "The Rolling Stones Crossfire Hurricane,""The Clash," "John Lennon - The New York Years," and "Rock Seen." Gruen’s work has been exhibited widely, including at the Brooklyn Museum, Pearlstein Gallery at the Drexel University Museum, Blender Gallery in Sydney, and the Beit Hatfutsot Museum in Tel Aviv, among others.

13

Bob Gruen Mick Jagger, NYC, 1972 (29/50), 2014 Silkscreen on 2ply Rising Museum Board 52.37 x 38.87 in Printed by Gary Lichtenstein Editions

Bob Gruen John Lennon, NYC, 1974 (34/50), 2014 Silkscreen on 2ply Rising Museum Board 54 x 40 in Printed by Gary Lichtenstein Editions

14

ALEX KATZ American, b. 1927

New York School painter Alex Katz developed his highly stylized aesthetic in reaction to 1950s Abstract Expressionism, finding his own distinctive resolution between formalism and representation. His brightly colored figurative and landscape paintings are rendered in a flat style that takes cues from everyday visual culture like advertising and cinema, in many ways anticipating both the formal and conceptual concerns of Pop Art. Well known for his many portraits of his wife and muse, Ada, Katz has also dedicated himself to printmaking and freestanding sculptures of cutout figures painted on wood or aluminum. Katz' work resides in numerous public collections across the world, including: the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art in New York, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Saatchi Gallery in London, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo.

15

Alex Katz Sasha 2 (75/100), 2016 Archival pigment print in colors on Crane Museo Max paper 33.87 x 33.87 in

Alex Katz Gray Dress (Laura) (AP 4/18), 1992 Screenprint in twenty-three colors on Arches 100% Rag paper 36 x 28 in

16

LYORA PISSARRO French, b. 1991

French artist Lyora Pissarro uses the word performative to describe her practice of both figurative and abstract works, which are rooted in painting. The artist explains: "My landscapes are mindscapes. They seek to explore inner worlds rather than attempt to capture the elusive reality of Nature. These paintings aim at translating perfect moments of clarity and stillness into a language made of color."

Currently based between New York and London, Pissarro completed her formal education in Fine Art at Hunter College in NY after attending Rhode Island School of Design for her foundation year. The often dream-like landscapes of Pissarro’s work have much in common with the artist’s embrace of her artistic heritage as a direct descendent of Impressionist Camille Pissarro. Described as the ultimate young painter in GQ magazine, Pissarro has exhibited across the United States and in London.

17

Lyora Pissarro The Center of Articulation, 2022 Oil paint on board 42 x 42 in

18

FIONA RAE British, b. 1963

Counted among the Young British Artists (YBA), Fiona Rae has drawn inspiration from many divergent sources ranging from Willem de Kooning to cartoons. Her abstract paintings make bold use of juxtaposition, both formal and thematic. Rae combines contrasting painting styles on the same canvas and renders often kitschy images with formal techniques such as impasto, resulting in works that are at once fanciful and serious, enchanting and slightly menacing. Rae was selected for the 44th Venice Bienniale in 1990, shortlisted for the Turner Prize at the Tate Gallery in 1991, as well as nominated for the Eliette von Karajan Prize for Young Painters in Austria, in 1993. In the early 2000s she was inducted into London’s Royal Academy of Art and later appointed a Tate Artist Trustee. Her work is held by many art institutions worldwide such as the Royal Academy of Arts and the Tate Modern in London, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Rae currently lives and works in London where she is professor of painting at the Royal Academy of Arts.

19

Fiona Rae Untitled (Brown), 1994 Oil and acrylic on canvas 78 x 72 in

20

ED RUSCHA American, b. 1937

Despite being credited with a Pop sensibility, Ed Ruscha defies categorization with his diverse output of photographic books and tongue-in-cheek photo-collages, paintings, and drawings.

Ruscha’s work is inspired by the ironies and idiosyncrasies of life in Los Angeles, which he often conveys by placing glib words and phrases from colloquial and consumerist usage atop photographic images or fields of color. Known for painting and drawing with unusual materials such as gunpowder, blood, and Pepto Bismol, Ruscha draws attention to the deterioration of language and the pervasive cliches in pop culture, illustrated by his iconic 1979 painting I Don’t Want No Retro Spective. “You see this badly done on purpose, but the badly-done-on-purpose thing was done so well that it just becomes, let’s say, profound,” he once said. Equally renowned were his photographic books, in which he transferred the deadpan Pop style into series of images of LA—apartments, palm trees, or Twentysix Gasoline Stations (1962), his most famous work.

21

Ed Ruscha Sin Without (C.T.P. 1/2), 2002 Lithograph printed in yellow-green on wove paper 26.75 x 46 in

22

POP ART

KEITH HARING ROBERT INDIANA ROY LICHTENSTEIN JAMES ROSENQUIST ANDY WARHOL TOM WESSELMANN 23

“The Pop artists did images that anybody walking down Broadway could recognize in a split second— comics, picnic tables, men’s trousers, celebrities, shower curtains, refrigerators, coke bottles—all the great modern things that the Abstract Expressionists tried so hard not to notice at all.” ― Andy Warhol Pop art dominated the American art scene beginning in the early 1960s. Short for “popular art,” it featured common household objects and consumer products, as well as forms of media—such as newspapers, and magazines—recognizable to the masses. Artists often created Pop works using mechanical or commercial techniques, such as silk-screening. Modernist critics were horrified by pop artists’ use of ‘low’ subject matter and their apparently uncritical treatment of it.

In fact, Pop took art into new areas of subject matter and developed innovative ways of presenting it, emerging as one of the first manifestations of postmodernism. As Warhol suggested, the choice of mundane subject matter and machine-like techniques was a blunt rejection of the heroic subjects and methods of Abstract Expressionism, the leading American movement of the previous decade.

24

ROBERT INDIANA American, 1928–2018

Robert Indiana was an American Pop artist whose work drew inspiration from signs, billboards, and commercial logos. He is best known for his series of LOVE paintings, which employed bold and colorful letterforms to spell out the word “love.”

Following the advice of his friend Ellsworth Kelly, the artist relocated to New York after receiving his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1954. It was here that Indiana became acquainted with a number of prominent artists, including Agnes Martin, and James Rosenquist. Over the following decades his work became increasingly popular, with both his LOVE and HOPE motifs transformed into a number of public sculptures. In September 2013, the Whitney Museum of American Art opened “Robert Indiana: Beyond LOVE,” the artist’s first retrospective in New York. Indiana died on May 19, 2018 in Vinalhaven, ME. Today, his works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Tate Gallery in London, among others.

25

Robert Indiana Love Is God (/25), 2014 Silkscreen on 2ply Rising Museum Board 60 x 60 in Printed by Gary Lichtenstein Editions

26

GARY LICHTENSTEIN American

Over the course of his remarkable 45-year career, Gary Lichtenstein has produced a wide range of silkscreen editions and multiples with artists including Cey Adams, Charlie Ahearn, Janette Beckman, Richard Corman, Bob Gruen and Eric Orr. He has printed for industry legends including Marina Abramovic, Robert Indiana, and Ken Price. Lichtenstein’s prints have been exhibited and collected by, among others, New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian, and the Chicago Art Institute.

Gary Lichtenstein Editions is a publisher and printer of fine art silkscreen editions, located in Jersey City, NJ. Eighteen-foot ceilings and gallery-lit exhibition space allow for an everchanging display of work from both recent projects and their extensive print archive. In addition to custom screenprinting services, GLE frequently curates exhibitions, produces events and cultivates site-specific projects and educational programs.

27

Robert Indiana HEAL (red, green, blue variation) (/5), 2015 Silkscreen on 2ply Rising Museum Board 32 x 32 in Printed by Gary Lichtenstein Editions

Bob Gruen Led Zeppelin, NYC, 1973 (/50), 2014 Silkscreen on 2ply Rising Museum Board 40 x 50 in Printed by Gary Lichtenstein Editions

Cey Adams American Flag (Black), 2021 Silkscreen on 320g Coventry Rag Paper 28 x 48 in Printed by Gary Lichtenstein Editions

28

ROY LICHTENSTEIN American, 1923–1997

When American Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein painted Look Mickey in 1961, it set the tone for his career. This primary-color portrait of the cartoon mouse introduced Lichtenstein’s detached and deadpan style at a time when introspective Abstract Expressionism reigned. Mining material from advertisements, comics, and the everyday, Lichtenstein brought what was then a great taboo—commercial art—into the gallery. He stressed the artificiality of his images by painting them as though they’d come from a commercial press, with the flat, single-color Ben-Day dots of the newspaper meticulously rendered by hand using paint and stencils. Later in his career, Lichtenstein extended his source material to art history, including the work of Claude Monet and Pablo Picasso, and experimented with three-dimensional works. Lichtenstein’s use of appropriated imagery has influenced artists such as Richard Prince, Jeff Koons, and Raymond Pettibon.

29

Roy Lichtenstein Wallpaper with Blue Floor Interior (/300), 1992 Screenprint in colors on Paper Technologies, Inc. Waterleaf paper in five panels 102 x 152.50 in

30

JAMES ROSENQUIST American, 1933–2017

Leading Pop artist James Rosenquist—who came to prominence among New York School figures like Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Willem de Kooning—is well known for his large-scale, fragmented works that bring the visual language of commercial painting onto canvas (notably, from 1957-60, Rosenquist earned his living as a billboard painter). In his use of mass-produced goods and vernacular culture rendered in an anonymous style, Rosenquist's work recalls that of Andy Warhol, while his seemingly irrational, mysterious pictorial combinations owe a debt to Surrealism. His breakthrough work, the iconic F-111 (1965)—51 panels that total over 22 by 24 feet—juxtaposes an American fighter plane with a Firestone tire, garish orange tinned spaghetti, and a young girl under a hair dryer.

31

James Rosenquist Time Door Time D'or (19/28), 1989 Colored pressed paper pulp with lithographic collage on two sheets on TGL handmade paper, the collage elements on Rives BFK wove paper 97.50 x 120 in

32

NEO POP

DAMIEN HIRST TAKASHI MURAKAMI MARI KIM JEFF KOONS 33

"Art is about profundity. It's about connecting to everything that it means to be alive, but you have to act." ― Jeff Koons Emerging in the late eighties, the Neo-Pop movement drew upon and expanded the Pop aesthetic made popular in the mid-20th century by icons like Andy Warhol and Robert Indiana. Artists such as Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst continued to elevate and exaggerate the everyday while not shying away from themes of narcissism, death, and decadence. Both widespread and global, Neo-Pop surged in Asia with artists such as Takashi Murakami and Mari Kim merging the youthful pop aesthetic with manga and contemporary culture. Associated with the Superflat movement, both Kim and Murakami pull from recognizable, appealing themes and strive to create accessible art while making sense of the postindustrial world they inhabit.

34

DAMIEN HIRST British, b. 1965

Damien Hirst is a British Conceptual artist known for his controversial take on beauty and found-art objects. Along with Liam Gillick, Tracey Emin, and Sarah Lucas, Hirst was part of the Young British Artists movement that rose to prominence in the early 1990s. “I have always been aware that you have to get people listening before you can change their minds,” he reflected. “Any artist's big fear is being ignored, so if you get debate, that's great.” As a student at Goldsmiths College in London, his work caught the eye of the collector and gallerist Charles Saatchi, who became an early patron. Hirst’s The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (1991)—a large vitrine containing an Australian tiger shark suspended in formaldehyde—was financed by Saatchi and helped to launch the artist’s career.

Hirst went on to win the coveted Turner Prize in 1995. In 2012, he showed what went on to be one of his most controversial work in decades, the installation In and Out of Love, which consisted of two white windowless rooms in which over 9,000 butterflies flitted around and died.

35

Damien Hirst Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) (111/300), 2000 Lambda inkjet print in colors on gloss Fujicolor professional paper 45 x 53 x 2.25 in

36

MARI KIM South Korean, b. 1979

Mari Kim calls the recurring figure in her work “Eyedoll,” a cartoon-like, porcelain-skinned female distinguished by her large oval eyes. In Kim’s lustrous ink-on-canvas prints, Eyedoll stares directly out from the surface; she dons different outfits and guises while standing against different backgrounds. As Eyedoll shifts through identities, Kim makes subtle alterations to the figure’s iris patterns, matching changes in costume to changes in mood. The relentless seriality of her work attends to questions of how identity can be altered with props and fashion, and it also models a kind of fetishistic Asian female identity that is confrontational in its forwardness.

37

Mari Kim The Moon, 2021 Acrylic pen, Acrylic paint used, Genuine gold leaf plated on ultra-chrome ink printed paper 51 x 51 in

38

TAKASHI MURAKAMI Japanese, b. 1962

One of the most acclaimed artists to emerge from postwar Asia, Takashi Murakami—“the Warhol of Japan”—is known for his contemporary Pop synthesis of fine art and popular culture, particularly his use of a boldly graphic and colorful anime and manga cartoon style. Murakami became famous in the 1990s for his “Superflat” theory and for organizing the paradigmatic exhibition of that title, which linked the origins of contemporary Japanese visual culture to historical Japanese art. His output includes paintings, sculptures, drawings, animations, and collaborations with brands such as Louis Vuitton. “Japanese people accept that art and commerce will be blended; and in fact, they are surprised by the rigid and pretentious Western hierarchy of “high art’,” Murakami says.

“In the West, it certainly is dangerous to blend the two because people will throw all sorts of stones. But that’s okay— I’m ready with my hard hat.”

39

Takashi Murakami Jellyfish Eyes × e-ma Flower Stand Happy Rainbow (13/30), 2013 Fabricated plastic flower with one hundred candy cases, on a painted metal stand with five wheels 64.75 x 56.25 x 28.25 in

40

CONTEMPORARY CHINESE ART

AI WEIWEI CHEN QIULIN LI TIANBING LIU BOLIN YUE MINJUN ZHANG XIAOGANG ZHONG BIAO 41

“Creativity is the power to reject the past, to change the status quo, and to seek new potential. Simply put, aside from using one's imagination - perhaps more importantly - creativity is the power to act.” ― Ai Weiwei Traversing media and style, Contemporary Chinese artists explore identity, society, and tradition through sculpture, print, photography, and installation, emerging at the forefront of the international contemporary art movement. Ai Weiwei, Yue Minjun, and Zhang Xiaogang engage the notion of identity within the Chinese culture of collectivism while photographer Liu Bolin explores notions of invisibility through philosophical and societal perspectives, respectively.

42

AI WEIWEI Chinese, b. 1957

A cultural figure of international renown, Ai Weiwei is an activist, architect, curator, filmmaker, and China’s most famous artist. Open in his criticism of the Chinese government, Ai was famously detained for months in 2011, then released to house arrest. “I don’t see myself as a dissident artist,” he says. “I see them as a dissident government!” Some of Ai’s best known works are installations, often tending towards the conceptual and sparking dialogue between the contemporary world and traditional Chinese modes of thought and production. For Sunflower Seeds (2010) at the Tate Modern, he scattered 100 million porcelain “seeds” handpainted by 1,600 Chinese artisans—a commentary on mass consumption and the loss of individuality. His infamous Coca Cola Vase (1994) is a Han Dynasty urn emblazoned with the ubiquitous soft-drink logo. Ai also served as artistic consultant on the design of the “Bird’s Nest” stadium for Beijing’s 2008 Olympics, and has curated pavilions and museum exhibitions around the globe.

43

Ai Weiwei Thin Line (98/100), 2017 3D multiple with glass fiber light line and PMMA mirror in acrylic display case 19.69 x 19.69 x 9.84 in

44

LI TIANBING Chinese, b.1974

When Li Tianbing was 12 years old, he sold a cow and used the proceeds to purchase his first camera, with which he has been traversing the mountains in Fujian province ever since, taking portraits of the people who live in the impoverished, rural villages. Entirely self-taught, he uses black-and-white film, sometimes adding touches of color by hand. Rather than naming the individuals in his portraits, Li labels each one “Comrade,” adhering to the Communist form of address.

Through his decades of work, he has amassed a straightforward, subtle, and sensitive visual record of multiple generations of people, who have lived through momentous transitions in China’s history, including independence from colonial rule, the Cultural Revolution, and rapid modernization.

45

Li Tianbing On the Way to School No 2, 2007 Oil on canvas 78.75 x 63 x 1.25 in

46

ZHANG XIAOGANG Chinese, b. 1958

Relying on memory to recreate a highly personal version of his country’s history, Zhang Xiaogang makes art that is as much about himself as it is about China’s past. The grim imaginary families in his “Bloodlines: The Big Family” paintings of the 1990s and his 2005–06 series of grisaille portraits in oil reveal countless narratives about the aspirations and failures of the Cultural Revolution as well as Zhang’s own emotions.

Like the blank visages of the individuals in these paintings, Zhang’s brass and concrete sculptures of figures, as well as implements used for recording history (such as fountain pens, notebooks, and light bulbs, all 2009), appear compressed and distorted by memory, age, and some unknown force.

47

Zhang Xiaogang Untitled, from Bloodline: Big Family (17/68), 2007 Lithograph in colors on Arches paper 36.50 x 51.50 in

48

Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.

― BANKSY 49

VANDALS

50

GRAFFITI

COPE2 DAZE AL DIAZ DEFER DELTA 2 FAB 5 FREDDY 51

FUTURA GIZ LADY PINK LEE QUINONES RAMMELLZEE RISK

Some people are enraged, and some people are applauding. If there were a mission statement for graffiti, that would be it. ― Barry McGee Graffiti was born on the streets of New York in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Its earliest practitioners were roving bands of “writers” who competed within their ranks and with rival groups to reach ever greater heights of proliferation, notoriety, and visibility. Out of necessity, graffiti evolved rapidly. This evolution saw artists graduating from paint pens and permanent markers and into the media, which would aid, in part, in the fracturing of the movement from the singular goal of competition between writers into an artistic practice for public consumption. Taggers began to utilize spray paint as a means to create grander pieces with greater staying power, while still more artists departed from these concepts entirely.

52

DAZE

American, b.1962

Chris ‘Daze’ Ellis began his prolific Career painting New York City subway cars in 1976 while attending The High School of Art and Design. He remains one of the few artists of his generation to make the successful transition from the subways to the studio. His first group show was the seminal “Beyond Words” at the Mudd Club in 1981. Soon after his first solo exhibition was held at Fashion Moda, an influential alternative art space in the South Bronx. One year later the Sammlung Ludwig, Aachen, Germany acquired the first of several paintings for their permanent collection. Since then he has exhibited in numerous solo exhibitions in such cities as Paris, Monte Carlo, Singapore, Beijing, Florence, and Buenos Aires. Ellis’ work has continued to be included in many group shows and museum surveys internationally. Daze’s paintings have found themselves in many private collections including Eric Clapton, Natalie Imbruglia and Madonna. His work can also be found in the permanent collections of The Whitney Museum, NY, Museum of Modern Art, NY, The Museum of the City of New York, The Ludwig Museum, Aachen, and Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven.

53

Daze Disco Tunnel, 2019 Oil, acrylic, spray paint, and pumice on canvas 52 x 41.75 x 1.75 in

54

AL DIAZ American, b. 1959

Al Díaz’s career spans five decades. Born and raised Puerto Rican in New York City, by age 15 he was an influential firstgeneration subway graffiti artist known as “BOMB- ONE.” His friendship and artistic collaboration with high school schoolmate Jean-Michel Basquiat on SAMO©, has been noted often in contemporary art history. Díaz later contributed percussion to numerous musical recordings and performances, including Basquiat’s historic 1983 record, “Beat Bop.” Díaz is sought-after as an expert of New York City counterculture art.

He appears often in publications, as a highlighted speaker for a variety of panel discussions at universities and museums (including Smithsonian Institution, the Brooklyn Museum, The New School and Christie’s Education), and has been featured in several films, including Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child.

Díaz’ current creative practice in Brooklyn includes gathering the standard “WET PAINT” signage used throughout the NYC MTA, and reconstructing them to create clever, poignant anagrams in various mixed media and public art formats. His work is shown and privately collected internationally.

55

Al Diaz A Familiar Scent Remains, 2022 Silkscreen and hand painting on synthetic fabric mounted on wood panel 48 x 110 x 2.75 in

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LADY PINK Ecuadorian-American, b. 1964

Sandra Fabara, aka, Lady Pink, was born in Ecuador, raised in Queens, New York, and studied at the High School of Art & Design in Manhattan. While a student there, she met a group of graffiti artists and began writing at age fifteen. She was soon well known as the only prominent female capable of competing with the boys in the graffiti subculture. Lady Pink painted subway trains from the years 1979-1985. She appeared in theaters in the starring role of Rose in Charlie Ahearn’s 1983 film Wild Style and quickly acquired hip-hop, cult figure status.

Lady Pink’s canvases are in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Brooklyn Museum, among others. They were featured in the major exhibitions “Art in the Streets” at the LA MOCA and “Graffiti” at the Brooklyn Museum. Lady Pink continues to mature as an artist, selling work internationally and producing ambitious murals commissioned for universities, corporations and institutions

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Lady Pink Unity Tree, 2021 Acrylic on tarp 112 x 93.25 in

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RAMMELLZEE American, 1960 - 2010

First known as a graffiti artist, Rammellzee also recorded and performed as a musician and later worked in sculpture and assemblage. His self-titled Gothic Futurism style was distinguished by the use of bright colors, barbed letters, and its symbolic campaign against standardization. Rammellzee’s self-given name is an esoteric derivation of a math equation.

He first began tagging subway cars during the late 1970s.

Rammellzee went on to release the hip-hop single “Beat Bop” with K-Rob in 1983, and exhibited alongside Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. In the decades that followed, the artist continued to produce experimental music, costume-like sculptures, and spray painted work. In 2004, Rammellzee collaborated with the design brand Supreme to create a release of 20 hand painted backpacks. The artist died on June 27, 2010 in New York, NY.

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Rammellzee Untitled, 1986 Spray paint on cardboard 17.72 x 39.37 in

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RISK

American, b. 1967

Multi-talented fine artist, sculptor, and graffiti pioneer RISK was one of the first artists to exhibit graffiti and street art in galleries. Born Kelly Graval, the artist moved to Los Angeles with his family and made his new high school his personal canvas. He has participated in a number of street art crews, most famously West Coast Artists (WCA) and the Seventh Letter. In the course of his nearly 30-year career, RISK has become one of the most influential figures for subsequent generations of graffiti artists, particularly in Los Angeles. He is also considered one of the first artists to have painted on freight trains, as well as a pioneer of “painting in the heavens”—a graffiti term referring to highly elevated surfaces like billboards, rooftops, and overpasses. His art can be seen in music videos by everyone from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Michael Jackson.

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Risk Peaceful Warrior 777, 2021 Acrylic, aerosol, crushed abalone on door from Boeing 777 airliner 81 x 50 x 10 in

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STREET

CEY ADAMS BANKSY BILL BARMINSKI BLEK LE RAT MR. BRAINWASH CRASH AL DIAZ SHEPARD FAIREY RICHARD HAMBLETON PAUL INSECT 63

JAZZ JR KOBRA STEVE LAZARIDES THE LOVE CHILD RETNA KING SALADEEN BILL TAVIS SAGE VAUGHN VHILS

“Think outside the box, collapse the box, and take a fucking sharp knife to it.” ― Banksy From Jean-Michel Basquiat to Shepard Fairey, street artists are known for their creative expressions of rebellion. Keith Haring famously turned the New York City subway system into his canvas, KAWS broke into telephone booths and graffitied their advertising panels, and Richard Hambleton surprised NYC denizens with fake crime scene silhouettes painted on sidewalks. Banksy tricked the art world when he shredded his million-dollar canvas Girl With Balloon after it sold at auction in 2018. Today, there are more ways than ever to bring this defiant style of street art into the home, from salvaged graffiti walls to justreleased print editions by emerging talent.

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CEY ADAMS American, b. 1962

New York City native Cey Adams emerged from the downtown graffiti movement to exhibit alongside fellow artists Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. He appeared in the historic 1982 PBS documentary Style Wars which tracks subway graffiti in New York. Cey’s work explores the relationship between transformation and discovery focusing on themes ranging from pop culture to race and gender relations. His practice involves dismantling various imagery and paper elements to build multiple layers of color, texture, shadow, and light. Cey draws inspiration from 60’s pop art, sign painting, comic books, and popular culture. As the Creative Director of hip hop mogul Russell Simmons’ Def Jam Recordings, he co-founded the Drawing Board, the label’s inhouse visual design firm, where he created visual identities, album covers, logos, and advertising campaigns for Run DMC, Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Public Enemy, Notorious B.I.G., and Jay-Z. He exhibits, lectures and teaches art workshops at institutions including: MoMA, Brooklyn Museum, Walker Art Center, and MoCA Los Angeles.

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Cey Adams Pan Am Monoprint, 2021 Silkscreen and hand collage on 2ply Museum Board 32.5 x 32.5 in

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BANKSY

Banksy, b.1974

Whether plastering cities with his trademark parachuting rat, painting imagined openings in the West Bank barrier in Israel, or stenciling “We’re bored of fish” above a penguins’ zoo enclosure, Banksy creates street art with an irreverent wit and an international reputation that precedes his anonymous identity. “TV has made going to the theatre seem pointless, photography has pretty much killed painting,” he says, “but graffiti has remained gloriously unspoilt by progress.” Banksy gained his notoriety through a range of urban interventions, from modifying street signs and printing his own currency to illegally hanging his own works in institutions such as the Louvre and the Museum of Modern Art. Most often using spray paint and stencils, Banksy has crafted a signature, immediately identifiable graphic style—and a recurring cast of cops, soldiers, children, and celebrities—through which he critically examines contemporary issues of consumerism, political authority, terrorism, and the status of art and its display

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AVAILABLE TO VIEW IN PERSON 68

BLEK LE RAT French, b.1951

Pioneering French graffiti artist Blek le Rat counts the infamous Banksy among his many admirers. Born Xavier Prou, the artist was one of the first graffiti artists in Paris and has been described as the “Father of stencil graffiti.” Blek was introduced to graffiti after a trip to New York City in 1971 and was inspired to bring the style back to Paris, adapting the stencil as a more fitting technique for French architecture. He is best known for stenciling a giant graphic image of a rat all over Paris in the early 1980s, which to him symbolized both freedom and the dissemination of art through the city as if it were the plague. In recent years his work has become increasingly political, focusing on the homeless, the environment, and other social causes. Blek’s posters of kidnapped French journalist Florence Aubenas helped raise public awareness of her situation, pressuring politicians and journalists to work harder for her release.

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Blek le Rat Boy with Airplane, 2011 Stencil, spray paint and acrylic on canvas 79.50 x 52 x 2 in

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MR. BRAINWASH French, b.1966

A provocative figure in the world of street art, Mr. Brainwash practices an irreverent brand of appropriation characterized by the use of copyrighted images from history, popular culture, and art history. The artist subtly alters the picture or its context, mischievously undermining the tone of the source material. Brainwash, a pseudonym for Thierry Guetta, is known for producing massive spectacles to display his art. He came to prominence through mounting large-scale public projects in his current home of Los Angeles and as the main figure in the Banksy-directed film Exit Through the Gift Shop.

His work hinges on the idea that anything is possible in his practice. “Art has no walls. Anybody can be an artist,” he says.

“Art has no rules. There’s no manual.”

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Mr. Brainwash Pop Wall, 2020 Silkscreen and mixed media on canvas 36 x 60 in

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RICHARD HAMBLETON Canadian, 1952 - 2017

Richard Hambleton, referred to as the “godfather of street art,” was a pioneering Canadian street artist. He is recognized as a pivotal intermediary between Abstract Expressionism and the popular “art for the masses” graffiti that boomed in the 1980s. Hambleton is best known for his grisly “Shadowmen” and “Horse and Rider” figures, which he tagged in alleyways and drug-dealing hotspots in Lower Manhattan throughout the '70s and ’80s. Despite finding early success in New York and showing at the Venice Biennale in 1984 and ’88, Hambleton was largely forgotten in the ’90s and early 2000s, when his personal battles with addiction alienated him from the art world. Hambleton’s work saw a resurgence in the 2010s, with solo shows, major museum retrospectives, and documentaries taking a new look at the seminal role he played in the history of street art.

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Richard Hambleton Battle Scene Painting, 1983 Acrylic and plastic figurines on canvas 96 x 40 in

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JAZZ American

Stephen Jaskulski, aka JAZZ, is a self-taught painter from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Now based in Los Angeles California, his work and his life are from his stream of consciousness. By letting his natural process unfold, Jazz analyzes the inner workings of himself and the world around him while allowing the paintings to flow uninterrupted. His highest goal is finding a genuine connection with the viewer and to strike a cord deep in their soul, allowing them to find comfort or a feel a sense of familiarity. Jazz' mediums consist primarily of oil stick, oil paints, acrylics, and spray paint on canvas, wood, and paper.

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JAZZ Life Cycle #3, 2020 Mixed Media on Canvas 60 x 48 in

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KING SALADEEN American, b.1983

Raheem Saladeen Johnson was born and raised in West Philadelphia, where his passion for the arts began even before the age of 5. Raheem worked as a design artist for a clothing company which later grew into a national success. After the company was sold he began doing work for a group home for teens in Philadelphia. While he was there he created paintings and sketches as a way to relieve stress but it became a light in the dark for the teens and what they had been through as well as their current situations. In 2011 he began his venture at the Saladeen Art Group showcasing art in SOHO NYC, Art Basel Miami Beach, LA ART SHOW and more.

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King Saladeen Product of My Environment Acrylic, spray paint, mixed media on canvas and resin 72 x 72 x 3 in

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RETNA American, b.1979

RETNA is an American street artist known for his unique typography and letterforms. RETNA combines visual linguistics, urban poetics, and appropriated fashion imagery to explore an eclectic range of media, including graffiti, photography, and painting. “It is important to have art in the streets as a cultural fabric that is woven into the city for the upliftment of civic pride,” he once stated. Born Marquis Lewis, he joined the Los Angeles mural scene as a teenager, developing his text-based signature style featuring intricate line work, complex layering, and a wide range of color.

Painting with a brush in addition to a spray can, the artist achieves highly detailed line work. He has exhibited at venues throughout the world, notably including L.A. Art Machine in Los Angeles, Don Gallery in Milan, Yves Laroche Galerie d’Art in Montreal, and Art for All in Malaga, among others. The artist continues to live and works in Los Angeles, CA.

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RETNA Violators Will be Escorted Off the Premises, 2010-2011 Acrylic on wood panels 75.5 xx 48 in

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VHILS Portuguese, b.1987

Vhils, the pseudonym of Portuguese street artist Alexandre Farto, has become synonymous with his signature approach to street portraiture. Working both outdoors and indoors, his large-scale, detailed images are achieved by scratching, drilling, and using bleach to tear away at billboards, walls, and found panels. The subjects therefore become one with the architecture and detritus that Vhils uses as both substrate and medium. His groundbreaking bas-relief carving technique has been hailed as one of the most compelling approaches to art created in the streets in the last decade. Challenging the notion that graffiti art is socially disruptive, Vhils sees the medium as a force to push the boundaries of the politics of communication in the social arena. An avid experimentalist, Vhils has been developing his personal aesthetics in a plurality of media besides his signature carving technique: from stencil painting to metal etching, from pyrotechnic explosions and video to sculptural installations. Since 2005, he has presented his work in over 30 countries around the world.

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Vhils Ataxia 12, 2013 Hand-carved old wooden doors assembled 86 × 59 in

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DIGITAL ART: NFTs

BEEPLE NESSGRAPHICS MAD DOG JONES DOT PIGEON 83

Perhaps one of the biggest surprises in the art world in the last two years has been the explosion of nonfungible tokens, or NFTs. Artists with digitally native practices—and beyond—saw the potential of this new technology. From the endless creative possibilities the medium allows to the benefits of tracking ownership history on the blockchain, a growing and diverse group of artists are using the technology’s potential to propel their practices and expand their markets. This advancement also brought about an evolution in the traditional role of the auction house, with artists directly engaging the houses to contextualize their work and support and educate a growing collecting community. The artist Mike Winkelmann, known as Beeple, set a record last year when his collage of images, Everydays: The First 5,000 Days (2021), sold for US$69 million.

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BEEPLE American, b. 1981

Beeple, also known as Mike Winkelmann, is an American digital artist, graphic designer, and animator. In March 2021, Beeple made art history after selling his piece EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS for $69M, making it the fourth most expensive artwork by a living artist and the first NFT to be sold a Christie's auction. Beeple's visionary and often irreverent digital pictures have propelled him to the top of the digital art world, winning him 1.8 million followers on Instagram and high-profile collaborations with global brands ranging from Louis Vuitton to Nike, as well as performing artists from Katy Perry to Childish Gambino. As one of the originators of the current "everyday" movement in 3D graphics, Beeple has been creating a picture everyday from start to finish and posting it online for over ten years without missing a single day. Beeple is currently the highest grossing blockchain-based digital artist.

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Beeple 5000 Day Selects (56/105), 2021 NFT and Physical Token in original unopened box

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NESSGRAPHICS American, b. 1995

25-year-old digital artist Alex Ness, known as NessGraphics, works in a wide range of modern media, known primarily for his mastery of 3D animation, modeling, and design. From the age of 12, Ness gravitated towards the use of technology to captivate his audience through digital storytelling at varying scales, showcasing his visual art alongside award-winning musicians at globally prominent events and shows. Ness weaves in soothing undertones of dystopian and cyberpunk timelessness into his work and is widely respected as a thought leader in the NFT world. NessGraphics' first piece to be offered at auction was K1LLSCR33N at Sotheby's New York in 2021, which sold for $214,200 USD.

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NessGraphics Chronicles 2011 - 3XPL01T. (5/5), 2021 NFT

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