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DINTERFINEART
547 West 27 Street Third Floor
New
York
NY
10001
212 947 2818
info@dinterfineart.com www.dinterfineart.com
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January 10, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Exhibition:
STRANGER TOWN
Artists:
DANIEL JOHNSTON
JASON HOLLEY
THE CLAYTON BROTHERS
MIMIYO TOMOZAWA
SAIMAN CHOW
YUSAKU HANAKUMA
RICH JACOBS
TOMOO GOKITA
Curated by Taylor McKimens
Dates: January
27 – March 26, 2005
Opening
Reception: Thursday, January 27, 6-8pm
Gallery
Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 11-6pm and by appointment
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Creative energy
has increasingly been pooled into areas other than those of the New York
galleries and contemporary art world. More and more artists find themselves
unable or unwilling to go through the traditional steps of the starving
artist trying desperately to get noticed, and instead find alternative
routes to creative achievement. Whether it be illustration, comics, music,
etc., many artists have gone on to push the limits in their chosen fields.
Stranger Town
features eight successful artists who have each risen to prominence in areas
outside the walls of the established art world.
Daniel Johnston
is an artist and musician from Austin Texas, who is best known for his
incredibly honest and powerful heartfelt lo-fi songs, which have greatly
influenced a whole new generation of musicians. His drawings have largely
only been seen on his homemade cassettes, album covers, and for sale in
music venues during his shows. Both his drawings and music are highly
personal and simultaneously express both happy, innocent optimism, and deep
sadness and frustration. His methods are clumsy and simple – his results are
powerful and deeply moving stories of happiness, love and pain. A
documentary about Johnston “The Devil and Daniel Johnston” will be
featured at Sundance Film Festival this year, and a tribute album was
recently released with Johnston covers by artists such as Beck, Tom Waits
and Flaming Lips.
Jason Holley
is
an artist and musician living in Los Angeles.
He
has made his living doing illustration and is considered by many to be one
the most interesting and original illustrators living today. His artworks
are often made up of images painted on paper, cut out and collaged together.
When a client returns an illustration to him he often peels his favorite
images back off of it to re-use in personal work or other illustrations. For
this reason, most of his illustrations survive only in reproduction. This
history also contributes to the aged and dirty quality of his work. Holly’s
work is awkward and raw and incredibly sophisticated and delicate. He also
sings and plays multiple instruments and non-instruments with Ukefink.
His art was recently featured in Tall Stories at The
Wignall Museum
in Rancho Cucamonga, CA.
The Clayton
Brothers
– Rob
and Christian Clayton have worked separately making and showing paintings in
Los Angeles and have each excelled to the forefront of contemporary
illustration and have highly influenced current trends in that field. They
have recently changed course, collaborating to create large explosive
paintings and installations that are a result of an expanding personal
dialog between the two brothers. The dense fields of imagery are formed by a
back and forth communication between them. The fact that they’ve had
identical upbringings, experiences, similar interests and personal visions
has made it seamless. It is near impossible to distinguish between their
contributions. Their work was recently featured in Art Statements at
Art Basel
Miami Beach.
Mimiyo Tomozawa
is
widely known throughout Japan for her small paintings and illustrations
often depicting cute chubby sweating figures in odd sexual and uncomfortable
situations. In America she is most known for her cover artwork for Jim
O’Rourke’s Eureka and Insignificance albums. While living
in Paris she recently released Viens Chez Moi!!!, a picture book
featuring her artwork. She currently resides in Tokyo.
Saiman Chow’s
work strongly reflects the impact of spending half his childhood in Hong
Kong absorbing Chinese and Japanese pop culture and manga, and the other
half in Los Angeles surrounded by American pop culture, contemporary art and
design. He co-founded United Bread a motion graphics animation
company and collective and has been a major driving force at
Brand New
School
one of the premiere motion graphics studios in the U.S.
Yusaku Hanakuma
is a
Tokyo based artist who has achieved a large amount of success for the manga
comics that he writes and illustrates. His drawings are crude and quickly
made and his stories are often sick and bizarre. Potty humor, bizarre sex
and lighthearted violence reigns in his work. Hanakuma’s characters such as
Afro and Hage (translates to Bald Head) have been
reproduced on everything from clothing to notebooks and dishes. Hanakuma is
also a fighter. He is a member of Ichibanbosi Grappling, a total fight
martial arts team trained in submission wrestling and jiu jitsu. One of his
recent manga books Tokyo Zombie is currently being made into a live
action feature film by the same name.
Rich Jacobs
makes a large number of drawings and paintings on found materials, and they
are often installed in large expansive groups on the wall. He is also known
for his series of curated art shows and zines called Move, which have
had a huge impact and have brought together and highlighted connections
between artists working across multiple artistic genres. He currently lives
in Brooklyn.
Tomoo Gokita
is an artist living in
Tokyo who makes drawings inspired by music, typography, professional
wrestling, and third-rate porn. His work often varies from academically
sound representation to minimal abstraction, while being held together by
the same fresh energetic momentum. Gokita’s recent book projects are
Lingerie Wrestling and Oh! Heaven, which was done in
collaboration with Fujio Akatsuka.
Taylor McKimens
is an artist living in Brooklyn. Recent shows include Drip and Splat
at Annet Gelink Gallery in Amsterdam and Trunk of Humours at Deitch
Projects in New York.
For further
information please contact Ingrid Dinter at
212 947 2818,
info@dinterfineart.com, or visit the website at
www.dinterfineart.com.
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