Dave Eggers: Curator?
Memoirist, novelist, editor, champion of irreverence, and ubiquitous tastemaker Dave Eggers has organized a show at Apex Art that features a who’s-who of contemporary artists who share his sense of humor. Many of his choices are quite well known, having become as exposed and “hip” as he is, and some have lent their vision to McSweeney’s or other Eggers Inc. literary enterprises.
With works by cult favorites like Henry Darger, Duchamp, Basquiat, Shephard Fairey, Maira Kalman, the Royal Art Lodge, R. Crumb, David Shrigley, and William Steig, the show also encompasses pieces by literary all-stars such as Kurt Vonnegut, Shel Silverstein, David Mamet, and Ted Berrigan. Oh, and Leonard Cohen!
Eggers’ curatorial statement and all other pertinent info after the jump.
In the show’s press release, Eggers declares:
This show will explore a very small and specific type of artmaking exemplified by contemporary people like David Shrigley, Raymond Pettibon, Nedko Solakov, and Tucker Nichols. This kind of art, which we refuse to name, is somewhat crude, usually irreverent, and always funny. It exists somewhere between one-panel cartoons and text-based art. What we’re talking about, basically, is a show of about 100 works that subscribe (unknowingly) to the following criteria: a) they’re drawings, usually very basic or crude; b) these drawings are accompanied by hand-drawn text on the artwork, and this text refers to the drawing, much like a caption; c) this caption-text is funny. So in many ways you might say these are cartoons, because we’ve just listed the qualifications of a cartoon.
But the works in this show are usually found in galleries, not newspapers or magazines, and so we have something interesting to think about: Is humor allowed in art, and in what forms? Are captions allowed in art, and why? And most importantly, why doesn’t David Shrigley spell better?
Regardless of my mixed feelings towards the powerful Eggers locomotive, I think I’ll brave the sure to be swamped opening just to see who shows up. I like a lot of these artists and am excited to see them presented together. It’s just hard not to think, “There goes Dave Eggers again, impressing his good taste on everybody, for better or worse.”
Key info:
Lots of Things Like This
organized by Dave Eggers
April 2 - May 10, 2008
Opening reception: Wed, April 2, 6-8PM
http://apexart.org/exhibitions/eggers.htm
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