Energy That is All Around

Grey Art Gallery Exhibit

NYU, Silver Building, 1st Floor

 Mission School: Chris Johanson
Margaret Kilgallen, Alicia McCarthy
Barry McGee, Ruby Neri 

"In the early 1990s, many aspiring San Francisco artists lived and worked in the Mission District, a gritty, low-rent area of the city. Among them were San Francisco Art Institute undergraduates Alicia McCarthy, Barry McGee, and Ruby Neri, along with friends Chris Johanson and Margaret Kilgallen. Turning their backs on the Bay Area dot-com boom—which brought to the neighborhood an influx of young professionals, upscale shops, chic restaurants, and eviction threats—they embraced street aesthetics and lowbrow visual culture such as cartoons, signage, and folk art. All made and promoted graffiti; all had tag names. All moved easily between representation and abstraction, the street and the studio, and worked in various media including painting, sculpture, drawing, collage, and installation. Although each developed a distinct artistic style and philosophy, they all were drawn to the radical and the political. Not surprisingly, all took inspiration from Bay Area Figuration, the Beats, Funk art, and Punk. They likewise witnessed how hard San Francisco was hit by the AIDS epidemic. By 2002, these high-octane and previously obscure artists were retroactively dubbed the Mission School by critic Glen Helfand.

The Mission School, however, is less a movement than an ethos. Nor does ENERGY THAT IS ALL AROUND purport to be a definitive survey. Instead it focuses on rarely seen early work by five key Mission School practitioners. Johanson, Kilgallen, McCarthy, McGee, and Neri often collaborated and showed their work in the same alternative venues. Moreover their art evokes a paradox: while it appears to be slapdash and unfinished, it is actually highly considered and resolved. With the exception of Margaret Kilgallen—who died prematurely in 2001—they remain friends and still share an affinity for humble and/or discarded materials, a devotion to community, and an anti-consumerist stance. Highlighting their aesthetic contributions as well as subversions, ENERGY THAT IS ALL AROUND provides a raffish and spirited introduction to the distinctive work of some of California’s most innovative contemporary artists."

http://www.nyu.edu/greyart/