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Noah checks out the opening of this gallery in Seattle.

So far everything I've been hearing about Seattle's new BLVD gallery and it's premier show, "Groundswell" have all been about how it's made up of different graffiti and street artists, all with some sort of roots within hip-hop. For example, the Seattle P-I just came out with an article called "Graffiti artists go for a ride on the BLVD of hip-hop dreams." Does that headline seem a little silly to anyone besides me? Still, let me start off by saying that the stuff at the BLVD gallery's grand opening was wonderful. There were a lot of great paintings that appealed to me asthetically, and most of it I would even consider fine art. It actually deserved to be in a gallery space, and a lot of the stuff that was chosen to be shown as a representative of what to come from the BLVD was done very well. The place is guarenteed to be a hit here for some time to come.

Still, I have to question the whole "hip-hop" thing. Really, it probably makes no difference whatsoever, but I don't know that anyone can actually call a bunch of dried leaves, bottle caps, and buttons glued to a canvas hip-hop, or even street art for that matter. Especially not for thousands or even hundreds of dollars. Isn't the point of street art that it's not permanent, that it's risky, and that it's for free? Again, a lot of the works in the show were great, and most of the involved artists are/were heavily involved in graffiti at some time, but somehow when I went out to photograph a lot of the stuff, I felt like I was photographing a product... Even if it's all involved with, or inspired by street art, it still feels like the gallery (and some of the artists) might just be riding a trend. I do have to consider that this was the opening, and therefore was sort of a preview of things to come, but still the way they lump all these things together didn't seem to match, despite sharing some sort of graffiti-ish backround. I don't want to feel like that, so please feel free to leave comments trying to convince me otherwise. Forgive me for being a bit cynical over the whole matter, but I also just saw the new Daniel Clowes/Terry Zwigoff movie, Art School Confidential. The whole thing has left me a bit sensitive, ha! I guess I'm prepared to catch some criticism though, so fire away.

But first, take a look at some of the stuff that was there. Again, a lot of it is wonderful, and a lot of it took a ton of skill, but lemme know if it feels like things are getting a little bit too saturated... Anyway, here's some pictures of the crowd the night of the press preview, which was nothing like the booming turnout that was there for the night of the real opening.

After all my jibber jabber about how the show didn't seem to be really graffiti artists, I'm going to show you this one by Mear One anyway, who actually did spend quite some time tagging while growing up in LA. He was a member of the CBS crew (Can't Be Stopped) for some time, as well as being a self-taught painter whose been crafting his skill for over twenty years.

Check out the details.

Here's a few things by Tra Selhtrow, which spelled backwards, is "worthles art." Let it be known that I did enjoy the birds with baby arms, and even recognised that one as a graphic I once saw on the bottom of a snowboard.

Why else would it need to be so long?

This one was also done by Tra and is titled "Human Error."

Some town's people beating up some 5-0.

Camel toes and nudity. Very popular.

Oliver Vernon made this, although I think his paintings look better when they're grouped with more of his own stuff. For some reason I didn't feel like it fit in very well. Don't get me wrong, it was still interesting. It's title: "Nest."

Here's the left half of Damon Soule's contribution, "theascentandsubsequentdecentofbinarythought." Call me crazy, but SO many other things by Damon could have been chosen for this show. He's been going strong for years, but I went and checked out his website and I think I can pin a real positive shift in his work since around 2001-ish on. I really like what he's been doing since then, but this sort of seemed like a recycled piece of somthing he's covered . It does seem polished, and a little cleaner looking, but somehow not very fresh. Am I getting anywhere with this?

Bigfoot.

Greg Simkins is another guy who has more than messed around with graffiti and "street art." His paintings and drawings seem to follow a Disney/fairy tale-ish type pattern, and he definitely knows how to use his brush. It sure would be interesting to know why he makes what he does though, especially since it looks so different than his tags. Again, his stuff might look better next to his own material, or maybe at a different type of themed show.

Robert Hardgrave.

I just like Robert and think he's a super nice guy. This orange one is my fav of the three, and it is undoubtedly because of the way he painted a nipple.

Invader. Small works like this is interesting, but his stuff is so much more effective when it's placed out on the street or done on a larger scale. To get an idea of what I mean, you MUST look at these pictures. The dood's from Paris and the spot he had in the show was pretty minimal. Research him a bit and you'll be impressed.

Joshua Krause. I'd hate to be a hater, but come on... I just can't dig this mixed media, dried leaf and garbage thing, and am totally irked as to why this was in the show... I remember looking at the guys stuff back in '04 (I remember cuz I was using the computer at a certain radio job I had, and I was trying to copy the lines from this painting as a doodle) and being slightly into it back then, but what has happened? This is... I dunno. You tell me.

I'm not real familiar with Iosefatu Sua, but I still think it was some of the neater stuff that was at the BLVD opening. Iosefatu had two things up, but I only got a picture of this one, which reminded me of that Disney flick, The Emperor's New Groove. Appearantly he and a bunch of other artists, including fellow fecalface blogger Mike Giant, are all involved in a project for Scion cars, in which they paint 3' long polyurethane sculptures of the Scion tC for charity... Vweird.

I don't know much about Martin Ontiveros, but he's got nice colors and real smooth lines!

Sylvia Ji seems to have the right amount of everything in her paintings.

Especially with the deer and all.

The last one I have from the show is this painting Warren Dykeman made. Ofcourse it has lots of drips and fancy text... Again, I think his stuff would look better if it were next to more of it's own, but it still doesn't seem super impressive.

As you can see, the majority of the work is really really good, and some if it just seems so so. There was even stuff there that was way super duper top notch quality, but I just wasn't able to photograph it, so BLVD does deserve a chance to be seen in person by all you readers. Still, the way all the artwork was presented seemed silly. At a certain point this artwork just becomes saturated, I guess. Maybe it's just me, and that I'm having mixed feelings, because usually here in Seattle you really have to search out this kinda stuff. The hunt is maybe the best part, and when a gallery just does all the work for you, then what's the fun in that? At least take the show to a different level and have a better theme than "hip-hop." (Did anyone see Crash.Pause.Rewind. at Western Bridge? Now that was amazing.) After looking through all these pictures, I'll let you decide on your own. Also, deffinetly go and read the article the PI printed about the opening. I want to know if any of you find it interesting how the main focus of the article is not only their depiction of BLVD being dedicated exclusively to hip-hop aesthetics, but also how they portray the stratagies and pricing of the artworks for sale. That shit was expensive... Here's some quotes from the P-I that caught me off guard.

"...Art for art's sake" is not a motto they can get behind. Closer to their hearts might be, "Show me the money..."

"...If there's a line between corporate illustration and fine art, they don't recognize it. "They're not selling out," said BLVD backer Kirsten Anderson. "They're sneaking in..."

"...Artists like Iosefatu Sua, whose "Call of the Wild" is part of the opening exhibit at the new BLVD Gallery, are hoping to go from tags to riches..."

Right on the BLVD's main page is a link to the P-I's page, where they call in an "excellant article!" The thing about those quotes is that they almost seem dead on! Why aren't they ashamed? I wrote to the P-I's art critic, Regina Hackett, to see what exactly her opinion is of the BLVD gallery, and just got a response yesterday. My e-mail to her basically gives her props on information she provided as to where the gallery spawned from, but I still mentioned how she focus' a lot on the money aspect, and how she never quite makes it seem like a bad thing. I wanted to know her true opinion, but ended up with something totally vague. Here was her response.

"Noah. Sorry for the confusion. In newspapers, space and placement rules. I gave it the cover of the section, main element, and had our photographer shoot it. I wrote the piece as a feature, which is not a review. That's why my opinion wasn't prominent. I wouldn't have done the story if I didn't think the gallery was important. Hope that helps. Regina"

Bah! An answer with no answer... I should have seen that coming. Anyway, the opening was last Friday, and I've been sort of stewing over my feelings about this whole thing for almost a week now. Sorry if I was a bit critical. I'm no expert. You guys are. What do you think?

- Noah Hanson {moscomment}