Punk Art Show
Radio, Somerville MA
5/12
When I first heard of this show I was very interested because when I was younger my two main interests in life were music and art (now, it’s beer and Cheetos). This was long before I got interested in literature and writing. And as far as the early Boston scene, and elsewhere, the bands were chock full of visual artists. So, anyways, I was very impressed with the fifty or so pieces on display and decided to pick ten favorites to review. I also tried to do it before I knew who did what, which; for the most part I was successful at doing. I guess I should explain the whole idea was to give people involved in music a chance to show their artwork.
The show was on an early Friday night and seemed well attended and several paintings actually got sold. There was acoustic music provided but since this is an art review I must not get diverted. Let me say that these are my ten picks and there was plenty of art that was just as good; so everyone involved should be very proud. Some of the artists from bands I recognized included: Chrissy Spoiler and Erin Wickens (The Grinds), LoWreck (Tijuana Sweetheart), Mike Cunniff (By The Throat) and Amy Griffin (Full Body Anchor).
So Fuck Dance, Let’s Art!
Troy Schoeller, of Razors In The Night, had an interesting piece, a fairly, small piece of wood with a weathered surface and a small raised level on it. It is painted but it also has a full palm with fingers print on it that was made from blood. I was told the blood was from a cut that happened when he was moving a door that the piece of wood comes from.
I picked Nicole Tammaro’s piece without knowing it was hers. She organized this show and is a well-known photographer in the local rock scenes and has a great book of photo’s she took of local punk bands mostly in live settings. Her piece, which is called, “Don’t Quit Ya Day Job,” is a long, thin piece of wood hung vertically that I thought had charcoal on it but is actually acrylic paint. It also has some drawing of fish (the wood is from a fish pallet) along with some fishing line and hooks.
Kevin Spoiler, bassist from the defunct punk band The Spoilers, had one of my favorite pieces. It’s untitled, not large and is an abstract under glass and a protruding frame. It’s more toward hard edged than expressionistic with a big X in the center using the colors red, gray, black and white. When I mentioned Mark Rothko to Kevin, he rightly pointed out how distinctive Rothko’s style was and how his own differs but I get some of the same spiritual feeling I get from Rothko’s, and that’s high praise from me, as Rothko is my favorite artist.
Crazy Jay Genoa, singer of the Red Line Rebels, painted a skateboard using spray-paint and stencils with a shark painted on one end and the words, “When great hunters become hunted,” on the other. I think it’s a really neat piece and I guess the owner of Radio agreed, buying it for $150 with plans to mount it behind the bar upstairs.
Barry Spillberg may be known as the drummer of Mob Hit and Gozu (and at one time, Wargasm) but here he contributes a black and white portrait of Stevie Wonder called, “Fingertips.” It shows Wonder playing a keyboard but what is interesting to me is the body and hands are portrayed out of scale giving it a nice expressionistic feel.
Another portrait of a musical artist was done by Chris Miller, vocalist of punk band The Stretchers, of Joey Ramone. The punk icon is onstage grabbing the microphone in a familiar stance. It’s fairly large and is rendered in blue, black and white acrylic paint and it’s a fun painting to see.
John Aruda had a portrait of Frank Zappa done in black and white acrylic paint. It’s just a head shot, very stark with the color but very recognizable in how it’s portrayed.
Josh Sievers, bassist for Red Line Rebels, had a fun picture kind of drawn like a cartoon but also reminded me of German expressionist Max Beckmann, with his use of black. It portrays a fellow with the top of his head open with various drugs and pills popping out of it. Another fun picture.
Mark Lind, leader of The Ducky Boys, had one of my favorite paintings. It was an average size canvas with a dark gray background with smears of paint upon it. But what made it interesting to me was the canvas was bent, broken across in three parts, kind of making it a speed bump picture or a sculpture and a painting at the same time.
My favorite is gonna go to Jon Caustik which was a large canvas that seemed to use acrylic paint. It was somewhat large scale with a top part that is a yellow mustard color and the smaller bottom part dark brown. And on the top was the outline of a vulture in black with a skull of white on the part below. I can’t really say why I liked this one so much but the hard edges of the colors along with the contrast of the warm colors with the dark imagery seemed to work for me.
I want to encourage (bug) everyone involved with this show, (or anyone else), to post their paintings, photography etcetera on our forum/messageboard. Just start a thread with your name and put as much of your stuff as you like and sell it if you want. If we get enough response we’ll start a separate section for it, also.
So, in conclusion we feel all expression is art. And any media (music, painting, words, photography, and sculpture) is wanted on this site.
(Slimedog)
