Thought you'd like to know

Why does no one consider it graffiti when constructin workers leave their neon tags all over the streets?
Why does no one consider it graffiti when I leave my shadow all over the streets?

How Gallery came to be

Welcome to Gallery part 1, the Reno chapter.
As you may now there is a show coming up on August 27th at the Never Ender Gallery, by Erik Burke. Erik has been documenting the Gallery process in his hometown and has built a hefty library. He first encountered the Gallery while visiting a mens stall in Seattle, where he noticed the text 'gallery' scrawled next to the urinal. He thought, "I never really considered the bathroom an exhibition showroom, but I guess it does look pretty nice." After all Duchamp used the urinal and and art historians love to build contemporary art rhetoric off of that one instance.

As Erik returned home he noticed Gallery's everywhere he went. In alleyways, on demolished building, even in the grocery store next to all the Campbell's soup. It was inescapable. As long research plugged it's way into Erik's head he realized that the gallery was a device used by Luther Blissett, a famous Italian artist, to remind the public that art is all around them. In a sense he wanted to not create art but point out art. Point out the art that was all around and not necessariliy in the gallery. And Luther Blissett decided the easiest way to do that was by labeling it. So began the Gallery campaign in Italy.

Somehow it made it's way all around the globe and into the documenting library of Erik Burke. So come August 27th to the Never Ender Gallery on Liberty and Arlington to be reminded of the importance of art in everyday places.

Never Ender Gallery show

I know, I know, I thought I wouldn't do another show inside of a gallery but I did. I can't help it. I'm human and tend to say yes, a lot. So to circumnavigate the idea of presenting artwork in a gallery setting, such as pain-tings, I documented various outdoor galleries that the indoor (Never Ender Gallery) exhibition will elude to by ways of photographic and video processes. As the audience enters the gallery space they will be presented with a variety of stimulus such as video projection, telephone, and photos, similar to entering a restaurant and perusing over a menu. The audience will then be able to interact with the piece by selecting a gallery from the list of photos and ordering it. By ordering a gallery, they don't actually get it in a physical consumer-type-of-way, but they become curator and therefore have control over the space. I'm working with Mr. Tedore once again to create an application that can bring video of these make-shift galleries to the audience member who has just ordered his or her art. SInce I am rather computer illiterate the finalized process has yet to be determined. Atleast by me.
I decided to go about an exhibition in this fasion due to my apathy for trying to sell art. Now when I say art, I emphasize the uncapitalization of the word and the minuteness of those three letters slumped next to one another. Because when you say Art like art it is a dead word and buying art seems like nothing more than pinching some pennies into a casket. I hope to never create passive art. Nor do I wish to soley create pain-ting art because I'm not interested in a surface that you can turn your back on. The --- that I'm going for doesn't rear it's head to the word. It's camouflaged in absurdity yet symbiotic with the everyday experience. It allows you to watch while secretly coaxing you to participate. It's not special and doesn't deserve a mantle. But a mind that won't forget and easily is reminded of what it's like to follow through with a wonderful idea.
I hope to see you there on Saturday, August 27th at 7 pm. Never Ender is at 350 West Liberty Street, just up the street from the Nevada museum of art and near the intersection of Arlington and California.

Don't forget,

Luther Blissett

Historic mural concepts

Three new concepts for a mural in downtown Reno.
I visited the Historical Society and tried to find
photos from the same vantage point as the wall
that is to be painted. The three images I found
were all taken from the Virginia St./Center St./
2nd St. area. I hope to create a stencil similar
to news print which I can spray through to create
a gigantic Lichtensteinesque tribute to the west.