¡ÓRALE! The Kings & Queens of Cool

Lowbrow Insurgence: The Rise of Post-Pop Art

September 20, 2014 – January 25, 2015
The Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, New Mexico

La Luz de Jesus Gallery has teamed with the Harwood Museum of Art to produce multiple portions of ¡Orale! Kings and Queens of Cool, a four-part exhibition focusing on the Post-Pop or Lowbrow art movement that grew out of West Coast surfer, street and car cultures.  On view in the Harwood Museum of Art‘s Mandelman-Ribak Gallery, Lowbrow Insurgence:  The Rise of Post-Pop Art will bring together the work of internationally recognized artists including Robert Williams, Mark Ryden, and R. Crumb.

Concentrating on painting and sculpture, ¡ORALE! Kings and Queens of Cool is comprised of four unique exhibitions addressing several basic themes: Post-Pop, pinstriping, tattoo, graffiti, and a small sampling of original rock poster art. Over 150 works by approximately seventy artists will demonstrate the transformation and integration of what once was considered “low” art into “high art.” Indeed, this exhibition seeks to refute the previous terminology of “lowbrow” and introduce what is common to a younger generation as “Post-Pop.”

Three major museum exhibitions have previously explored this topic: High and Low: Modern Art and Popular Culture, October 7, 1990 – January 15, 1991, curated by Kirk Varnedoe, Director, Department of Painting and Sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art and Adam Gopnik, Art Critic, The New Yorker. The exhibition then traveled to The Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Soon afterwards (1992) Paul Schimmel curated Helter Skelter: L.A. Art in the 1990s at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and, in 1998, Pop Surrealism at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum.

Lowbrow Insurgence:  The Rise of Post-Pop Art is primarily composed of pieces that debuted over the years at La Luz de Jesus Gallery. Many of the exhibited paintings are on loan from the personal collections of owner, Billy Shire, and director, Matt Kennedy, and include works that have become synonymous with their respective creators. This ground-breaking collection shows that virtually every new form of creative endeavor is, in its nascence, an intolerable offense to the cognoscenti, but over time, effrontery yields to acceptance. A catalog has been printed to commemorate this collection providing museums, art departments and historians of the future a reference to understand late 20th and early 21st- century politics, society and aesthetics.

While most pieces are not for sale, some are available for purchase. Click on the images for expanded view and info. Delivery will need to wait until the exhibition has ended and the artworks are returned–with added provenance.

Contact the Harwood Museum for exhibition visiting hours and other event info:
http://www.harwoodmuseum.org/exhibitions/view/143

Contact Gallery Director Matthew Gardocki for purchase info:
info@laluzdejesus.com  (323)666-7667