Sunday, January 9, 2011

Beautiful Losers = Winners

Watched Beautiful Losers tonight -- a story of the birth, growth, and explosion of an art movement that has now firmly lodged itself into advertising + pop culture.  

Mike Mills, Barry McGee, Thomas Campbell, Ed Templeton, Geoff McFettridge, Margaret Kilgallen, Chris Johansen, Shepard Fairey, etc, etc, etc, are all in there, talking about their beginning with Aaron Rose and The Alleged Gallery in NY.

I especially liked Geoff McFettridge's take on how he entered the commercial realm on his own terms, while under tremendous amounts of pressure from the agency / client world.

Anyway, I was inspired to follow up with some of these fine creators and see what they're up to now, a few years after the 2008 film.

Thomas Campbell just had a show at 49 Geary in SF, and shot a strange 60 sec. spot for Fuel TV, as part of their signature series:

TC's film, (#25 in a series of 100 films), puts him in the company of Doug Aitken (#3 of 100):

as well as personal fave Hunter Gatherer (#22 of 100)

Mike Mills appears to be taking a break, at least based on the lack of new work on his site, but made a film about antidepressants in Japan that looks interesting:


McFetridge is cranking out amazing work for everyone.  And it's 100% his.  Nice.... 

Barry McGee is still with Deitch Projects, and doesn't have need his own site.  This painting sold for $50k.

This Chris Johanson painting went for $32k.

Not sure how to describe what Ed Templeton is up to.