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.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

it hurts me to see you doing so much research and fail so publicly. you may want to google deitch projects to find out what is happening with that gallery these days. maybe i'll save you some time, it closed, for good reasons. i'll let you learn more about it on your own.

and another thing....while i'm here. auction results are a bad way of finding out what an artist is up to "these days". you've provided no information on what chris johanson is up to. your update on barry mcgee is lacking. he's possibly the one of the group that is the most reported on, and that's all you came up with?? pathetic.

Jamie Kripke said...

Anony Mous, you are totally right. This ia a lazy, half-assed post. Maybe even a quarter-assed post. After reading it again, I see how much it sucks. And it's misleading! I sound like I am going to go meet each of them for a coffee. Such crap.

So I didn't have coffee with Barry McGee or Chris J. I was too tired.

Our 20 month old, aka "Hot Sauce," has been doing this thing for a few months now where she gets up at exactly 4:55 each morning and screams at the top of her lungs. Hot Sauce is LOUD. Not many people can sleep through this level of noise while sober.

So I go downstairs, get her some warm milk, pick out 3 of her favorite books, and go talk to her for a few minutes. Then I put her books in the crib, crack the closet light so she can see, and go back to bed where I lie awake and watch the sunrise.

Most of the time my wife is the one that gets up with Hot Sauce. But she's been in Florida since Sunday, so I've been on Sauce duty. I actually love it, but it's wearing me down.

Yes, Anonymous, you're right. There is a lot of room for improvement here. It's a bunch of lazy, careless sentences that aren't helping anyone. A disgrace to the distingushed courier font, a waste of pixels.

To be honest, it was late, and I just wanted to finish writing it so I could go to bed. Which isn't a good reason for writing anything.

I guess I could delete this whole stupid post and forget about it. But I think I am going to leave it here as a reminder that anything worth doing is worth doing well.

(and for Hot Sauce.)

sweetfern said...

Wow! anonymous is bold and angry for a person who is on this site of their own free will. Jussayin'. I personally appreciate the vulnerability and the willingness to share your inspiration and enjoy checking in on your blog from time to time. Family life is priority that has the ability to level us at times. Love the clips.