In a new group show entitled “Crucial Mass,” Downtown LA’s Superchief Gallery will welcome a chorus of voices from the underground to coat its walls through Sunday, Dec. 10. The show will highlight a diverse collection of West Coast artists and open on Saturday, Nov. 18.
“The West Coast has a really big, spread-out scene, and a lot of these artists don’t necessarily all get to interact with each other because they’re so separated geographically,” Superchief Gallery co-founder Bill Dunleavy said. “It’s a good way to pull together a real West Coast unity of the underground scene into one art show at a gallery that stands for those values of underground artists.”
Superchief Gallery’s creation in 2012 was inspired by the punk culture of New York’s underground and became a space where Dunleavy and co-founder Edward Zipco sought to elevate emerging artists onto the global stage.
With “Crucial Mass,” Dunleavy said the gallery is showcasing talent closer to home, including many artists who will be showing for the first time.
“This is Superchief LA’s first West Coast showcase,” he said. “We also really haven’t tapped into that Northwest pool of talent before. Usually, we’ve been sticking to Southern California, so it’s cool to be focused on the Northwest now, too.”
The group show will focus on artforms, activities and environments like graffiti, skateboarding and punk and rave scenes, featuring artists and creatives Sob Story, Nic Mosher, Hank Reavis, Dave Navarro, Droolio, Andrew Barnes, Owen Borges, Alex Coxen, Noah Trimble, Michelle Abundiz, Aeon Lain, Barry Elkanick, Valentina Vargas, Jen Wong, Merch, Kenny Becker, Al Dubber, Iphigenia Foie, Polo Cutty, Baso Fibonacci, Fatima Nieto, Nope, Trey Flanigan and Serena Hughes.
“A lot of these artists come from a very heavy background in street art, graffiti and interpretations of city life,” co-curator Nate Kahn said. “The West Coast has been one of the blueprints for gentrification and industrialization of art scenes and urban spaces, and I think a lot of these artists really come from that, like that big shift in the early 2000s where Seattle, San Francisco and LA were hit with this cultural change because of social media and tech influences.”
Kahn was born and raised in Seattle and engaged in different underground scenes through facets like graffiti and music. At Superchief Gallery, he said he wants to convey that many influential works and artists have come from the West Coast’s underground art scenes.
“A lot of these artists are good friends of mine … really amazing people (for whom) graffiti was a gateway drug into practicing a craft,” Kahn said. “Many of these artists started at a pretty basic level a long time ago and have progressed to a point where they live off their art and are career artists, and it’s cool to show how that connects to modern art influences and how it all kind of comes from a very small group of scenes; it’s not as big and complicated as some people can think.”
Kahn named LA-based artist Sob Story as an example of someone who is revolutionizing the way that airbrush art is presented and consumed. His work reflects his environment, the city’s underground rave scene, and has been put on clothing for brands like Dickies and worn by music figures like John Frusciante from the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Kahn also pointed to Seattle-born painter Hank Reavis, who has worked with companies like Brain Dead and New Balance and artists like Pitbull.
“I think the commodification through brands like Dickies and Brain Dead show people who are a little bit more on the mainstream that, ‘Hey, this is cool. This artist made a run of 100 totes for us.’ And I think it’s really cool that this happens. However, I would like to take all those kids in Silver Lake and Echo Park who buy that stuff and say, ‘Let me show you that artist’s current work,’” Kahn said. “I think it’s really easy to get caught up in, not necessarily fast fashion, but what’s ‘in’ right now without doing a little bit more anthropological homework on why this artist is special and how this scene has been cultivated.”
Across its roster of creative talent, the show at Superchief Gallery will include a variety of artistic mediums. Kahn said “Crucial Mass” will not be a fully acrylic, airbrush or sculpture show, but that it will include nearly a dozen different modes of expression.
“Owen (Borges) makes incredible handmade quilts, tapestries and rugs that depict cityscapes, but he comes from a background in graffiti and street art,” he said. “Even though you come from a medium like graffiti that’s mostly based on spray paint or rolling, that’s not necessarily how you have to express yourself.”
Kahn added that each artist in the show has become known, respected and loved through the individuality of their work and that his aim was to highlight their unique traits through his curation. When the show opens, he said his hope is that visitors can also spot a connection between the artists.
“There is a level of connectivity among these artists that is amazing,” he said. “I really am interested in how people start to connect the dots … and I’m really excited about the conversations people will have. I think that is the most precious thing about art culture.
“We can consume art at such a fast level with our phones and computers, but the conversations, communities and connections in terms of just having things make a little bit more sense in a blurry commodified world is something I’m really excited about.”
“Crucial Mass” Group Show
WHEN: Saturday, Nov. 18, through Sunday, Dec. 10
WHERE: Superchief Gallery, 965 S. Los Angeles Street, Los Angeles
COST: Free admission
