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Louder

Monday, October 21, 1991–Friday, December 13, 1991

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Artists: Nayland Blake, Robert Blanchon, Larry Clark, Jason Fox, Gregory Greene, George Horner, Mitchell Kane, lk Joong Kang, Mike Kelley, Karen Kilimnik, Cary Liebowitz, Ken Lum, Matthew Owens, Raymond Pettibon, Richard Prince, Pruitt & Early, Zizi Raymond, Jim Shaw, Andy Soma, Lily van der Stokker, Joan Wallace, Susan Wexler, Robert Windrum, and Kevin Wolff

The work of the twenty-four artists in Louder, a group exhibit curated by Chicago critic Kathryn Hixson and artist and UIC professor Tony Tasset, deals with the adolescent experiences of coming of age and self-definition. As a seeming reaction to various trends within the art world, and in the societal and economic context of the United States in the early 1990s, a number of artists have produced work that draws from the peculiarly awkward stage impending adulthood: adolescence. The work relies on representations or references to the body as the site of evolving sexual and societal definition—not presenting a “responsible” or “politically correct” whole adult self, but rather an adolescent one that refuses to be repressed. The work revolves around the projected image of the self as opposed to a behavioral or aesthetic authority, and sometimes aggressively assaults institutional legitimating structures. As these artists assert newly formed self-definitions, they refuse to suppress the rebellious exuberance felt in the gap between naïveté and responsibility. Much of this art references the cult of the body combined with the cult of the gang, as well as the cult of pop music, with all of its associative bonding. The work is not a critique (per se) of the existing political and art situation, but is simply a usurping of power, a violent bash when the parents are out of town, complete with booze, girls, boys, and loud music. It is aggressively nostalgic, explicating a wish for a renewable youthfulness, not for its rosy-cheeked innocence but for its harsh demanding immediacy—the thrill of that great fall from grace, the intoxicating turbulence of puberty.

PRESS RELEASE

Curated by Kathryn Hixson and Tony Tasset
Louder

Gallery 400
Chicago, IL
October 21–December 13, 1991

Opening Reception: October 23, 1991, 4–7pm

The work of the twenty-four artists in Louder, a group exhibit curated by Chicago critic Kathryn Hixson and artist and UIC professor Tony Tasset, deals with the adolescent experiences of coming of age and self-definition. As a seeming reaction to various trends within the art world, and in the societal and economic context of the United States in the early 1990s, a number of artists have produced work that draws from the peculiarly awkward stage impending adulthood: adolescence. The work relies on representations or references to the body as the site of evolving sexual and societal definition—not presenting a “responsible” or “politically correct” whole adult self, but rather an adolescent one that refuses to be repressed. The work revolves around the projected image of the self as opposed to a behavioral or aesthetic authority, and sometimes aggressively assaults institutional legitimating structures. As these artists assert newly formed self-definitions, they refuse to suppress the rebellious exuberance felt in the gap between naïveté and responsibility. Much of this art references the cult of the body combined with the cult of the gang, as well as the cult of pop music, with all of its associative bonding. The work is not a critique (per se) of the existing political and art situation, but is simply a usurping of power, a violent bash when the parents are out of town, complete with booze, girls, boys, and loud music. It is aggressively nostalgic, explicating a wish for a renewable youthfulness, not for its rosy-cheeked innocence but for its harsh demanding immediacy—the thrill of that great fall from grace, the intoxicating turbulence of puberty.

Participating artists:

Nayland Blake
Robert Blanchon
Larry Clark
Jason Fox
Gregory Greene
George Horner
Mitchell Kane
lk Joong Kang
Mike Kelley
Karen Kilimnik
Cary Liebowitz
Ken Lum
Matthew Owens
Raymond Pettibon
Richard Prince
Pruitt & Early
Zizi Raymond
Jim Shaw
Andy Soma
Lily van der Stokker
Joan Wallace
Susan Wexler
Robert Windrum
Kevin Wolff

PRINT COLLATERAL

Postcard: Louder – Opening

EXHIBITION SUPPORT

Louder is supported by the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Art and Design’s College of Architecture, Art, and Urban Planning.

This exhibition is also funded by the Illinois Arts Council.

CURATORS BIOGRAPHIES

Tasset Head ShotTony Tasset (born 1960) is an artist who has worked in a variety of styles and mediums including sculpture, photography, video, and film. His work deals with universal themes and emotions through common pictorial languages. To this end he employs familiarity, humor, craft, sentiment, confession, and shock. He makes iconic images about the current cultural moment from an individual perspective. Tasset first exhibited in New York at the Christine Burgin Gallery in 1986, and his work has since been shown in multiple galleries in the U.S. and London. Tasset was honored to receive an Artists Fellowship from the Illinois Arts Council in 1989 as well as the Louis Comfort Tiffany Award in the same year. Tasset received an MFA from the School of the Art institute of Chicago and a BFA from the Art Academy of Cincinnati.

Kathryn Hixson (born 1955) is a renowned Chicago art critic, curator, and professor of modern art history, theory, and criticism at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. As an art critic, she has written for art publications including Flash Art and Art on Paper. Kathryn has also curated numerous exhibitions, paying close attention to new and emerging artists. Hixson completed an MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1985 and taught on and off at the school since receiving her degree. She received a BFA from Carleton College in 1977.

MEDIA COVERAGE

McCracken, David. “Every Picture’s Worth a Thousand Notes.” Chicago Tribune, Nov. 22, 1991, p. 86, sec. 7.

EXHIBITION CHECKLIST

Nayland Blake

Come Armageddon, 1990
Mounted poster with small shelf, video cassette, and potpourri, 41 x 60 x 6 in.

David Lee Roth, 1990
Twelve gilt styrene letters, 8 in. x variable length

Robert Blanchon

Untitled (Spectacle), 1991
Five C-prints, assorted sizes

Larry Clark

Untitled, 1990
Multiple black-and-white gelatin silver prints, 22 1/2 x 28 3/10 in.

Jason Fox

Blood Stool, 1991
Mixed media, 30 x 18 x 18 in.

Gregory Green

Pipe Bomb I, 1990
Mixed media, 4 x 11 x 5 1/2 in

George Horner

#183–210, 1990
Silkscreen, 39 x 30 3/4 x 1 1/2 in.

Mitchell Kane

Untitled (Austria/Italy), 1991
Austrian/Italian glass beads, nylon, and steel, 60 x 60 x 3 in.

Ik-Joong Kang

Sound Paintings, 1991
Mixed media with sound system, dimensions variable

Mike Kelley

Country Cousins, 1989
Silkscreen on cloth, 53 x 38 in.

Hangin-Heavy-Hairy-Horny, 1989
Silkscreen on cloth, 53 x 38 in.

Satan’s Nostrils, 1989
Silkscreen on cloth, 53 x 38 in.

Karen Kilimnik

I Don’t Like Mondays, the Boomtown Rats, Shooting Spree or Schoolyard Massacre, 1990
Mixed media

Cary Liebowitz

Windshield Blinds (100), 1990
Paper, each 24 x 60 in.

Ken Lum

We Are Sacred Blade, 1990
Aluminum, enamel, and C-print mounted on sintra, 47 3/4 x 110 x 2 1/2 in.

Matthew Owens

Untitled, 1991
Mixed-media installation (plastic and rubber), 60 x 30 x 24 in.

Raymond Pettibon

No title (descriptive title: I refuse to allow . . . ), 1987
Ink on paper, 14 x 11 in.

No title (descriptive title: I shot my first . . . ), 1985
Ink on paper, 12 x 9 in.

No title (descriptive title: I wish every boy . . . ), 1985
Ink on paper, 14 x 11 in.

No title (descriptive title: Kiss her on the lips . . . ), 1987
Ink on paper, 14 x 11 in.

Richard Prince

Joke, 1986
Ink on paper, 7 1/2 x 11 3/4 in.

Pruitt & Early

Big Portrait of the Artists in Their Studio Hung, Black Denim Border, 1990
Ink on canvas, 160 x 109 1/2 in.

Zizi Raymond

Suck, 1989
Pacifiers and steel wool, 37 x 84 x 2 in.

Jim Shaw

My Mirage #3, 1989
Silkscreen on paper, 17 x 14 in.

Andy Soma

Radical Eradication, 1991
Mixed media (toy cars, paper, and metal), 60 in. diameter

Lily van der Stokker

The Impression of a Kiss, 1990
Magic marker on paper, 11 3/4 x 16 1/4 in.

Macho, 1990
Magic marker on paper, 11 3/4 x 16 1/4 in.

Joan Wallace

Mein Cunt, 1991
Gouache on paper, 29 3/4 x 22 1/2 in.

Portrait of the Artist, 1991
Black-and-white photograph, 55 x 33 in.

Susan Wexler

Hell Raiser, 1991
Mixed media, 60 x 30 x 30 in.

Near Dark, 1991
C-print, 40 x 30 in.

Robert Windrum

Homo of the Black Heart Mother Fuckers, 1991
Embroidery floss on canvas, 48 x 108 in.

Kevin Wolff

Curled Finger,
1991
Graphite on paper, 22 x 19 in.

Finger with shadow, 1991
Graphite on paper, 22 x 19 in.

Middle finger, 1991
Graphite on paper, 22 x 19 in.

Pointing finger, 1991
Graphite on paper, 22 x 19 in.