February 13, 2006
BEAUTIFUL LOSERS - CONTEMPORARY ART & STREET CULTURE
The founder of Alleged Gallery and “patron” of a whole group of influential subcultural american artists Aaron Rose, gave us an interview at his house in Los Angeles. We met a truely soulful and dedicated person. Few months later Aaron came to our gallery in Berlin with a silkscreen print version of a huge museum show and the fitting book/catalogue. The titel of this project, which he developed with his partner and friend Mr. Christian Strike, is called Beautiful Losers. The museum show is opening february, 17th in Milan.
Artists included are: Glenn E. Friedman, Raymond Pettibon, Ari Marcopoulos, Barry McGee, Geoff McFetridge, Terry Richardson, Chris Johanson, Harmony Korine, Ed Templeton, Mike Mills, Mark Gonzales and many more. A cultural art movement based on independent structures and attitudes.
www.iconoclastusa.com
www.beautifullosers.it
Mr. Aaron Rose in his House in L.A.
– Where are you from?
I grew up in LA in the San Fernando Valley. I liked the whole punk culture here in the 80‘s, but when I was old enough to leave…I moved to New York City.
– How did you end up in NYC?
I was playing in a band when I was here, a duo called Cat Furniture, and my partner was insane. We thought: let‘ s get out of here; I got friends over there in NY. We took a Greyhound bus to NY and I slept through it. It was only supposed to be for a short trip, but I stayed. NYC is the best place for a young person in America. It’s the best place to spend your 20‘ s. So that‘ s how I got to NY. I was 19 when I got there. After a few months, the band broke up. My partner got crazy. He thought he was Jesus Christ and took all his clothes off and got arrested and put into a hospital. I never saw him again. So I was alone there and didn‘t know what to do there. I met this woman…this is a 10 year story and she offered me a store space.
It was very cheap in a bad area of town. The neighborhood was just heroin and crime etc. We opened this art gallery not knowing what we wanted to do. I never wanted to be an art dealer. I didn‘t have any art world experience. I just had a space and so we started putting up shows and we called the gallery Alleged after these (alleged) good luck candles that they sold in the Puerto Rican grocery stores. It was an Alleged gallery, not really a gallery. At the time I was in LA I was really into the punk and skateboarding world. And then when I got to NY I was skating and met some graffiti artists and we just started doing some shows along those lines over the years. The gallery was open 10 years in NY. It just grew from the size of a small room for 4 years and then it got too big and we moved to a 2000 square foot space off-Soho and then a 3000 square for space in the Meatpacking district. At the end it was getting stupid, we were losing a lot of money, so I decided to shut the doors and come home.
– What were you trying to do?
The gallery was most known for dealing with artists coming out of Skateboarding. I worked very closely with Mark Gonzales, Barry McGee, Mike Mills, Ed Templeton, Skateboarding, graffiti street culture stuff. We also were doing some fashion stuff with Terry Richardson and Mark Borthwick. All different areas of pop culture was the whole philosophy behind the gallery. It wasn‘t just about art. We did an exhibition with Markus Popp (Oval) from Berlin. He worked with Björk. Electronic stuff: he was the first musician who realized the cd skip as a musical element. I always thought a gallery didn‘t have to be just about art. Anything we can think of somehow we could turn into an installation. Whatever we can make. Now there is a lot of that, but at the time in New York it was pretty conservative. Now this attitude is becoming really wide spread.
– How is the arts movement you represent with your work accepted in the established arts world?
For years and years we were just ignored by the high establishment. But I think that is more their problem than a problem with the art. You know a lot of art people are still living with 2oth century ideas and we are about the 21st century. It is a very different world. And it Ãs not going to change until that whole generation dies because they’re not gonna give up their power until they‘ re 6 feet under the ground. There’s been a lot of progress but within the lower threshold in the art world though, especially in the smaller galleries and now to the museum system too. This kind of art it‘ s like the new American folk art. Much like in the ways Jazz and Blues was.
It’s starting to become more and more accepted. Barry McGee shows at Cartier Foundation in Paris. Chris Johanson is in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. These are all artists we started with and we paid attention too. At the beginning it was considered kid stuff or not real art because most of it is unschooled. Some artists maybe had a small art education but very few master degrees. Their education was through observation of the streets and watching pop culture. I think there is a problem in the art world right now with the galleries and schools especially. The museum world paying to much attention to what is happening in the schools. I don‘ t think the schools in America are very progressive. Right now. What I see is that there is a lot of repeats of what happened in the 70’s. Conceptual and minimalist art is like going through re-packaging. And it has everything to do with the teachers teaching in the school. Artists from the 70‘ s. So these students are like kissing ass, so the teacher will think they‘ re cool. It is all recycled, bullshit basically.
– What about the market in the states?
The same really. That just boils down to the fact that just art in general is not as important in America to the mass public. In New York it is more so ‚cause in that city Art is more of an industry, but in LA very few people go into art galleries. It is just not the thing to do. Maybe they go to a museum downtown to see the Warhol. The American system doesn‘t encourage art. It‘ s not important so it takes a lot of time for artists to become known. In Japan or Europe someone like Geoff McFetridge is a rock star but here nobody knows his name. I try to focus on how much more I can do in my country. Because that’s where I see the biggest problem with being accepted as an artist.
We killed Tokyo, you walk off the plane and these kids want autographs. In Europe, in the major cities, maybe not so much in Berlin, but like in Paris there have been a lot of opportunities for Chris Johanson, Ed Tempelton. All these kind of street artists got big museum shows in the Netherlands and here it is nothing. My focus now is on building it up in our own country. There is definetly a street culture in Europe as well and in Berlin and there is so much graffiti. It was ridiculous. So there is definitely a street culture there that has it‘ s own batch of artists. The people I work with especially in skating tell a very American story with their art and it is ridiculous to me that it is not more accepted over here. We have fans in the skate community and the graffiti community. But those people don‘ t finance careers, those people come to the opening and drink a beer. There are 2000 people at the opening but it’s not really those people that are gonna help in the business. I think an artist’ s job is to communicate. Because making the art is just the half of the job. The other half is communicating. That’s where it is blocking… A lot of artists I work with, the art really doesn‘t have anything to do with skateboarding and graffiti anymore. Now it is just about the world. The roots are there; it started there. A lot of artists I worked with have transcended graffiti or skateboarding. Their art is reflection of what‘s happened to the world or the area we live in.
– How would you describe the market situation for this arts movement in general?
On a positive note, right now it is a small dedicated group of collectors of this art. Maybe 20, 25 dedicated collectors worldwide. But it is changing, the Modern Museum in NY bought a very substantial Barry Mc Gee. It seems funny, it is an underground culture and we shouldn‘t care about museums. You know, we just are doing it for us, but for a certain point it has to grow. To bloom.
– Is there a compromise when to grow?
There is always a compromise because any time you get in contact with money there is a power issue there. The biggest compromise is being censored or watered down. There are good collaborations though. I work with Nike on an art billboard in L.A. The next one is Raymond Pettibon…it‘ s a 3 year project that I am doing with Undefeated, a sneaker store. Every 3 months we have a different artist. We give the artists total freedom for whatever they want. They can‘ t have pornography, there are laws, but aside from that anything that might be legal. The idea behind the billboard is to create a platform for art in LA, because what I said before: people don‘ t go to museums or galleries. So it is perfect for the city. Even if it‘ s just 5 seconds when they‘ re driving by with their car. It will hit them. James Bond and Eddie Cruz own Undefeated.
Eddie owns two other stores, Stussy and Union under the billboard, so it was just a matter to contact the owner of the billboard and explain to them that we wanted to do that, and they agreed to make a 3 year contract. And that’s how Nike got involved because it is very expensive. It is almost 10.000 $ a month. Isn‘t that crazy? Since it is an art thing and not an advertisement we give Nike a branding, but not on the art. It is on the support structure. It works good for everyone.
– Tell us a surprising story
I heard a story in Portland. These kids I met there at the record store, they are in a band. They just came back from tour. On the East Coast they were out on a boat in the ocean. And they came up next to a dead whale. A giant dead whale. And they are taking a picture of it and one of the kids says: “I wanna jump off it and ride a dead whale.†The others got their cameras out and he jumps onto it. The whale was decomposed and he went right through it.
Beautiful Losers at Triennale di Milano
Viale Alemagna 6, Milano - Italy
Exhibition will open
from 17th February till 19th March 2006
from 10.30 am till 20.30pm
Monday closed