Art club 2000, Michael Lavine, Richard Prince

Jose Freire
580 Broadway, Suite 1009, NYC
thru 4/27

Art Club 2000

COOL
1984-1996
{word \ word em up> ill > ill'in >fresh > hype > dope >phat > fly >bad> thats the shit > sweet > thats the butters >Parkay > banging > the shit is banging> milky> parley > it's the bomb}

Attitude attitude attitude. Its not that this is an attitude show or even a show with an attitude problem, on the contrary the works presented in Jose's space define the codes of attitude .

There is bad-boy (and fer sure,girl) signage which ranges from Richard Princes' orange monochrome car hood painting to club kids (Art Club 2000 that is), in a multitude of pop cultural scenarios (skateboard culture, pseudo-hippie trip-hop culture, bad (ass) art student culture), to the alternative rockers in Michael Lavine's portraits.

Collectively conscious of the fashion of "being cool", Prince , Art Club and Lavine record (either by documenting or redefining) cultures underground, or what is soon not to be underground, thanks to mass media's accelerated speed of information and its ability to eventually exploit the notion of what is cool, at the moment.

We see a time line of art clubs recent history ranging from 1992-1994, and considering its 1996 already, it's cool to see that not only are they still around but so are the "fashions", almost proving that attitude transcends and dominates trend. Fuck you is formed by pointing the middle finger at the camera in "untitled 7-11", where Art Club 2000 reconstructs a Beastie Boy sneer.

Michael Lavine, Lush
Lavine's rock band portraits, remember and "promote", Karen Black, PJ Harvey, Weezer, Sonic Youth, Lush and my favorite ,The Butthole Surfers. Whether in a studio or "on Location' the voluptuous colors of his photographs accentuate the image of the band, which in essence (chosen possibly on mere taste), is a naughty (sometimes sounding, sometimes looking) attitude.

Prince's orange car "Untitled"(Hood), mimics the nature of monochrome painting but remains a cultural signifier, or an attitude signifier from car culture. Being the only painting in a room of photographs would ordinarily be a disintegrated feat, but in the context of this show the piece becomes the ideological mascot of a bad-ass attitude.

-Janine Gordon

Email: ThingReviews

In reference to Michael Lavine- Hello there I am a bfa photo student at Illinois state u. I am moving towards doing cd cover type of photos. And would love any input on how you work and set up such phenomna photos(pj harvey, wow!) But if you have time email me, it sounds as if you could help me a lot! I will be gone all summer, I am doing an internship in california at exhange studios! (too much info right!) But I would like to her any insight you have. And how did you get to photograph such great artists? thanks for your time, have a great summer Leah b Frink 907 s low bloomington Il 61701 lbfrink@odin.cmp.ilstu.edu

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