In this week’s recap of the website- Some new music; a new gallery show in Akron; Margaret Kilgallen and an exhibition about artist’s day jobs; a documentary from a time when artists could still live cheaply in NYC; and finally, a painting comes to mind when reading about escaped horses- one covered in blood- racing through the streets of London.
Song of the Day this week was Mantra from A Beacon School’s 2023 album yoyo. It’s a fun video too.
On Tuesday I posted another mural from 2023’s SHINE Mural Festival in St. Pete, Florida, by Miami-based artist Douglas Hoekzema, aka Hoxxoh.
Akron Soul Train has two new exhibitions. Alyssa Lizzini’s layered works for The Universe Between Here and There (pictured at the top of this post) explore memory and encourage the viewer to think about the many details in the spaces they inhabit. Melih Meric’s works at first looked like textiles, but are woodblock prints stitched together, influenced by Middle Eastern designs. Both those shows are on view until 5/11/24.
Throwback this week was from 2014- a utility box wheatpaste piece that paraphrases a Margaret Kilgallen quote. Taken from an interview for the PBS program Art21, the full quote reads- “I do spend a lot of time trying to perfect my line work… when you get close up, you can always see the line waver. And I think that’s where the beauty is.” Kilgallen died of cancer in 2001, at only 33, but left behind a remarkable body of work.
One of her pieces, seen below, is currently on view at Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University as part of the group exhibition, Day Jobs, on view until 7/21/24. The exhibition examines the impact of day jobs in the lives and work of several famous artists.
You can learn more about Kilgallen, her husband and fellow artist Barry McGee, and several other artists including Shepard Fairey, Mike Mills, Ed Templeton and Harmony Korine in Aaron Rose’s film Beautiful Losers. It was released in 2008 but features footage from the 90s when these artists were just starting out.
It feels like so much has changed for artists trying to create work today, and cost of living, especially in major cities, is a huge factor. KQED’s review of the Day Jobs show referenced artist Andrew Norman Wilson’s various experiences from 2016 to the present, including random AirBnBs, house sitting and surgery. An interesting read.
I really liked the opening song, by Money Mark, used in the opening credits, and quoted in the title of this week’s newsletter.
Finally, the escaped horses I mentioned at the beginning. The cavalry horses were part of the preparations for the upcoming King’s Birthday Parade, which takes place in June. They were spooked by construction noise and five of them ran loose, one covered in blood, in London.
As always with odd events, people often attach symbolic meanings. For me, I was reminded of the painting below from Srijohn Chowdhury’s 2019 exhibition, A Divine Dance, at Anat Ebgi in Los Angeles. In the painting a rider moves through a field of flowers as an allusion to death and birth. A gate is in the foreground, made up of text from William Blake’s poem A Divine Image, turned into a sigil.
This week is May Day, celebrated around Europe and parts of the U.S., and marks the halfway point between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. A reminder that rebirth is a constant part of life.
Until next week, remember to get out and enjoy all the colorful flowers!