The internet. Pop culture. Skateboards. Lacklustre photoshops.
Apparently the denotation of "urban" now means a variety of things. But let us not become too bogged down by this semantic setback for, to quote my eloquent self, "It's got some good stuff in it."
But of course, with the good comes the bad. In this case the shining stars like Tali Purkerson eclipse the more meager offerings. Check out that astronomical talk I just used. Stellar.
I'm not really sure what the whole show was supposed to be focused on other than anything I gleaned from the title. The Laverne Krause Gallery shows don't tend to have wall text that gives you a hint or two. But they are only up for a week, so I'll let it slide. On immediate entrance to the space on my first, cursory visit, I was struck by the blank wall across from the doors. Oh well, I thought, whatever. Upon a quick glance to the right, all thoughts of the faux-Ryman wall were put out of mind. Now a little warning: I like big wall paintings; I like black and white; I like lines. With this knowledge you, dear reader, can imagine my happiness when Purkerson's "Milan Sketch Mural (Sketchbook – 2005)" of 2008 popped into my periphery. The thrusting upwards in Sharpie™-like strokes emphasizes the grandeur of the Italian cathedral and brings in airy, open tones while still asserting a presence that dominates the entire gallery. Even given its sideshow placement.
Let us turn now to what happened on my second visit. I got looked at. That's right. A big ol' projection of an eye blinked right at me on the aforementioned perplexing white wall.
Appropriately dubbed "The Eye" by the
artist (Andrew S. Parnell), this piece takes some of the thunder away from Purkerson's mural. But only because it's big and bright. I mean, as far as animation art I guess it's OK, but nothing new or special. And, like much of Parnell's work in this show, less than inspired. I think he's got some ideas that could go someplace good (intentional word choice, not spectacular), but, as they say, "His mature work is yet to come." The series of works called collectively
"Silence" is certainly not "mature" and is certainly just some use of the clonestamp in photoshop. Just because you apply some effects to bad photos doesn't mean they become good photos.
Speaking of roflcopters (hai2 mah thotprocess lol), Steven Uppinghouse gives us a fine smattering of interart* that ranges from reworked propaganda images (like his Uncle Sam image asking you to quote unquote "PWN NUBS" [if you don't get this, well, it's ok, for now]) to snappy juxtapositions of the cute with the deadly (i.e. bear with a machine gun) to the aptly titled "Roflcopter". The ideas are taken from various online subforums and the images have been made before, but by bringing us these digital deviations irl, Uppinghouse, whether he knows it or not, is bringing into focus the very idea of internet culture. It exists in a non-site. Smithson anyone? (Read up on Miwon Kwon and her discussion of site-specificity too). The only problem here is the presentation. It's kind of informal. With a little better framing, labeling, and show composition (and probably a few years to develop a personal style of some sort) this could be something very telling of society, man's inhumanity to man, all that jazz, etc. 
P.S. The only project I don't get of Uppinghouse's in relation to his other works is "Lily", a large two-tone cut wood piece of a flower. It is a mystery.
Located next to the interart is some very snazzy digital art. Drew Tran can certainly hold his own in the Adobe product spectrum. "Factory" and "Clutterfly" are both nice and sharp. They both use crisp imagery to make you go, "OOH. That's pretty!" "Factory" has some political, anti-establishment stuff going on, but y'know. "100 Skulls" is, I think, Tran's standout work in this show. And no, it's not because it has a Hello Kitty skull. Ok, maybe that's part of it. Since there is no artist's statement, I can't really tell what the artist was going for, but it probably has something to do with pop culture references and death. The skill in using a style that goes best with each lil' calavera is what makes this work. Subject matter, ptooey. Artistic/Design/Aesthetic quality, booyah.
On back to Tali Purkerson we go. A semi-diverse use of media here. Digital collage, real collage, painting, drawing, maybe you classify some of it as sculpture although good ol' Greenberg probably wouldn't like that much. Proof that traveling to Italy still helps out an artist's career, the multiple images of the cathedrals throughout the bootshaped bastion of Old Master booty are just a chunk of Purkerson's oeuvre. In addition to the aforementioned mural, there are also a few collages, other paintings as well as a wall full of skateboards and digital pieces. From the "Decks" series, the artist uses the bottom of skateboards as a canvas. Drawing from the pseudo-artistic tradition of illustrated snowboard and skateboard surfaces, Purkerson questions the nature of the canvas by providing a number of fine examples of colorful painted and drawn compositions clusterhung on the wall. Across the gallery, the 8 panels of "Method of the Machine" stare back at the boards with the almost trompe-l'oeil collage element. (Yeah, it looks like a magazine clipping but it's printed out flat from a computer machine. You try to explain it better). This set, shown as a part of the earlier "Humans and Technology" show, is not the strongest of all the work by the artist, but has the same synthetic quality of her other pieces in a more direct manner.
:tl;dr: Good stuff. Some not so good. Tali Purkerson and Steven Uppinghouse are ones to watch. Drew Tran has some slick imagery. Andrew S. Parnell needs to figure out a better way to express himself artistically and then stick with it. And Brian Knowles…didn't even talk about him did I? Overall, go see the show. It's up until March 8th, 2008 at 3pm.
