Visual Art May 7, 2014 at 4:00 am

William Powhida Walks the Line Between Exploiter and Exploited on May Day

Only three artists were exploited in the creation of this art. courtesy of Platform Gallery

Comments

1
Depressing, isn't it?
2
lol
3
This just demonstrates the decline of the ART of art and emphasizes the sterile detached attitudes towards art as a commercial ticket for shock value fame. Fine art is becoming a performance of an egotistical and ungraceful hustle. The real hustlers and artists are more clever than these lazy, self-important con-artists who know they have friends and money in the right places, and who do not contribute to humanity. Reeks of a desperate moocher who would excel at a career in marketing and who'd tweet about taking credit for his intern making a big sale. There's more art in being discreet than pompous.
4
I officially love Jen Graves. This piece is awesome. I think she could find beauty and meaning in anything on earth. Brilliant.
5
Cynicism sucks.
6
I'm mysti-meta-fied about this layer cake of implications Jen creates here. And on May 1st of all ironic dates. But did Powhida create one that goes with my sofa?
8
In LA they spend big money on art so they can feel like the sort of person who spends big money on art. The LA art scene is as much about PR as it is about conspicuous consumption.

In Seattle, our ethic is different... We're DIY. Everyone's an artist. And if you're not... Well, you could be. We like our art, generally, to feel grassroots, humble, raw. We hate anything that smacks of phony corporatism, or feels promoted.

Having a big price tag on a thing works in direct opposition to this.

And I think there's another bit of the DIY culture here that runs contrary to conspicuous art consumption... We all know people who make awesome shit. As such, it's hard to look past the cost of the materials.

Getting mad about Chinese art is like getting mad about digital prints. The people who spend money on this original art know the difference, the rest of us don't care. It's simple market segmentation.

But yeah... it's a clever trick. I've got a friend who buys prints in China... A constant thorn in his side is English text. The Coke logo is so instantly recognizable... The Chinese never seem to get it right. --Completely ruins the Times Square pictures they copy.

But, I gotta level with you... This stuff is more Tumbler filler than art. Rebellious maybe... Hipster? Definitely.
9
It's weird that someone can gain more fame satirizing the art world than they can crafting things that are beautiful.Seems like we're stuck circling Warhol's drain. Is this the inevitable result of a liberal arts education in a corporatist world?
10
Paintings of lists... Yeah, OK...

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