Michael Anderson @ Claire Oliver

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Nielsen Reports say that in the US, the average person is exposed to between 500 and 1,600 advertising messages per day. As we are only awake an average of 1000 minutes a day, this statistic underlines the import of mass media (and advertising as a subset) in our modern, work-a-day lives. It is with an eye to social commentary, at a time when mass media is present in almost every moment of our waking lives, that the art of Michael Anderson is most relevant.
Exclusively utilizing billboards and street posters, Anderson’s work is both confined and defined by a fixed scale, easily digestible messages and pop culture imagery. The artist strips the original advertisements of their power of persuasion and uses them for something much more complex and insightful. Seducing our undisciplined attention spans, Anderson adds emotional dimension and narrative to images that originally held none.

Abstraction and representation collide; repetition of specific fragments of imagery, some static and others swimming, mingle to hypnotize the viewer, luring him to decode the non-linear message hidden beneath the bright, enticing surface design. “I make art about the world we live in,” says Anderson.

Apparent in the artist’s work is a deep appreciation for graffiti art. In graffiti, letters often become so abstracted that they lose all legibility. Taking texts from advertisements, Anderson similarly renders the words almost undecipherable as he creates something unique and absorbing. He deconstructs, distorts, and then combines to generate a feeling of motion and energy in dazzling, mosaic-like images that fluctuate in optical pattern and cultural reference.

Also evident in Anderson’s work is the obsessive method behind the assemblage of each piece. As an ongoing process, the artist has meticulously hand-collected images from posters acquired in the dead of night on his travels to Germany, Mexico, and Italy as well as on the streets near his home in Spanish Harlem. A visual topography of these vibrant ethnic neighborhoods is layered deeply in each work, collectively driving its pulse and frenetic energy. ”When you see remnants of torn down posters, that’s my tag,” he says.

Like a sculptor, he layers and repeats shredded images into a visual staccato that he brings together, creating an elaborate and wonderful tapestry. Arranging new world orders, sacred battles and mythological manifestos in the pop-bright kaleidoscope of collage, his works resonate with cryptic possibilities; Anderson thus plays both critic and participant.

Michael Anderson’s work will be prominently featured in the upcoming exhibition Beyond Bling: Voices of Hip-Hop in Art at the John and Mable Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Florida opening May 2011. The Artist’s collages are included in the upcoming Scala Publication on hip hop influence in contemporary art. Anderson’s first solo exhibition with Claire Oliver Gallery opens November 18, 2010.  For further information please feel free to contact the gallery.

Claire Oliver

Michael Anderson

No Vacancy” @ The Butcher’s Daughter “No Vacancy”

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The Butcher’s Daughter is proud to presentNo Vacancy” curated by Valaire Van Slyck. Opening January 9, 2010, this group exhibition features over twenty world-renown emergent and mid-career contemporary artists from around the country.

From the curatorial statement by Valaire Van Slyck,
“The exhibition “No Vacancy” explores the impulse that gives rise to art and artists’ attempts to reconcile their dissatisfaction with the world around them. The results of these efforts physically change the world, reordering it and creating points of dynamism in the environment. These points, infused with ideas and attitude, lead to a deeper consideration of thought and experience.

By bringing together many artists in a small gallery, we create a whole greater than the sum of its parts and establish a space of hyper-dynamism, a community with a multitude of perspectives. In turn, this show offers alternatives to the prevailing modes of relating to the world around us – a cacophony of possibility and hope. There is no vacancy in art.”

Featured artists include Michael Anderson, Sam Bassett, Michael Bevilacqua, Erik den Breejen, Brock Enright, Jack Featherly, Jonah Freeman, Kate Gilmore, Andrew Guenther, Kent Henricksen, Sissel Kardel, Nicola Kuperus, Justin Lowe, Shannon Lucy, Guy Overfelt, Tyson Reeder, Zak Smith, Michael St. John, Johannes Vanderbeek, Wendy White and Sherry Wong.

These artists are represented in museum collections such as the Museum of Modern Art, Walker Art Center, and Whitney Museum of American Art. International and national exhibitions include those at PS1/MOMA and The Sculpture Center as well as numerous independent galleries and project spaces worldwide. Other credits include editorial photography for magazines, international biennials and Time Square billboards for major multi-national corporations.
The goals of this exhibition as designed by The Butcher’s Daughter is to further expand the mission of the gallery and create an opportunity for participants to network with artists, collectors, and creative professionals. To help facilitate this an after party will follow the opening reception. Admittance is limited. Additional details will forthcoming or contact the gallery to reserve your place.

The Butcher’s Daughter is dedicated to creating innovative, cultural context for contemporary art through the representation of emerging and mid-career artists and the sale of their work.

The Butchers Daughter Gallery