Bad Religion is Tom Sanford’s (1975) second solo exhibition at Galleri Faurschou. In 2005 he had his first solo exhibition at Galleri Faurschou called Volume 3…The Life and Times of TomPAC, where Tom´s focus was on the exploration of the Hip-hop culture. The current show is about the American condition, at present, four years into the current holy war in Iraq.

The show consists of a large alter piece (six paintings put together), 4 paintings and 12 icons (fake gold on paper).

The show is about religion and how it can be abused. America, as the moral nation, is leading a religious war against terror. But just as the terrorists abuse Islam, America abuses Christianity and the same scenario can be seen when looking at modern religious movements. The political leaders abuse their religions in the hunt for their goals. The American way of using religion is filled with contradiction. The wars are fought in the name of democracy but are really fought in the name of capitalism. It is easier for Bush to hide all this when speaking in the name of God.

In this exhibition, Tom highlights the significance, and the continuous influence, that American culture, media and politics exert over us. Everything from American films, actors, politicians, companies, sports teams, religious leaders make up that which Tom Sanford refers to as Bad Religion.

Also present are new types of religious worship, the celebrity, whose every move is well documented in the media as well as omnipresent company logos, presented as golden icons, symbolising our worship of consumption.

Interview:David Grimberg
Foto:Anders Sune Berg
Tom Sanford (US)
Bad religion
22. juni – 11. august 2007
Galleri Faurschou
St. Strandstræde 21, 1255 København K.
web site:www.faurschou.com
Tirsdag – fredag 11-17, lørdag: 11-14

Tom Sanford: Horror Hollywood Hell, 2006. 274,3cm x 406,4cm oil and acrylic on wood panels

Your paintings have a lot of stories attached to the persons and stuff that can be found in the paintings. Could you give me some details about each painting?

Horror Hollywood Hell
This is the central piece of the exhibition, an altar piece consisting of six paintings put together. It is a contemporary version of the afterlife with Hollywood actors as the characters. So it is my version of how Hell looks like today.
We have been presented to the encounter of the afterlife in great Art and Literature, ie. Dante’s ‘Inferno’, Jan Van Eyck’s ‘The Last Judgment’, Boesch’s ‘Garden of Earthly Delights’ and Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’. So I thought it could be fun to do a painting of the afterlife with all the elements of Hollywood in order to emphasize the strong impact that American movies have on our cultural imagination.
The themes of the six painting are: top left: succubus, top middle: family of Satan, top right: demons, bottom left: possess, bottom middle: hell pit, bottom right: un-dead.
You see Woody Allen, Slimer from Ghostbusters, Chuckie from Child´s Play etc.

Tom Sanford: Seven Deadly Sins, 2006. 153cm x 203cm oil and acrylic on wood

Seven Deadly Sins
Each sin is represented by a different celebrity. You see George Bush who represents Pride, George Michael represents Lust, Anna Nicole Smith represents Sloth, Lindsay Lohan represents Envy, Chris Farley (American comic, Saturday Night Live Show, died of a cocaine overdose) represents Gluttony, Ken Lay (CEO of Enron) represents Greed and Bill O´Reiley (media ikon of Fox News) represents Anger. I have painted these celebrities on top of all this fast food to show the American excess as a kind of a parade with confetti coming down. The painting shows the hypocritical American morality.

Tom Sanford: Tom, Katie and Suri, 2006. 74cm x 74cm oil and acrylic on wood

Tom, Katie and Suri
This painting shows Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes and their baby Suri. This show is about religion so I thought of putting in a painting of a modern religious leader but in stead I came up with the idea of painting Tom Cruise who is not the religious leader of Scientology but he is certainly one of the most prominent members of Scientology. I give my view on how religion can be viewed today as a mixture of celebrities´ interaction with religion.

Tom Sanford: Jesus Walks, 2007. 176,5cm x 208,5cm oil, acrylic, fake silver and fake gold on wood

Jesus Walks
This is the American crusade over Iraq showing a possible American/Christian victory. Jesus is leading the Americans but he is not depicted as the religious version we are used to but as a character taken from a film where Jesus is hippie-like and fun loving and not like the crucified Christ. I thought this Jesus-character would fit in well in the painting to show the Americans´ crusade into Iraq stepping on dead bodies etc. The Jesus character is taken from Kevin Smith´s “Dogma” (1999) where he is called Buddy Christ.
I have put in some actors who have played soldiers. For example: On top of the dead bodies you see the character Dutch from the movie Predator (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) and George Clooney´s character from the movie about the first gulf war, Three Kings (1999). You also see the helmet from my favourite Vietnam movie, Full Metal Jacket (Kubrick, 1987).
In the painting you also see myself with this foam finger cheering on, it is like although many Americans are very aware and critical of what is going on and vote against the government it is not really democracy, we cannot really vote them out. I am showing the American imperialism: a combination of a very nice life style and all the crimes we are responsible for around the world. In the painting I am wearing a Reggie Bush football jersey, number 25 New Orleans Saints. During the Iraq war we had this terrible hurricane, Katrina, in New Orleans but nothing was done because all the focus was on Iraq and the government spent so much money on the war in stead of helping our own people in the backyard. Reggie Bush is a black man, and most black people in the US have the names of the families who used to own them as slaves so Reggie Bush could have relatives who were owned as slaves by the Bush family!
In the painting you also see this Arbusto oil drum. Arbusto was established George W. Bush and one of the major investors was the Bin Laden family! You also see George W. Bush as a cowboy.
Also appearing is Britney Spears (just after painting her hair I heard that she had shaved her head!) as a Dallas cowgirl cheerleader in the position of Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People, albeit in a white trailer trash version. You also see a bumber sticker “First Iraq then France”. I actually saw this sticker on a car near my studio.

Tom Sanford: Paradise, 2007. 176,5cm x 208,5cm oil and acrylic on wood with fake gold

Paradise
Jesus Walks and Paradise kind of go together, after doing Jesus Walks I thought I might as well do a Muslim painting too. Jesus Walks shows how Christianity is abused by America and Paradise shows how Islam can be abused in order to reach the goals of the abuser.
It is a painting of the imagined Muslim paradise based upon accounts from the Koran. In the painting you see how Islam has been hijacked and radicalised by militants and terrorists in the Middle East. In the painting you see virgins and young boys are protecting paradise. I guess this is how they talk suicide bombers into blowing up themselves, saying that they will have a great time in paradise. In the painting you see the 33 Lakers jersey which was the jersey of Kareem Abdul- Jabbar who was this famous Muslim basketball player of the Los Angeles Lakers. You also see a 1979 copy of a Superman magazine where Superman fights with the Muslim Mohammed Ali to find out who is the greatest champion on earth. This champion should then fight the greatest champion of some aliens that have just arrived on earth. Mohammed Ali wins against Superman but he is so beat up that Superman has to fight the alien champion and Superman wins.

Tom Sanford: Yankees Icon, 76,5cm x 56cm. Fake gold on paper
Tom Sanford: Rolling Stones Icon, 2006. 76,5cm x 56cm Fake gold on paper
Tom Sanford: Playboy Icon, 2006. 76,5cm x 56cm Fake gold on paper
Tom Sanford: Coca-Cola Icon, 2006. 76,5cm x 56cm Fake gold on paper

Icons
The icons display various sports teams´ logos and companies’ logos, The Yankees, Starbucks, Mac, Paramount, Coca Cola etc. All these brands define what it is to be American. These logos are made as icons in order to compare these to the religious icons that are worshiped as such. I decided to pick twelve logos and do them as gold icons, twelve being a kind of a religious number. I did not want to pick the companies in order to portray these in a negative way. I picked the companies that have a really strong identity which people have a strong relation to.

Tom Sanford: Bad Religion på Galleri Faurschou

What is your view on religion in general, do you think religion can function in a positive way at all?
I am not a religious person but maybe it will change as I get closer to death! I perfectly understand the purpose of religion and I can see all the good sides. A lot of people are helped by religion etc. But historically the negative sides of religion have been more evident than the positive. But I am very ambivalent about it.

Have you had any bad reactions from the people you portray in your paintings?
With the rappers, I had some negative reactions but that was kind of the point of the project. The project was about the exploitation of blackness. The life-style of the black rappers seem so glamorous with women, drugs etc. but this is not true because there is also a very dark side to all this. Once people understood that that was my point they stopped objecting to my work because they realized that I sympathise with the blacks.

It seems like you object to the American way of living but how do you live yourself?
I am very conflicted about it because I object to many things about the way we live in America but on the other hand I live in many ways very much like other Americans but I can still be critical about it in my paintings.

What are your future plans?
I am doing a show at my New York gallery, Leo Koenig, next year in May. In Versailles there is a huge hall of battle paintings. I went to see these paintings some time ago and I thought it would be a great idea to use the idea from the alter piece, using Hollywood actors, in these battle paintings, so we will see how it turns out. I will do four or five very large paintings like that.

Chalotte Fogh present new works from her summer exhibtion “Take Away”

Charlotte Fogh Contemporary
Klostergade 32
8000 Århus C

+4529297105

Charlotte Fogh

Presents:
Walk Real Slow

Curated by Guillaume Rouchon and Anke Kempkes

Agnieszka Brzezanska
Martin Soto Climent
Megan Sullivan
Manuela Viera Gallo
Babette Mangolte

June 30 – August 18, 2007
Opening reception, Saturday June 30, 6-8 pm

ANNA HELWING GALLERY
2766 S. La Cienega Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90034
T: 310.202.2213
F: 310.202.2214
E: info@annahelwing.com

Gallery Anna Helwing

GALLERY HOURS
Tuesday-Saturday
11am-6pm

The Mexican artist Dr. Lakra are in Copenhagen !!
We went to Gallery V1 yesterday, out eating and to day I saw the work he is doing here in Denmark. He is doing some very nice prints!

Litografisk

I DIED FOR BEAUTY
Curated by Omar Lopez-Chahoud

Olga Adelantado, Jeff Bechtel, Michael Bilsborough, Nicole Cherubini,
Tom DeLaney, Tyler Drosdeck, Mark Golamco, Rashawn Griffin, Duron
Jackson,
Dawn Kasper, Molly Larkey, Rachel Mason, Cameron Michel, Micki
Pellerano,
Raúl deNieves Sarah Oppenheimer, Christopher Miner, Todd Parlisko,
Pepo Salazar, David Scanavino, Janice Sloane, Adam Parker Smith &
Daniel Wiener

June 27–August 4, 2007
Opening Reception: Wednesday, June 27 6–9 pm

7:30pm performance by Micki Pellerano, Raúl deNieves, Sean Ragon and
Alice Cohen
8pm performance by Rachel Mason

Hi…
I just wanted to let you know that I will be in a group exhibition at
Newman Popiashvili Gallery that opens tomorrow. There are 23 artists
in the show and here’s the information. At the opening there will be
a couple of performances– all of the information is below.

hope to see you there,
have a great summer!
Tyler

Tyler forever…

JIM ISERMANN VINYL SMASH UP 1999 – 2007 June 28 – August 4, 2007
Opening Thursday June 28, 6 – 9 PM

CH PROJECTS 18 WOOSTER STREET NEW YORK, NY 10013 212 343 730

DEITCH

AWESOME Show….
Well done Mr. Sanford

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Arndt-Partner

June 30 – July 28th, 2007
Opening Reception Saturday, June 30th 6 – 8pm

Ed Bereal, Wallace Berman, Nathaniel Bustion, Alonzo Davis, Dale Brockman Davis, Charles Dickson,
Mel Edwards, David Hammons, George Herms, Daniel LaRue Johnson, Edward Kienholz, Masud Kordofan,
Ron Miyrashiro, Senga Nengudi, John Outterbridge, Noah Purifoy, Joe Ray, John Riddle, Roho, Betye Saar,
Kenzi Shiokava, Timothy Washington, and La Monte Westmoreland

Roberts Tilton is pleased to present LA Object and David Hammons Body Prints. The exhibition features assemblages by Los Angeles artists of the 1960s and 70s, and early work of the American sculptor David Hammons.

This exhibition will showcase a broad overview of the LA assemblage movement of the 1960s and 70s, including the most important West Coast artists often seen as the core of this genre. LA Object and David Hammons Body Prints will seek to re-examine works by artists often left out of mainstream gallery and museum historical exhibitions. In particular, it will explore the important role of African American artists within this period.

LA assemblage grew out of the historical context of Dada and Surrealism at a moment when the poetry and underground films of the Beat generation, of which Wallace Berman was a member, were an influential force in California. Walter Hopps had brought important exhibitions of Kurt Schwitters (1962), Marcel Duchamp (1963 – his first comprehensive show in the U.S.), and Joseph Cornell (1966) to the Pasadena Art Museum, where he was director. And MOMA’s Dada, Surrealism, and Their Heritage traveled to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1968. However, the LA art scene of the 60s and 70s was far more removed from the New York art scene, and from what was happening in the rest of the country, than it is now and than it has been since the 1980s when it began to play a more prominent national role. Within the scope of LA art of this period, those who were concerned with assemblage were a distinct group. Partially due to the dispersed nature of the city, culturally as well as geographically, there were separate networks of artists even among those making assemblages. African American, Asian and Chicano artists were often isolated from the gallery and institutional art scene and may be looked at both as part of distinct artistic communities, and in conjunction with the larger movement. This was also the era of civil rights, the 1965 Watts riots, and general social and cultural upheaval. These events, along with the influential presence of Simon Rodia’s Watts Towers, built from 1921 to 1954 out of scrap metal and found objects, had an important impact on the work of African American artists.

As part of this movement, Roberts Tilton will present a selection of early body prints by David Hammons. Often considered a New York artist, Hammons created his first major body of work, including these unique body prints, from the late 60s to mid-70s while living in Los Angeles. Although his work was often exhibited in Los Angeles, because of the separations among the various art communities, Hammons was seen mostly in the context of African American LA artists, and only after his move to New York did he become internationally known for his assembled sculptures and installations. In his body prints, Hammons created nuanced, ironic and often political commentaries. As in his sculpture and installations, Hammons was always concerned with making work relevant to the African American experience. This mature body of work has rarely been presented within the art historical context from which it arose. We are pleased to exhibit these works alongside those of his contemporaries working within the assemblage movement in Los Angeles.

ARTIST PANEL DISCUSSION
Saturday, July 14th, 4pm
Panelists include Dale Brockman Davis, Cecil Fergerson, John Outterbridge, and others.
Moderated by Paul Von Blum, Professor of African American Studies, UCLA