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P.S.1
Contemporary Art Center presents an exhibition of posters, album covers,
advertisements, and other ephemera designed over the last 25 years by Art
Chantry, who has profoundly impacted the history of graphic design in the
United States over the last 25 years. Chantry's low-tech, raw, but highly
refined design stands in stark contrast to today's slick digital graphics.
Originally from Tacoma, Washington, Chantry
moved to Seattle in the late 1970s and became a singular force in the
city's subculture, designing album covers and posters for the underground
music and theater industry. He served as art director for The Rocket,
Seattle's free monthly tabloid and a breeding ground for talented
contributors such as Matt Groening of The Simpsons and cartoonist Lynda
Barry. His design work for independent record labels, commercial clients
and political and community events, always on a low budget and with a
quick turnaround, remains influential and much imitated today.
His posters juxtapose large type, often
fractured or distressed and lifted from vintage sources, with startling
pictures appropriated from clip art, exploitation magazines, and hot-rod
culture. Recycling this material to produce work that is simultaneously
chaotic and clear, Chantry reminds the viewer that much of what we see in
advertising and packaging is born of vernacular culture. Translating the
ragged physicality and irreverent humor of punk music into visual form,
Chantry, whose methods often mirror his punk aesthetics, avoids using the
computer as a design tool and is known for being choosy about the
corporate clients for whom he is willing to work.
At P.S.1, in his first major New York show,
a wide selection of works produced since 1978 presents Chantry at his most
mischievous and masterful, with particular regard to material
investigation. Included are posters printed on reflective silver Mylar,
thin copper foil, black velveteen, old wallpaper samples, vinyl records,
and even metal plates riddled with actual bullet holes. These are, after
all, Art Chantry's Greatest Hits.
Art Chantry: Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 was
curated by Robert Nickas. This exhibition is sponsored by the American
Center Foundation.
For more information, please contact
Rachael Dorsey, P.S.1 Press Office, at press@ps1.org
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