"Mutant Media" at SPACE

An exhibition of American artists working within the DIY aesthetic. Featured artists often work in the form of zines, t-shirts, posters, box-art, trading cards, and more. The exhibition explores these bodies of work which mutate media, iconography, and advertising.

Curated by Joshua Rievel and Jesse Hulcher

GALLERY HOURS

Artists:
Samuel Ombiri (Pittsburgh, PA)
-Samuel mostly works in zines and comic books.

Ally Orlando (Pittsburgh, PA)
-Works in drawing, zines, and screen printing.
“Candy Drawling is a local visual artist who is most known for her pen/ink portraits and making fun of Kaitlin Bennett for pooping her pants. Her work is inspired by all things authentic and undeniable, from fallen angels, unsung heroes and nasty womxn to reality TV meltdowns and abandoned stuffed animals. Whether it’s Aileen Wuornos or her stoned, crooked lawyer, these are Candy’s personal heroes.”

Genevieve Goran (Portland, OR)
-Working in drawing and masks
“When I make masks I am focusing on an idealization, a self better equipped to combat the hardships of daily existence. These are the identities that I insert into past traumatic experiences in place of myself. They speak their truths with precise articulation, answering aggression with aggression, violence with violence, evil with evil.

These masks are about confronting your fears, licking your wounds, and persevering. In their construction I draw influence from my own trauma. My aesthetic inspiration ranges from medieval torture bridals and “shame masks” to S&M and clown costume. They serve as mercenaries at the beckon call of anyone ever made to feel weak, objectified, or insignificant, anyone unheard, disrespected or disregarded. When I build them I am validated. I hope those who view them garner their own testimony.”

Jason Lee (Pittsburgh, PA)
-a writer and artist who works primarily through a series of zines called “Nothing Left to Learn,” in which he collects and combines writing and drawings in a variety of genres. If he is known at all, it is mostly through punk illustrations and comics done under the pseudonym Laura PallMall. His work has been anthologized in Best American Comics (2017, 2018). His work for this show in one way or another concerns the limited representations of Asian men in American culture.

Karissa Sakumoto (Tacoma, WA)
“I started self publishing in 2010 and more recently gotten into experimental video, animation and 3d work. Newest comic available by Floating World comics.”

Jon Clark (LA, CA)
Jon Clark works in video, comics, zine, music videos and much more.

John Rodgers
https://www.instagram.com/ghoulorama/

“I am a self-taught artist, With the exception of two studio classes I took at community college, ten years apart.  I’m originally from Harrisburg, PA and relocated to Pittsburgh in 2017. I used to want to be a writer.  I used to write poetry and short stories; I even have an unfinished novel sitting in a drawer somewhere. Just before I turned 21, I decided to try making art because I felt as if there was something that I wanted to express that I could not squeeze out of the English language.

Humor is one of the most pervasive themes of my work.  I like to laugh and I like to paint. Not all of work is meant to be funny, but I know a painting is good if I laugh at it when I’m done. If you laugh too, that’s even better. Nostalgia also plays a part; from the references to popular culture, to overgrown signs for closed stores, derelict vehicles in the woods, vintage Clip Art, religious tracts, etc.  I try to source as much of my imagery from my own place and time on this planet, from either 30 years ago or 30 minutes ago.

Other people tend to interpret and explain my work better than I can.  Another artist recently called my work “dystopian” and that “it calls out the gallows humor of it all, the insanity of our time”.  Someone else called it a “commentary on an industrial complex in existential crisis”. My wife tells people that my art is what Krusty the Clown’s laugh would look like if it had a physical presence.”