Olson, Olson, Recine and Associates
(Firm of Lawless Art)
June 30 —
August 19, 2011
Featuring:
Yaniv Evan
Phil Frost
Curtis Kulig
Alex Olson
Steve Olson
Bob Recine
Nyehaus has turned over their office tower to corporate America’s most savage and litigious law firm: Olson, Olson, Recine and Associates. Partners include Steve Olson, Alex Olson, Bob Recine and their cut throat associates: Phil Frost, Curtis Kulig, and Yaniv Evan. Ambulances will most definitely be chased; it’s just a matter of whether potential client or partner will be passenger. New York vs. Los Angeles: In L.A the beach is right there, and all year. In New York it’s a bit further; beach hardens into concrete and pavement misted with sprinklers. “ … the ideal city would be the perpetual oeuvre of the inhabitants, themselves mobile and mobilized for and by this oeuvre.”
This vision from the master of Urban Tactics; Lefebvre. Perpetually mobilizing and in perpetual motion for their oeuvre and their community:
Whether they skateboard, ride or build a motorcycle, these guys have rolling and road rash in common. Living at times in Los Angeles and at times in New York, they remain a community in service of the wheel. A community, simply, of what they have in common: a bond that persist at a distance, through a single defiance of gravity. Can we try to package the ungovernable energy of these pioneers of a hardcore approach to life in general before it dissolves into Corporate America’s toxic refuse?
Steve and Alex Olson: Father and Son. Both skateboarders, both artists.
Steve Olson skateboarded at a time when Skate and Punk fed off of each other. Olson has been himself a revolutionary style setter. Yes, Punk and Fashion are constant inspirations. In fact, he met Recine years ago at a photo shoot. He met Yaniv at a photo shoot as well. Kulig and Phil Frost through skateboarding and through art. Anagrams and riddles are Olson’s response to pop culture: a satire of social decay and modern banality. Questioning the nature and extent of our freedom, his art challenges our acquiescence to authority and conventional thought.
Alex inherited the gift of skateboarding, as he inherited style, sense of humor and a list of friends he can count on. One of the best athletes in the world, he is a gifted humorist. Through photography and photomontage, Alex layers anecdotes and scenarios both invented and real.
Bob Recine, his medium is hair. Some of the mixed media he utilizes are photographs, human hair, images from fashion, motorcycling and porn. The subjects he practices on range from Lady GaGa to mannequins. His vision is generously dispersed on the covers of French, Italian, American Vogue and W, among others.
Phil Frost’s patterns have been appearing as arcane codes and a language of his own since the late ‘80s. Yeah, in New York’s inner city as well as major gallery walls. His influences? Assemblage, Kurt Schwitters as much as George Herms.
Curtis Kulig: his message is clear: LOVE ME. Morse code for just that. A message he finds conveyed more clearly in New York, despite the scarceness of large pristine walls on which to write: walking, skateboarding, cycling: that’s the speed, the scale at which LOVE ME reads best.
Yaniv Evan was born in Israel, yet lives in L.A. His passion: building motorcycles. Powerplant Choppers, the company he has created combines fashion and custom-made motorcycles. He is also passing on one of L.A’s traditions through an art he masters — pinstriping — following the tradition of Ed Roth.
These are no hippies. Not Just Punks. No Peace and love: just LOVE ME.
