Sunday, October 24, 2010

So What! (Punk/Art @ Artspace)


Last night I attended "So What!" - an event/show billed as a "place as art" experiment, wherein Hartford's Artspace gallery was transformed into an approximation of a punk club to showcase the work of several painters and a live performance by the band of the show's organizer, Daniel Small. One of my friends expressed some concern that this conceit was a bit too cutesy and that newspapers on the wall are not in fact punk rock, but I appreciate the effort that went into this pseudo-trashing of the space for a one-night-only event. And as a scenester since 1990-something, I was especially touched by little nostalgic gems like this:


OMG the Hanover House! What a dump! And Red Tide - Simsbury death metal - I went to a basement party of theirs in high school. That was probably like my first party ever.

Turns out Daniel has been scene since those days too and played out at the awful venues of my youth (Hanover House, Caesar's Place) with his old bands Kricket and Dayz Amaze Me. And it seems our Daniel is multi-talented. In addition to his revolutionary approach to home decorating, we got a taste of his guitar playing, singing and drumming... and painting!


The finest (if least explicitly punk) art in the show was without a doubt the paintings of Iya Tucker.


Lest you think her images portray some kind of fantastical aliens - the result of a wild imagination - understand that the artist is basically an elf herself, and stunning.


As is so often the case at these nights out in Hartford, the most exciting part was the celebrities in the audience. In addition to the show's artists, the audience included Paul from the Silent Groove, previously Scenic'd artist Gary Jacobs, and Lauri Adverb, who I knew from the internet but hadn't ever met in person. She was a trip to talk to and had plenty to say about peddling smut to support her poetry habit.

Most of the artists featured in this show are frustratingly non-existent on the internet. Seriously guys, just start a blogspot at least! I ran into this same issue after checking out a fashion show featuring Connecticut designers last week (I can hardly blog them up with nothing to frakking link to!). You can check at least check out painter Patrick Zapatka and um... apparently none of these other great people (to be updated if anyone tips me off otherwise, maybe they just aren't optimized). Check out our FB gallery for more photographic evidence.

UPDATE! Thanks artists for checking in; peeps, check out participating artists Daniel Small and Jason Silver.

3 comments:

  1. Hi Katie thanks for the write up. I do have a website, albeit an extremely limited one put up in a few hours time. danieljsmall.com . BTW Paul from Silent Groovie is also, Paul from Kricket, and DayzAmazeMe. :) See you at the next hotspot.

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  2. My website is www.jsilvergraphics.com

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  3. the show was dope! i loved getting drunk there.oh shit was really good, but they should've played rock'n roll mcdonalds...that would've been cool......

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