Tuesday, June 05, 2007

rigo23

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rigo23 has a new show at the luggage store.

each of the 8 large works on canvas relates to a historical event in local alternative activism.
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rigo23 created zines ($3) for each piece.
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the zines include a lot of source material and serve as well-documented alternative press primers on these selected events from the bay area's recent history. i found myself wanting them to also include a photocopy representation of the graphic work - maybe on the zine cover - but that is me.

rigo23's graphic style here is somewhat comic-newspaper.
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he does a good job of rendering the characters so that they feel alive. the pencil work on canvas gives it a nice, personal, homemade feel.
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lots of mustaches.

the work looks like it is based, in part, on photographs. i like the parts where he chose not to fill in all of the details.
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the show is worth checking out in person. it runs through june 23 (i think).
i have more photos of the work in my slideshow.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i'm sorry, but this is simply mediocre illustration

billy ocallaghan said...

i disagree. in part, i do not think "anonymous" had sufficient information to judge the work (but who knows, they are anonymous). my photos (viewed over the web) provide some information, but are poor substitutes for seeing the art in person. in part, these photos lose a lot of the details (in this case, seeing the handwork of the pencil on canvas made the work feel more intimate/homemade). our eyes are also able to see details across a much broader range from light to dark than photos can record. in addition, these photos fail to convey the size, and impact, of a piece. in this show, the size of the work helped to give the characters portrayed life (because they were closer to actual size).