Todd James
Todd James is known as one of the representative artists from the '80s and '90s street art scene in New York. A participant in the graffiti scene since his mid-teens, he is also known by his tag name REAS and has had an enormous effect on people of his generation around the world as a symbol of the driving force behind the underground culture of the time. The exhibition "Street Market" held at the Deitch Project gallery in NY in 2000 spread his fame into the formal art scene. In the exhibition, James joined with Barry McGee and Stephen Powers, who both went on to become international stars, to recreate a New York alleyway, covered in graffiti, on a massive scale. The exhibition was shown at the US Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2001 and later travelled as far as the Parco Museum in Tokyo, stirring up a worldwide sensation. His international reputation continues to grow such as solo exhibition at Lazarides in Lodnon (2015) or featured in “The Bridges of Graffiti” of 56th Venice Biennale.
James' works are characterized by his use of innocent lines and forms along with colorful palate recalling the drawing style of children. This particular style, while possibly in part being influenced by UPA (United Productions of America) animations, is an expression of his creative worldview. The central theme of his work is the contradiction between the familiarity that is at first apparent on the surface and the loaded tongue-in-cheek criticism of the under side of contemporary society. A tank smoking a cigarette, a naked woman with a machine gun and a skeleton, anthropomorphic fighter planes romping about innocently like children, a woman in a bathing suit playing in a pool of blood; motifs like these appear repeatedly throughout James' works. A mash up of politics humor and the everyday busting through a cartoon filter each work is simply an assemblage of images created by adapting the information that streams out of TV shows and newspapers on a daily basis.
Todd James 是八十至九十年代紐約街頭藝術最具代表性的藝術家之一。James 早年活躍於塗鴉界,為人所熟悉的別名為 REAS,對同輩有著的很大的影響, 他也是當時推動地下文化的象徵。在 2000 年紐約 Deitch Project Gallery 舉辦的《Street Market》是 James 正式在藝術圈嶄露頭角的展覽,其時他與後來 成為國際巨星的 Barry McGee 和 Stephen Powers 合作完成一件大型創作:再現紐約的一條街道,並於其上塗鴉。這個展覽分別於 2001 年威尼斯雙年展 的美國場館和日本東京 Parco Museum 先後展出並引起了世界關注。其後,倫敦 Lazarides Gallery 於 2015 年為他舉辦了個展,James 更參與了第 56 屆 威尼斯雙年展的《The Bridges of Graffiti》,國際知名度亦隨之提升。
James 的作品主要以線條、形狀和彩色令人聯想到兒童畫作,這種風格反映 James 對世界的觀看角度,同時也可能受到 UPA(United Productions of America)製作的動畫所影響。James 的作品主題關於當代社會中表面親切和暗裡挖諷之間的矛盾,如吸煙的坦克、與槍及骷髏一起的裸女、像天真小孩 般奔跑的戰鬥機、穿著浴袍在血池中玩樂的女人等,類似的題材一直重複出現在 James 的作品中。把混雜在一起的政治幽默和日常吵鬧,以卡通過濾成為 作品,正如日復一日地以電視劇和報紙的資訊結集成影像。
Previous Exhibitions
