MMXII BNPJ
Jon Rafman
May 5th and 6th, 2012
Opposites engage and contend in Jon Rafman's Brand New Paint Jobs (BNPJ). Conversations between opposing cultural perspectives clash as past, present and future first mirror and then conflict with one another. In the BNPJ project, ordinary objects become infused with historically celebrated works of Art. Each piece in the series is a deliberation between a consumer object and a canonized painting, the formal result of the meeting of a three-dimensional object and a two-dimensional image. A Venus garden sculpture is layered with Sam Francis’ characteristic splashes of paint. A pocket bike is airbrushed with Barnett Newman’s, Who’s Afraid of Red Yellow and Blue. The cultural weight of the underlying structure challenges that of the two-dimensional painting, which is its skin or texture. The conversation occurring between the surface and the object - the connotations of a high modernist painting versus those of a mass-produced object - is not simply another example of the blurring of the distinction between high and low culture. Walking the receding line between art and design, Rafman suggests that history is ultimately wrapped around and involved in whatever we do. By rendering canonized works as add-on surfaces, Brand New Paint Job implicitly critiques the reification of art history.Previously conceptualized and rendered solely in digital form, MMXII BNPJ marks the emergence of the series in sculptural form. MMXII BNPJ compels us to re-conceptualize our relationship to art and our functional goods. We are invited back to a time when art was woven into the fabric of our lives. By layering a pocket bike with Malevich’s iconic Suprematist painting, we are freed from the responses that they have come to elicit. The motorcycle becomes a conceptual vehicle that allows Malevich’s composition to re-enter our understanding. As the paintings become alive in a new way, they become vital in their new form and we are made to rethink the object and the painting. For does it not make as much sense to put a painting on a motorcycle as it does to put it on a wall in a gallery?
Jon Rafman
May 5th and 6th, 2012
Opposites engage and contend in Jon Rafman's Brand New Paint Jobs (BNPJ). Conversations between opposing cultural perspectives clash as past, present and future first mirror and then conflict with one another. In the BNPJ project, ordinary objects become infused with historically celebrated works of Art. Each piece in the series is a deliberation between a consumer object and a canonized painting, the formal result of the meeting of a three-dimensional object and a two-dimensional image. A Venus garden sculpture is layered with Sam Francis’ characteristic splashes of paint. A pocket bike is airbrushed with Barnett Newman’s, Who’s Afraid of Red Yellow and Blue. The cultural weight of the underlying structure challenges that of the two-dimensional painting, which is its skin or texture. The conversation occurring between the surface and the object - the connotations of a high modernist painting versus those of a mass-produced object - is not simply another example of the blurring of the distinction between high and low culture. Walking the receding line between art and design, Rafman suggests that history is ultimately wrapped around and involved in whatever we do. By rendering canonized works as add-on surfaces, Brand New Paint Job implicitly critiques the reification of art history.Previously conceptualized and rendered solely in digital form, MMXII BNPJ marks the emergence of the series in sculptural form. MMXII BNPJ compels us to re-conceptualize our relationship to art and our functional goods. We are invited back to a time when art was woven into the fabric of our lives. By layering a pocket bike with Malevich’s iconic Suprematist painting, we are freed from the responses that they have come to elicit. The motorcycle becomes a conceptual vehicle that allows Malevich’s composition to re-enter our understanding. As the paintings become alive in a new way, they become vital in their new form and we are made to rethink the object and the painting. For does it not make as much sense to put a painting on a motorcycle as it does to put it on a wall in a gallery?
Yves Klein Jet Ski, 2012
Kawasaki jet ski, synthetic resin, pigment
86 x 25 x 50 in.
Kawasaki jet ski, synthetic resin, pigment
86 x 25 x 50 in.
Umberto Boccioni Living Room Suite, 2012
Digital print on cotton twill on couch, dye sublimated carpet, acrylic on vacuum, digital print on cotton silk
10 x 8 x 12 feet
Digital print on cotton twill on couch, dye sublimated carpet, acrylic on vacuum, digital print on cotton silk
10 x 8 x 12 feet
Franz Kline Kawasaki ZX900, 2012
Motorcycle, oil paint
72 x 27 x 27 in.
Motorcycle, oil paint
72 x 27 x 27 in.
David Hockney Steamer, Clothing Rack, and Shirts, 2012
Digital print on cotton, clothing rack, steamer, acrylic
24 x 12 x 62 in.
Digital print on cotton, clothing rack, steamer, acrylic
24 x 12 x 62 in.
Barnett Newman Pocket Bike, 2012
Pocket bike, acrylic paint
40 x 24 x 22 in.
Pocket bike, acrylic paint
40 x 24 x 22 in.
Claude Flight Camcorder Packaging, 2012
Digital screenprint on cardstock, mounted on cardboard
12 x 6 x 9 in.
edition of 3
Digital screenprint on cardstock, mounted on cardboard
12 x 6 x 9 in.
edition of 3
Joaquin Torres-Garcia Notebook Computer Packaging, 2012
Digital Screenprint on Cardboard
17 x 3 x 14 in.
edition of 2
Digital Screenprint on Cardboard
17 x 3 x 14 in.
edition of 2
Paint FX Goalie Mask, 2012
Digital print on vinyl, acrylic box, goalie mask
16 x 16 x 16 in.
Digital print on vinyl, acrylic box, goalie mask
16 x 16 x 16 in.