Notes from the Artistic Underground exhibition in Foster Hall Gallery

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By Jalissa Bates

Witness the sounds, shapes, textures of Lowbrow art for yourself.

"Notes from the Artistic Underground" will be presented by the LSU Student Union Art Gallery Committee in Foster Hall Gallery November 6-December 4. The exhibit and programs are free and open to the public.

Due to Union renovations, the LSU Student Union Art gallery will move its exhibits to Foster Hall Gallery for about six months.

The reception celebration which takes place November 6, 5:30-8:30 p.m. will be a show in itself. The event will feature a demonstration from the Hip Hop Coalition, the Baton Rouge Drum Circle and readings by students with the Delta Journal, the undergraduate literary journal at LSU.

A collaborative art wall demonstration will be given Sunday, Nov. 8, 1-5 p.m. More readings from the Delta Journal staff will be given November 11, 12, 18, and 19 at noon in the Foster Hall gallery.

"Notes from the Artistic Underground" will usher viewers into the "Lowbrow" world, a stylistic label of street or underground art originating from California. The exhibition will highlight the diversity of influences from multiple genres ranging from cartoons, youth culture, graffiti and hot rods, to Surrealism.

Participating artists include Charles Barbier, Matt Bourgeois, Patrick Brabham, Demond, Marc Fresh, Brad Jenson, Ryan Jetten, Jonathan "Feral Opossum" Mayers, Hunter Roth, Christopher Smith and Alan Watson

Judith Stahl, Union gallery director, said pop surrealism is a major theme of the works being displayed November 6.

"Some of the art for viewing is really sophisticated and sends messages," Stahl said. "The pieces are very powerful and have bold and strong colors which grab you."

Darius Spieth, associate professor of Art History and curator, said he became rather interested in "Lowbrow" art, when he witnessed the comic book iconography, Surrealism, and youth culture all in "Juxtapoz Art & Culture Magazine and Hi Fructose" magazines.

As an art historian and scholar, Spieth said the "Notes from the Artistic Underground" emerged from the desire to work with artists, make them more visible and to display the incredible amount of local talent.

The legacy of the 1980s in Lower East Side New York is the formulation of what street art is about today and to these particular artists Spieth said. The exhibition is for artists who may be neglected for their choice of style and age.

"This is an attempt to bring them together as a form of coherence and this stylistic idiom as the underlying theme," Speith said.

The reception celebration promises music, action and the vibrantly dark images of human and street culture.

Originally Published: Issue 821 - October 28, 2009

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