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diversions
Creatively
outrageous
By Glenn Zucman
Special to the On-line
Forty-Niner
Over at CSULB art
department's sister school, Cal State Fullerton, Stephen K.
Reeder is exhibiting his master of arts degree thesis work.
"Creative People,"
a collection of seri-graph posters featuring Reeder's dazzling
bright colors, Op graphics and pop sensibility, is open at
the CSUF West Gallery through Sept. 27. Gallery hours are
Monday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
In his unique graphic
style, Reeder layers Barbara Kruger-like text on top of John-Baldessari-like
animal images on top of Victor Vasarely-like Op-Art backgrounds
to produce brilliantly banal Steve Reeder-like posters.
Reeder explained
that the dry text comes from some of his art-world inspirations.
"The quotes were
culled from art sources," Reeder said. "But then after a while
I was like, 'Well, it doesn't really matter,' so I started
making them up."
Reeder's show features
a simple, clean, inspired installation. With 2-D poster graphics
it might seem obvious to simply frame them and place them
on the walls. Instead Reeder has realized the exhibition as
a 3-D installation by hemming the prints in transparent vinyl
and suspending them from the gallery ceiling.
On the "inside"
are the individual edition prints; along the "outside" are
monoprints of the layer elements from the whole series densely
and randomly built up.
"What is new is
the Op, he went from circles to Op; it's anarchy psychedelic,"
said CSUF-adjunct faculty member Brian Kennon, whose rock-dropping
machine was featured in the "Formless" exhibition at CSULB
last year.
"Steve is really
brilliant," said Anna-Victoria Aenlle, a professor on Reeder's
graduate committee. "All of the typography is very tongue-in-cheek,
it's very witty and delightful."
In addition to
Op-Art backgrounds and phrases from high-mid-low sources,
this series of posters contains a wide range of animal images
from flying squirrels to preying mantises. Of this gaggle
of critters Reeder explains, "I have this really cool dictionary.
It has really cool illustrations, so I keep plundering it."
For over a century
now modernism and postmodernism have presented us with the
shock of the new. By now only the most unobservant of observers
can truly be shocked by anything.
Reeder acknowledges
this with the poster that asks, "How Do You Be Outrageous,"
and he answered it last Saturday night at the opening of his
show "Creative People," when he replied to his own poster,
"Banality is the only way to be truly outrageous in our society."
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