San Fran­cisco, CA based aerosol art­star Chor Boo­gie has his cura­to­r­ial debut with “Art Offi­cial Truth” a diverse group exhi­bi­tion at Project One Gallery show­cas­ing works from many dis­ci­plines includ­ing paint­ing, sculp­ture and per­for­mance. “Art Offi­cial Truth” opens this Fri­day, June 17 at the unique San Fran­cisco space, which hosts a fusion of art, music and entertainment.

Exhibit­ing artits are; Aaron Nagel, Decoy, Pablo Cristi, Ash­ley Zelin­skie, Decoy, Kelly Allen, Shark Toof, Robert Bur­den, Crash, Vul­can, Apex, How & Nosm, Saratoga Sake, John Koleszar, Bast & Karen Light, Jef­frey Pena, Sarah Fisher, Alfred “Libre” Gutier­rez, Dogadi, Laura Weyl, Robyn Twomey, Akira Beard, Jet Mar­tinez, Yiy­ing Lu, Chase Tafoya, Lucid Dawn, and Kelly Ording.

After the jump, some of the artists share thoughts on what style means to mak­ers with stim­u­lat­ingly diverse approaches.

Alfredo “Libre” Gutier­rez (libregtz​.car​bon​made​.com)
Style is a per­sonal sig­na­ture of artists, some are more influ­enced than oth­ers in rep­re­sent­ing those sig­na­tures and lan­guages in art.

How & Nosm (www​.howand​nosm​.com)
Back in 88′ when we started paint­ing graf­fiti there where cer­tain rules like no usage of sten­cils or tape or pro­jec­tors. Even the let­ters had to have a spe­cific style like sim­ple or wild­st­lye. Then 3D let­ters came onto the scene and from there on the rules that used to apply started to fall apart. Style to us is the essence of what we do and who we are. You have found your own style when your work is rec­og­niz­able with­out read­ing one’s signature.

Jet Mar­tinez (www​.jetro​martinez​.com)
For me, the only law of style is to act nat­u­rally. To do what the hand will do based on what your mind wants to see. An artist is at his/​her best when they are no longer think­ing and are just bank­ing on their life expe­ri­ences as a means to cre­ate. Style, for me, is the hand’s most sin­cere inter­pre­ta­tion of what goes on inside the artist’s mind and heart.

Kelly Allen (www​.kellyallen​.com)
Go with your gut and do what feels good… Style is a person’s unique visual voice, like a fin­ger­print that encom­passes all of the things you are drawn to.

Pablo Cristi (www​.pablocristi​.com )
Style can be a tricky thing…it can be a great strength, or a weak­ness that closes the infi­nite doors of pos­si­bil­ity. Adopt­ing a spe­cific style can close doors of poten­tial growth. I pre­fer to reflect on Bruce Lee’s words when con­sid­er­ing this sub­ject. “When one has reached matu­rity in the art, one will have a form­less form. It is like ice dis­solv­ing in water. When one has no form, one can be all forms; when one has not style, he can fit in with any style.”

Robert Bur­den (www​.robert​bur​den​.net)
I’m not really sure what to say about ‘style’. On a per­sonal level, nobody has ever accused me of hav­ing any, but in terms of my paint­ings, I guess it’s impos­si­ble for a con­tem­po­rary rep­re­sen­ta­tional painter to dis­cuss style with­out first dis­cussing influ­ence and prece­dence. I know what looks good on an aes­thetic level, and to me the word “good” just means “awe-​inspiring”, but what­ever ‘style’ I have is a direct result of the influ­ence that other painters have had on me. I think I feel com­fort­able say­ing that painters like Will Cot­ton, Kehinde Wiley, Todd Schorr, Drew Struzan and Wal­ton Ford (along with many oth­ers) have con­tributed to my style. To put it in a roman­ti­cally pre­ten­tious way — my style is my voice, and my voice echoes the sounds of many other artists.

Chase Tafoya (www​.chasetafoya​.com)
As an artist, style to me is your visual sig­na­ture. We are all inspired by a var­i­ous array of ele­ments, and it’s how we visu­ally pro­duce these inspi­ra­tions that cre­ates an artists style.

Apex (www​.super​burn​ers​.com)
Style means to me that some­one under­stands what they are con­vey­ing at all times. Style is some­thing that you learn and study. An artist with good style in any area of art can blow the scale of their art­work up and know how to main­tain a uni­form look.

Akira Beard (www​.akirabeard​.com)
The laws of style… either one makes con­scious effort to cre­ate it, or it’s the byprod­uct exposed in the results of ones process. Style to me is mean­ing­less. I place pri­or­ity on the con­tent of the con­ver­sa­tion, and not on the man­ner in what kind of tongue I speak with. Style then becomes mat­ters of opin­ion on how I have just spoken.

Laura Weyl (www​.meta​gasm​.net)
I try as hard as I can not to cul­ti­vate any style. Hon­esty and raw­ness are my ‘style’ and I think that pin­ning one­self to a par­tic­u­lar style can be lim­it­ing to an artist. I do what I like aes­thet­i­cally and what I feel instinc­tively, and my artis­tic ADD finds me con­stantly reach­ing out­side of con­cepts, imagery, and ‘styles’ I have already worked with. I strive to stay ver­sa­tile and con­stantly evolv­ing. Though my per­son­al­ity, lifestyle, and aes­thetic pref­er­ences do become a style in their own right, I make a con­certed effort to veer away from any per­ceiv­able pat­terns and keep a fresh perspective.

Saratoga Sake (the​sarato​gasake​.blogspot​.com)
I think style is more of a choice than a voice. Like choos­ing to do a paint­ing resem­bling the Vic­to­rian era.

Sarah Fisher (www​.bluelo​tus​films​.net)
The laws of style are com­pletely sub­jec­tive. Style means hav­ing enough self-​confidence to express your­self with full­ness and authenticity.

Karen Light
Any­thing goes if it comes from the heart, if it makes you for­get your­self, if it sat­u­rates you and leaves room for the tini­est trace of aware obser­va­tion. Style is just rhythm and grace.

Bast (www​.bap​tizey​our​mind​.org)
Works must tap into the milk of lost arche­types, slow down time, dis­solve the line between audi­ence and artist, break the heart open, and ques­tion the tyranny of ordi­nary real­ity. Style is an artist’s orig­i­nal aes­thetic fre­quency and rhyth­mic commitment.

Chor Boo­gie (www​.chor​boo​gie​.com)
I am style… Style is a belief sys­tem on how far I want to take/​give myself. It’s evolving.

Yiy­ing Lu (www​.yiy​inglu​.com)
Form fol­lows fun and functionality.

Ash­ley Zelin­skie (www​.ash​leyzelin​skie​.com)
I don’t have a per­sonal style. My work is dri­ven by con­cept so I let the idea chose the appro­pri­ate medium. Let­ting the work choose what it becomes is a freer form of work­ing. For this rea­son I give myself a gen­eral title of artist as opposed to painter or sculptor.

Decoy (www​.decoyink​.com)
Style is what makes you, you. It’s your cre­ativ­ity and char­ac­ter com­ing through in your life and work.

John Koleszar (www​.koleszar​.com)
To me, style is stay­ing true to your­self. It’s your DNA com­ing through in art form. If you try and fake or imi­tate some­one else’s style, your art will suffer.

Info
Project One Gallery (www​.p1sf​.com)
251 Rhode Island between 15^th & 16^th
San Fran­cisco, CA

Tags: Aaron Nagel, Akira Beard, Alfred "Libre" Gutierrez, and Kelly Ording, Apex, Ashley Zelinskie, Bast & Karen Light, Chase Tafoya, Crash, Decoy, Dogadi, How & Nosm, Jeffrey Pena, Jet Martinez, John Koleszar, Kelly Allen, Laura Weyl, Lucid Dawn, Pablo Cristi, Robert Burden, Robyn Twomey, Sarah Fisher, Saratoga Sake, Shark Toof, Vulcan, Yiying Lu

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This entry was posted on Saturday, June 11th, 2011 at 11:22 pm and is filed under Art.
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