A laser cut Powell Peralta (skateboard company) reference – All photos by Ava Rollins of Art Observed
New York based artist Scott Campbell made his West Coast debut last night at Los Angeles’ OHWOW Gallery. The show’s title, Noblesse Oblige, implies that whoever claims to be noble must conduct their life accordingly. Campbell harnessed thousands of bills of cut currency to transform tattoo subculture iconography into delicate and tempered work. In exhibiting a chronicle of imagery, Campbell suggests a fine art context for the genre.
More text and images after the jump…
Sourcing uncut sheets of dollars straight from the US Mint, Campbell uses cut currency to create a unique sunken relief effect. Employing familiar iconography of tattoo flash-boards – a skull smoking a cigarette, a skeleton’s provocative hand, the grim reaper – Campbell plays with the irony that exists within that imagery and money. Prints engraved with a tattoo gun play with visual semantics. Dark drawings executed on the interior of ostrich eggshells, flirt with point out the delicacy of opposition – in birth and mortality.
Related Links:
Exhibition Page [OH WOW Gallery ]
Artist’s website [Scott Campbell]
Artist’s Blog [Scott Campbell Blog]
Campbell’s works [Artnet]
