V1 GALLERY PRESENTS
YEAR IN PICTURES
An exhibition by Futura 2000
It is a great honour and pleasure to present Futura 2000's first solo exhibition in Scandinavia. Futura 2000 is currently one of the most acclaimed living artists to come out of the booming creative life of the East Village in New York in the period spanning from the mid-70s to the mid-80s. Alongside artists such as Jean-Michel Basquait, Keith Haring and Kenny Scharf he progressed from painting walls and trains in the New York underground to form a part of the more (un)established art world in East Village.
'Always resist being one-dimensional and look for other means of creative outlet.
The dilemma seems to be that once you've established yourself you're locked into creating the work that people are familiar with. References to your own past by duplication. Eventually, that's insane.' Futura 2000.
In Year In Pictures Futura 2000 presents new works.
Futura's fragmented, spacey and abstract conception of the future we are almost living in, is expressed in drawings, canvases and photos. In a limbo between New York and Tokyo, floating in the realms of a near future and a science fiction-future, Futura still dreams in pictures. His style is original, direct and fuelled by a dynamic desire to experiment with different expressions and media. Futura is constantly renewing and revitalizing novel creative expressions, from evolving the visual style in the Hip Hop-culture and introducing it into the history of art, to merge hip hop and rock, punk and disco, picture and sound together with art and clothing and latest toys. Futura 2000 is constantly pushing the cultural and creative boundaries with a special affection and respect, which has ensured him a reputation as a bona fide pioneer both in the past and the present. He has litterally survived his own dated name and is today recognized by most as a living legend.
Futura 2000 commences his artistic career in 1970 by painting his name on the streets in New York. He names himself inspired by the typeface Futura from Ford's car of the same name and the Kubrick movie A 2001 Space Oddessey. In 1982 he is seen in the legendary movie Wild Style which deals with the Hip Hop culture in NY. Futura has by now evolved his own, far more abstract, way of painting graffiti and when he in 1982 discloses his first solo exhibition at the FUN Gallery, a critic compares him with a 'space age Kandinsky'. During the same period the Hip Hop-culture expands to Europe and soon The Clash gets together with Futura who commences making posters and artwork for The Clash's records and painting live at their concerts. The Clash and Futura end up making the track 'The Escapades Of Futura 2000' together. In 1984 Futura partakes in a group exhibition at local Louisiana, Denmark.
The underground art scene in east Village dies out in the late 1980's just as quickly as it arose. In the following years Futura exhibits all over USA and Europe, both as a part of group exhibitions and with solo shows. For many years Futura works as a bike messenger in NY as a means of affording doing things his own way, since he refuses to be administrated by an agent or a gallerist, a principle he has stuck to till this day. In the 1990's Futura recieves widspread commercial recognition for his record covers for japanese artist DJ Krush and the musical collective UNKLE, together with exhibitions at Agnes B's Gallerie Du Jour in Paris. In 2000 Both Clibborn publishes Futura 2000's book 'Futura' which many critics consider to be a work of art in itself. Together with collegue Stash, Futura establishes 'Project Recon' and opens shops in New York and Tokyo in which their own offbeat mixture of clothes, art and 'limited collectibles' are displayed and sold. Alongside his 'established' artistic activities he creates clothes with Agnes B., Bathing Ape, Levi's and Nike, and skateboards for Zoo York, alternative camuoflage variants for Maharishi and limited edition toys with japanese Kubrick. In the end of 2004 Futura joins a big retrospective exhibition about the East Village period in New York and the New York Museum of Modern Art.
