V1 Gallery presents
The Boys Are Back In Town
A group exhibition curated by Wes Lang featuring new works by 10 American artists:
John Copeland, Brian Montuori, Ryan Schneider, Brett Wilson, Eddie Martinez, Jamison Brosseau, Jeffrey Schad, Vincent Szarek, Joseph Hart, Russell Nachman & Wes Lang.
The Boys Are Back In Town presents a select group of emerging and established young artists, working with various styles and media.
In the tradition of Walt Whitman, Willie Nelson, Ernest Hemingway, Jack Kerouac and Hunter S. Thompson, Wes Lang has curated a visual road trip through present day America. He and his ten-man band traverse their country while painting, drawing, sculpting and photographing the landscape, the people and the American history and heritage. Good and bad, splendor and dullness, treasures and trash are all ingredients in the melting pot, where the mundane and the grand are equal partners.
Symbols of Americana and the Wild West are juxtaposed against contemporary pop culture and kitschy iconography. War, prejudice, hatred, and hypocrisy are countered with hope, idealism and a strong belief in and fascination for the country. And themes such as ideologies, economics, tradition, religion, mortality, social conflict, dystopia and survival are explored.
America is engaged in a curious and reflected manner freed from moral judgment. A fascination for the free spirit, bikers, American Indians, artists, immigrants, outsiders, and highway culture flows like an undercurrent through the show. The artists connected with the show come from various states, they have different agendas, and they perceive things differently. The exhibition should therefore not be perceived as an answer. Rather it should be read as an investigative tale told by wanderers as they roam the roads of their country and own identity.
V1 Gallery is proud to present this exhibition in a time where America once again shows its colors as a pioneering nation where dreams and democracy goes hand in hand. The exhibition also marks V1 Gallery's 6th birthday.
The boys are back in town to present their visions of America today.
We hope you will join us on the trip and at the homecoming party.
