[artinfo] Public Walls as Studio and Source

[Art&Education]

Post No Bills:
Public Walls as Studio and Source

Work by nine internationally renowned artists who 
use the urban landscape as inspiration will be on 
view at the Neuberger Museum of Art in the 
multi-media group show Post No Bills: Public 
Walls as Studio and Source, opening September 11, 
2016. The artists in this fascinating and 
colorful exhibition explore a contemporary 
archaeological aesthetic, celebrating the marks 
made by anonymous hands and examining the 
evolving history of walls that have been layered 
over time with paint posters, and narratives.

"Urban walls layered with graffiti, posters, 
messages, paintings, and drawings hold the 
history of a place," explains Avis Larson, 
curator of the exhibition. "In our daily lives we 
often pass them by, barely noticing what appears 
on their surfaces. Yet these very walls contain a 
record of human existence that serves as an 
inspiration for this multi-generational group of 
artists."

There are 20 works on view by Blu (Bologna), Mark 
Bradford (Los Angeles), Burhan Dogançay 
(Istanbul), José Carlos Martinat (Lima, Peru), 
José Parla (Brooklyn), JR (Paris), Robin Rhode 
(Berlin and Johannesburg), Vhils a.k.a. Alexandre 
Farto (Lisbon), Jacque Villeglé (Paris), each of 
whom contributes to and captures the unique and 
public narrative. Their subject matter revolves 
around the collective human experience and is 
rooted in the people, and the culture and 
physical environment of the cities in which they 
live. "The artists share a humanistic philosophy 
and have a tremendous sense of social 
responsibility. In a sense, they archive 
society," Ms. Larson notes.

The humble materials they employ-such as house 
paint, chalk, wheat paste, paper, and detritus 
replicate the elements they find on the walls 
that inspire them. Their tools are those of 
carpenters, house painters, and excavators, while 
their techniques, often borrowed from graffiti 
culture, are inextricably linked to their subject 
matter. 

Post No Bills: Public Walls as Studio and Source 
is organized by the Neuberger Museum of Art, 
Purchase College, SUNY, and curated by Avis 
Larson, Assistant Curator.

September 11-December 23, 2016

Neuberger Museum of Art
Purchase College, SUNY
735 Anderson Hill Road
Purchase, New York 10577

T 914 251 6100

<http://www.neuberger.org>www.neuberger.org