(coverage) “The ArtArmy Royalty” @ Jonathan LeVine Gallery, New York
Posted: August 24th, 2011
The Art Army triumphs again. The esteemed Jonathan LeVine’s Chelsea gallery is adorned with the latest installments of this conceptual art project. This has been a long time coming. Articulating figurines hand-made with polymer clay started as a lark of satire and consumer critique. The project has now obliterated nearly a decade and logged over 300 original one-off sculpt’s. This time the now well-established format takes aim at the very highest upper crust of the art world, so long as they are still living. Celebrity art star icons are reduced to action figure form. This is a big freakin deal. Show of a lifetime. - Complete list of artists depicted, work samples, and artist statement below -
“The Art Army Royalty”
Sept.10- Oct.8, 2011.
Jonathan LeVine Gallery: 529 West 20th Street, 9th floor; New York, NY 10011. ph. 212-243-3822
Media coverage: The Huffington Post, New York Magazine
COMPLETE LIST OF ARTISTS W/ WIKIPEDIA LINKS + PREPARATORY SKETCHES FOR EACH FIGURE
THE ART ARMY ROYALTY - M.Leavitt, 2011
This group of hand-made action figures depicts the most famous artists still alive today.* No living visual artist today is a household name with even the cache of a reality TV celebrity. If you’re familiar with these names, you’ve participated with a statistical minority known as the ‘art world’. If you know none of these artists, you’re part of the vast majority substantively disconnected from art. Most could only name a living artist by token-izing a friend or family member.It can be argued that any Left-leaning commentator satirizing the rich & famous is jealous. Even if unconsciously, they want money they don’t have. Yes, the gap between the ultra rich & poor has room to shrink. I also believe in the organic nature of a free market. I’m competitive. I enjoy the value assigned by process of elimination.The art market is unique from other markets. When the manufacturers die, the products become exponentially more valuable. An artist’s family almost never actively produces more of the actual art itself. And since the 1980’s, the art market has polished a particularly brazen form of Capitalism. This contradicts most of art’s subject matter. The most common non-disclosure: a commercial gallery’s standard 50% sales commission. There are also living artists consistently setting sales records nowadays at high end galleries and auction houses. For all the astronomical money trading hands, the most rich & famous living artists are still unrecognizable. This circumstance provided more impetus to elevate this shows’ refined portraiture.Action figures are a traditionally mass-market product. For many, these realistic toys represent a bittersweet mix of pungent nostalgia and corporate marketing. The format is one of several vehicles that have intoxicated children of recent generations with consumer culture at the earliest stages of development. Since the 1950’s, fine art has a lush history of satirizing consumer culture. The action figure medium is rarely used to effectively bridge the gap between mainstream commerce and fine art.
“HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHO TO MAKE?”
This show encompasses nearly 3 years of research. “The Art Army” project began in 2002 to journal my personal influences. I don’t love many of the artists in this show. This is a testament to the long-running project’s healthy evolution and neutrality as a form of important cultural record. I pour every ounce of blood and sweat into everything I do. It’s a challenge to spend so much time on biographies of people I don’t necessarily like. The Art Army selection criterion usually hinges on 3 major factors, in order: an artist’s relevance and historical importance, whether they make for a cool-looking action figure, and their personal influence on me. If anyone has issues with who did or didn’t make this show: the highly debated, edited, researched and deliberated list of potential names consisted of more than 100 entries. Those 100+ names are in addition to the ongoing to-enlist docket of nearly 500 names that began with the project’s 2002 inception. If nothing else The Art Army reflects one artist’s passion for representation in all forms, from figurative realism to anthropological biography and journalism.
“WHAT ARE THESE MADE OUT OF? HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE?”
Despite appearances, these action figures were not manufactured in cheap plastic. Each of these figures is an original one-off sculpture fabricated from scratch solely by Mike Leavitt with no outsourced manufacturing, cheap labor or interns of any kind. The time it takes to make a masterpiece is a magician’s secret. If you look at them with the understanding that they’re made by hand, it should be clear that they take many, many days. Each is made with polymer clay encasing steel and Styrofoam armatures. Each articulates with moving body parts assembled for mobility with internal elastic cord. They are designed for articulation, a privilege of the buyer to behold (please ask for assistance to demonstrate moving parts). Each is a touch-able toy, an interactive sculpture, an irreplaceable and functional object all at the same time.
*Artists passed during the creation of this show, after their figures had already been made. Cy Twombly died on July 5, 2011. Lucian Freud died on July 20, 2011. R.I.P. to you both.
