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Jim Riswold: The People's Liberation Army Goes Shopping

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Thursday, 1 December 2016 to Saturday, 31 December 2016

Hall Spassov Gallery in collaboration with Treason Gallery is pleased to present THE PEOPLE’S LIBERATION ARMY GOES SHOPPING by Jim Riswold, on view from November 11th through December 31st, 2016.

Riswold, is no stranger to controversy. Describing his work as “Absurd Realism”, Riswold prides his work on the social commentary and general mockery of the modern world. After a twelve-year absence from the Seattle art scene, Riswold reemerged with this latest body of work featured at Treason Gallery in June.

This is the last and perhaps most socially significant exhibit of our 2016 season. The gallery, being geographically located in an apex of affluence, international diversity and consumer culture, serves the purpose of Riswold’s work well by physically hosting this art in a city that embodies the message. That message, alongside the artist’s powerful visual imagery, serves as persuasive commentary. It is perhaps a forced redefinition of what a communist government is, or must be, in a modern world occupied by freethinking people and driven by increasingly open exchange of communication. These masterful works are injected with humor, are stunning in presentation and carry with them a pervasive societal relevance.

Artist ( Description ): 

Jim Riswold (born 1957 in Seattle, Washington) was the former creative director for Portland, Oregon based advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy and an instructor for the agency's experimental advertising school, WK12: subject for WKE (WKEntertainment)'s upcoming web episodic documentary 

Riswold attended the University of Washington from 1976 to 1983, and received three bachelor's degrees in communicationsphilosophy and history.[1] He was brought into the agency as its first copywriter hire in 1984, supervising the Honda account.[2] In his 14 years at Wieden+Kennedy, he created advertising campaigns such as the Mars Blackmon (Spike Lee), Michael Jordan commercials for Nike as well as the famous Bugs Bunny–Jordan pairing. He also created the Bo Knowscampaign for Nike featuring Bo Jackson, and the Tiger Woods commercial, entitled "I Am Tiger Woods." In 2013, Riswold was inducted into The One Club's Creative Hall of Fame.

After being diagnosed with leukemia in 2000 and surviving for five years, Riswold quit advertising to become a full-time contemporary artist.[3] He went from "a career of selling people things they don't need to making things that people don't want".[4]

Riswold's photographs have been shown in galleries throughout the Northwest and hang in the permanent collections of several museums.[5] Most of his works poke fun at historically taboo figures Mao ZedongAdolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini by constructing monumental setting in which the figurines were photographer. Jim explained in his 2005 Esquire article, Hitler Saved My Life that "Instead of providing […] grand expositions mythologizing the dictator, toys, by definition, make their subjects seem small, childish, and trifling."[6]

Telephone: 
425-453-3244
Venue ( Address ): 

Hall Spassov Gallery 

800 Bellevue Way NE, Suite 150

Bellevue, WA 98004

Other events from Hall Spassov Gallery

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Jim Riswold: The People's Liberation Army Goes Shopping
12/01/2016 to 12/31/2016

 

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