Nothin Nice: Work by Eddie Colla and Bask

First Amendment Gallery is pleased to present “Nothin Nice”, featuring new work from Eddie Colla and Bask. Join us for the opening reception Thursday, July 21, 2016, from 6:30-9:30PM. The event is free and open to the public.

Operating from opposite coasts of the United States, Eddie Colla and Bask have stylistically synced in their production of “Nothin Nice”. In their return to 1AM this summer, both artists are opening a visual dialogue into the twilight zone that is our contemporary popular culture and political climate. The work is both technical and physical, masterful in a controlled chaos. Embodying the First Amendment in its truest form, Eddie and Bask aim to activate the urban dweller’s passive participation in the everyday commercialization of public spaces.

Eddie Colla’s infatuation with advertising and public discourse began with photography. With his BFA from California College of the Arts, he worked as a photographer for the New York Times, and countless other magazines, advertising agencies, and record labels. 15 years later, Eddie has become a counterattack to the pervasive presence of advertising and commercialism in public spaces. He now raises this voice through gallery shows, installations, and large scale murals in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, Paris, Thailand, Mexico, and Hawaii alongside the likes of Blek Le Rat, Shepard Fairey, Banksy, Keith Haring, Kaws, Hugh Leeman, and D Young V. Through precise stencil work, incendiary content, and gritty realism, Eddie’s talent transcends any platform it speaks from.

Bask in the moniker of one, Ales Bask Hostomsky. Emigrating from Czechoslovakia to Florida, he was quick to notice the similarities between the communist iconic propaganda of his youth and the American consumer advertising of his teens… perhaps two sides of the same coin. Bask’s richly textural work imbue his “anti-iconic” and satirical worldview with an undercurrent of dark emotion. His canvases are the city’s flotsam and jetsam of industrial and consumer decay. Combining graphic skill with his trademark multi-layered application, he builds up the surface only to break down the image. His work is regularly exhibited in museums and galleries in Miami, Jacksonville, Baltimore, Detroit, Tampa, and San Francisco. “My art is a type of deconstruction,” says Bask, “I try to focus on the imperfection of things, rather than their unachievable perfection.” We’ll call it a series of inspired mistakes.

“Nothin Nice” will be on display until August 18th. For inquiries or catalog requests contact artsales@1amgallery.com.