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Archive for August, 2024

FEATURED ARTIST: Ben Frost (Superchief)

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Provocative, controversial, confrontational, sexually charged: all terms that have been used to describe the work of Australian-artist Ben Frost. Painting images that traditionally represent childhood innocence onto product packaging, the artist uses double entendre and satirical word play to critique our media-obsessed popular culture, often presenting sex and violence in a glamorous role.

Ben Frost’s upcoming solo show opens in just a few weeks and Superchief has posted a collection of the artist’s past work which is sure to whet your appetite for what’s to come. ”See Inside Box for Details,” New Work by Ben Frost opens Saturday September 8th, 7:00 – 11:00 pm, at Shooting Gallery.

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“Lessons of Alchemy” (El Pais)

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El Pais, one of the top daily newspapers in Spain, ran a great interview with artist James Charles where he delves into how his process developed and what led him to exhibit at Shooting Gallery:

American artist James Charles is able to turn a $5 bill into $1,750. Miracle? No, imagination. The boy has been kind enough to give some clues about this enviable feat; here’s a little lesson in alchemy.

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Ben Frost + Hi-Fructose Magazine

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Have you grabbed your copy of the latest issue of Hi-Fructose Magazine, yet? This full page spread for See Inside Box for Details,” New Works by Ben Frost is in the first pages of Vol. 24, giving you a look at the boundaries Ben Frost will be crossing with his new show.


Opening Reception: Saturday September 8th, 7-11PM
On view through September 29th, 2024
@ Shooting Gallery

RSVP Here

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Sweet Station Artist Profile: Ben Frost

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Sweet Station, a collaborative weblog for designers, illustrators, artists, and the artistic at heart, profiled Ben Frost earlier this summer:

Australian artist Ben Frost is known for his kaleidoscopic Pop Art, mash-up paintings that take inspiration from areas as diverse as graffiti, collage, photorealism and sign-writing. By subverting mainstream iconography from the worlds of advertising, entertainment and politics, he creates a visual framework that is bold, confronting and often controversial. With a blatant disrespect for the signifiers of our visual culture, Ben creates multi-layered surfaces of refreshing intensity.

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See more images here and be sure to attend “See Inside Box for Details,” New Work by Ben Frost; opening reception September 8th, 2024, 7-11PM @ Shooting Gallery!

Press Release: “See Inside Box for Details,” New Work by Ben Frost

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Shooting Gallery is pleased to present Australian artist Ben Frost’s solo show “See Inside Box for Details,” opening Saturday, September 8th, from 7-11 pm. The exhibition will feature approximately 12 paintings on canvas as well as paintings on found packaging, such as pharmaceutical boxes, candy and cereal packaging. The exhibition is free and will be open to the public for viewing through September 29th, 2024.

The controversial painter and street artist will be showcasing a unique body of work, critiquing our media-obsessed society and our loss of innocence through advertising. Ben’s work subverts logos, icons and characters from popular culture and re-presents them in startling and often confronting new ways.

“See Inside Box for Details,” aims to re-evaluate our understanding of product advertising by juxtaposing unlikely and confronting elements into some of our most loved and well known consumer icons. Ben Frost confronts the conjoined twins of capitalism and consumerism with striking compositions that present a chaotic look at a seedy nature underlining pop culture, presenting sex and violence in a glamorous role. Most unnerving of all is that that on first glance the work of Ben Frost may seem innocuous, filled with the bright palette and playful characters of childhood cartoons and sugary cereals. Whether it takes the form of medicine to keep sickness at bay or highly–processed treats to keep you content in front of the television, our pre-packaged lifestyles are sold to us in colorful and dynamic boxes. With a series of paintings placed on found pharmaceutical and food packaging, Frost highlights the disingenuous optimism of advertising. The innocence of familiar cartoon forms overlain on stark boxes of prescriptions pills like Morphine and Botox opens a discourse on the proliferation of prescriptions in modern culture and the morally-ambiguous stake pharmacology has in society’s welfare.

From the Artist:

I’ve been using the logos and design elements of product packaging for many years, and it seemed a natural evolution to begin painting directly onto the packaging – to introduce subversive elements within what already exists as an object.

Double entendre and satirical word play is brought out in new readings of our favorite and well known products i.e. the breakfast cereal Special K features a drug dazed rabbit introduced to the packaging, Viagra and Cialis boxes juxtaposed with Mr. Burns, Pop Tarts featuring Britney Spears and Whitney Houston and a series of confronting paintings onto McDonalds fries boxes. Since I began painting onto packages in 2024, the branding and product titles seem to be more obvious in their possible double meanings. Twinkies, Hamburger Helper, Vanilla Cupcakes, Dirty Rice, Cheese Nips and Hot Tamales have all suggested new and twisted re-imaginings.

I source the objects from different sources, either directly off the shelves of supermarkets, friends who are in the medical industry, trash cans and from people who actually use the various medicines that are inside the boxes.

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Australian born artist Ben Frost is known for his kaleidoscopic Pop Art, mash-up paintings that take inspiration from areas as diverse as graffiti, collage, photorealism and sign-writing. By subverting mainstream iconography from the worlds of advertising, entertainment and politics, he creates a visual framework that is bold, confronting and often controversial. With a blatant disrespect for the signifiers of our visual culture, Ben creates multi-layered surfaces of refreshing intensity.

He has been exhibiting throughout the world for the last 12 years and has been involved in his own share of controversy. In 2024, he faked his own death for an exhibition suitably titled ‘Ben Frost is Dead’ which made national news in Australia. His painting ‘White Children Playing’ caused a stir for its graphic depiction of children using drugs and a masked and disgruntled assailant slashed one of the paintings in his exhibition at the Institute of Modern Art in Brisbane. Police also tried to remove one of his collaborative artworks in an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney because of its graphic nature. He also began and continues to run the Australian street art website ‘Stupid Krap’ and started the yearly paste-up festival Paste-Modernism, which is the largest of its kind in the world.

Media Opportunities:
Interview with artist Ben Frost
Interview with owner/founder/curator Justin Giarla
High-resolution images available upon request

Event Information:
See Inside Box for Details: New Work by Ben Frost
Opening Reception Saturday, September 8th, 7-11pm
On View Through September 29th, 2024
@ Shooting Gallery (shootinggallerysf.com)
839 Larkin St, San Francisco, CA

Artist Profile: Ben Frost (Red Bull UK)

Red Bull UK caught up with Australian-artist Ben Frost earlier this summer and spoke to him about his love of supermarkets and punk band Misfits (references to both can be seen in the artist’s upcoming solo exhibition at Shooting GallerySee Inside Box for Details). Check out Red Bull’s interview below and view the full post here. See more of Ben Frost’s work in 2024′s Young & Free: Contemporary Australian Street Artists at 941 Geary.

See Inside Box for Details
Opening Reception: Saturday September 8th, 2024, 7-11pm
On view through September 29th, 2024
@ Shooting Gallery

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benfrostmuralMural outside the Rattlesnake Bar & Kitchen in London

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Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda – Peter Gronquist (ArtBusiness.com)

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We had the pleasure of ArtBusiness.com stopping by Shooting Gallery last Thursday evening for Peter Gronquist’s “Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda” opening night; read their review and commentary on the show:

RWM: [...] Once wild animals, now on the walls. Are they or the hunters on the defensive? One will be shocked by the contrasts and contradictions, the animal horns turned into guns–but they really need them. Surprising to see animals on display like this in San Francisco. Interesting symbols and statements nonetheless.

AB: Animals sprout and sport automatic weapons, and pop icons run amok in the berserk world of Peter Gronquist. Madness, chaos and catastrophe are clearly only a moment away. Good stuff; check it out.

“Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda,” New Work by Peter Gronquist
On view now through September 01, 2024
@ Shooting Gallery
Tue – Sat, 12-7pm

Images by Alan Bamberger & David Robertson
See more photos here

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Peter Gronquist’s “Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda” (Hi-Fructose)

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This past Thursday evening, Peter Gronquist opened his new solo show to an energetic opening night crowd and Nastia Voynovskaya stopped in to check out his latest works. Read some of her review below and find the full article here.

[...] Confronting the viewer with bold, dichotomous images, Gronquist’s paintings and sculptures engage with various taboos. Perhaps the most striking pieces in his new body of work are his taxidermy sculptures. The walls of the gallery were lined with huge heads of bison, goats and other species, their horns replaced with gilded weaponry and often delicately wrapped in floral ornamentation. Gronquist’s juxtaposition of death, nature and destruction calls forth many pertinent questions about humans’ relationship to the environment; the animal heads seems so real, yet so artificial and manipulated. Take a look at some photos from the opening reception.

Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda, New Work by Peter Gronquist
On view through September 1, 2024
@ Shooting Gallery
Tue – Sat, 12-7 pm

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Opening Photos: Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda

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It was a pleasure to have Peter Gronquist install his work at the Shooting Gallery and his efforts paid off with a great opening Thursday night. Every piece in “Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda,” both painting or sculpture, are impossible to pass by without stopping to look closer. If you couldn’t make the reception, check out the full show here.

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First Look: Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda

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We unwrapped the last of Peter Gronquist’s sculptures and paintings for his solo show “Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda,” opening Thursday at Shooting Gallery, 7-11pm. Take a sneak peak after the jump:

RSVP Here
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