Detroit artist and Punk Diva, Niagara, will present her Underworld Paintings, Collages and silk-screens featuring her notorious Girls Gone Bad for the first time in San Francisco at The Shooting Gallery, Friday, April, 2.

“There’s a lot of controversy concerning this show and I like it” purrs Niagara. Like one of her silk-screen lethal beauties come to life, Niagara is all about one-liners. Schooled at Banff Arts in Canada, Niagara later hooked up with Mike Kelley and Jim Shaw during arts courses at U of M in Ann Arbor. “This was the genesis of Noise Music which eventually turned into Punk”, says Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, who recently released a 3 CD set of Niagara’s music. She then parlayed that into forming a band with the Asheton Bros. (Iggy and The Stooges fame) and Mike Davis (MC5). She worked with the old school and made it new with her band Destroy All Monsters, a seminal Punk group in the genre of The Ramones and Dead Boys. With her band Destroy All Monsters, she toured the states, England and Australia in the early 80’s and evolved into Dark Carnival in the 90’s. Niagara did the artwork for albums & CD covers, backdrops and T-shirts, waiting for the day she could paint full time. “Sometimes you gotta be careful what you wish for” says Niagara, “I’m up till 5:00 am most nights and sometimes I’m even painting canvasses” She has to stay up late painting to fill the orders on a world-wide waiting list to buy her commissioned work. Niagara’s painting and graphic techniques are as strong and appealing as the characters to which they give being. With fluid lines and gracefully contoured areas of bold color, she composes tightly constructed and harmoniously balanced designs that you don’t want to miss.

“Niagara’s girls plumb the depths of America’s trash culture from film noir to punk and sometimes even reveals a dichotomy in their shadowy fragmented psyche” says The Shooting Gallery’s curator, Justin Giarla, no stranger to controversy himself. “It’s no wonder why Niagara’s women have such attitude and in your face confidence hanging out with those guys in her formative years” I’m excited to have Niagara at my gallery. She’s not afraid to have fun and tell it like it is. And the women in Niagara’s paintings are so bad they’re hot”

“Shut Up And Pour”
Artist reception Friday, April 2, 2004 7pm to 11pm
Open to the public

Showing through May 2, 2004
@ The Shooting Gallery
839 Larkin St., near Geary
phone: (415) 931-8035
fax: 415-931-5943
www.shootinggallerysf.com