Hurley's )( Space
1945 Placentia Ave
This event has passed.
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Mike Stilkey at Hurley's )( Space Gallery
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Opens Saturday June 5, 2010 (6–10pm)
June 5, 2010 – June 25, 2010
Daily
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“Mike Stilkey makes art with books — not in the sense of art in book form, but using books themselves as raw material for small- and large-scale paintings, murals, and installations. Stacked hardcovers, spines aligned, take the place of canvas or wall; they participate in the paintings not only through the ridges in the surface that undulate the images, but through the slightly surreal quasi-narrative of their juxtaposed titles. Ironically the work both celebrates the books as physical objects, even as it renders reading them impossible. But the fact remains: this is not something you can do with Kindle.”
Shana Nys Dambrot, Flavorpill
Note:
Check out Dave Kinsey's interview with Mike Stilkey at Fecal Face.
Hurley opens its gallery )( Space this June with an exhibit by artist Mike Stilkey.
With the advent of Kindle and other digital reading tablets, many books have been relegated to dusty shelves or donated into obscurity. Using these recycled, unused treasures, Stilkey meticulously stacks books' spines facing outward and uses this surface to create wall murals and freestanding painted book sculptures.
For the Hurley show, he is creating two 10' x 12' murals out of more than 5,000 recycled books sourced from the homes of Hurley employees, local libraries (leftovers scrounged from library sales) and from publishers who had books destined for pulping machines. "Giving allof these discarded or unwanted books a second life and reincarnating them into a new piece of art ensures that they are not going to be dumped in a landfill," said Stilkey, who will be working at )( Space from May 20th until his opening June 5th. Exhibit closes June 25, 2010.
Following this show, sections of the mural will be relocated, book-by-book to the Nike 6.0, Converse and Hurley co-branded store, 225 Forest in Laguna Beach. A 10' x 22' foot high wall mural will be reconstituted in the middle of the retail space there.
