PREVIEW: Quentin VS Coen Art Show “ROUND 4″ @ Spoke Art [San Francisco]

In October of 2010, San Francisco‘s Spoke Art made both an impact and a name for themselves in the underground contemporary art scene right out of the gate, at a time before they even had a stable gallery of their own to operate out of. Their first real show, Bad Dads—a group exhibit paying tribute to the works of Wes Anderson–has since grown into a widely popular annual event that has caught the attention of the filmmaker himself and actually resulted in regular Spoke Art/Bad Dads contributor, Rich Pellegrino, being recruited by the filmmaker to create a painting for his latest masterpiece, The Grand Budapest Hotel.

A mere 5 months after that original show, Spoke struck gold again by bringing together a plethora of exceptionally talented artists from various disciplines to pay homage to some of the most recognizable and influential filmmakers of our generation: Quentin Tarantino and The Coen Brothers. The Quentin VS Coen exhibit actually consisted of three separate “rounds,” or installments, throughout 2011, each showcasing a selection of new artwork and taking place in a different major city; New York (Round 1), their home court of San Francisco (round 2), and Los Angeles (Round 3), respectively. While Bad Dads is held every year in October, like clockwork, Quentin VS Coen has been a slightly different animal since its inception, and with all of the great material that the venture was able to produce the first (2nd and 3rd) time around, we’re really happy to witness it returning with an opening this Saturday, June 5th 2014—coming back at ya, one mo gain.

“But, beyond their occupations, what exactly is the connection between the Coens and Tarantino?” you may ask. The gallery elaborates on their vision behind the group show as follows…

Playing upon the already highly stylized vision of these directors, Quentin vs Coen pays homage and re-imagines these momentous post-modern genre makers. Although Tarantino and the Coen brothers differ heavily in their directorial styles, artistically they both have an aptitude for overlapping themes. Both gravitate towards potent, film-defining soundtracks, both fabricate their own versions of neo-noir dark humor. Their penchant for ample brutal violence and bizarre story lines compliment their overarching topics of American culture, revenge and fate as well as classic hollywood narratives.

The truth about what made the Quentin VS Coen shows a success the first time around, is exactly what has continued to make the Wes Anderson exhibit a must see event each year; all of these filmmakers have developed strongly distinct and identifiable aesthetics to their work, which are unique unto themselves. When you embark with a formula that involves these masters of cinema being utilized as a foundation to curate an exhibit where various highly talented visionaries in the fine art world are brought in to re-interpret and filter their film works through each of their own very different, respective visual mediums and thoroughly developed individual aesthetics, it’s guaranteed to produce some fairly surprising and engaging results. For the newest round (4?), over 60 artists have been brought in to contribute “original works from painting and sculpture to limited edition screen prints and digital works” As usual, you can expect to see some familiar names bringing the goods for this one, as well as to be exposed to some up-and-coming artists, or others that may have simply slipped past your radar up until this point. If you’re in the area, make sure to stop in and check it out. If the impressive list of contributing artists isn’t enough to get you out there, hopefully the selected preview images that we’ve provided below might do the trick. Remember, this is only a fraction of what will be on view.

List of Contributing Artists:

Sherif Adel, Derek Ballard, Oliver Barrett, Joshua Budich, Sandi Calistro, Tracie Ching, Dan Christofferson, Craig Church, Ben Clarke, Nick Comparone, Ken Davis, Tim Doyle, Matt Dye, Jason Edmiston, Anarkitty, Veronica Fish, Sam Gilbey, Ian Glaubinger, Gene Guynn, Sam Ho, Christine Hostetler, Primary Hughes, Tim Jordan, Alex Kirzhener, Cuddly Rigor Mortis, Doug LaRocca, Nan Lawson, Tula Lotay, Steve Mac Donald, Dave MacDowell, Tim Maclean, Adam Maida, Crowded Teeth, Scott Mitchell, David Moscati, Joemur, Johannah O’Donnell, Rich Pellegrino, Joel Daniel Phillips, Michael Ramstead, Fernando Reza, Jesse Riggle, Jermaine Rogers, Cuyler Smith, Peter Strain, Meghan Stratman, Maria Suarez-Inclan, Geoff Trapp, Justin VanGenderen, John Wentz, Bruce White, Bec Winnel, Kate Zambrano

Check out preview images for the exhibit below the following event details…

WHAT:

Spoke Art Presents
“Quentin vs Coen”
An art show tribute to Quentin Tarantino and the Coen Brothers

WHEN:

Opening:
Saturday, July 5th
6pm-10pm

WHERE:

Spoke Art Gallery
816 Sutter St.
San Francisco, CA 94109

ADDITIONAL INFO:

Opening is ALL AGES w/NO COVER
Artists will be in attendance
Show on view until Thursday, July 26, 2014
Facebook Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1507015379509987/

[click images to enlarge]