America Is Dying Slowly [Updated]

Photo by Tone.

Jersey’s notorious AIDS crew brought their skills indoors for a legal showing of their talents, and they killed it. Simple as that.

The show, which was at Jersey City’s 58 Gallery, was impressive as a whole, rather than on the strength of the individual pieces. It was like one big collaborative installation with solo pieces thrown in for good measure.

Simple graffiti covered the walls, which was then washed over in various spots with different colors of transparent paint. More detailed attention grabbing smaller paintings adorned the walls at different spots on top of the subtle graffiti. Then messy white squares were thrown up, and the paintings were placed within them. This stark border helped emphasize the individual works, allowing the viewer to look at them without being overwhelmed by the paintings around it.

There was so much to look at on the walls that it took me a good twenty minutes to absorb it all.

As for the solo works, Distort’s oil painting of kids playing with guns really burned everybody else. Komar’s electric pole was fire was well. The pole and electric box were painted in the corner, and a wire was stretched from the top of it to the other corner of the gallery. Shoes were then strung over it. Dutch’s stained glass window of Biggie also stood out.

The opening was earlier this month, but it will still be open for viewing for about another week. Unfortunately, somebody took their time sending me photos, or I would have posted this sooner. Check out Photos By Tone for some more shots of the opening. Also peep Distort’s Jokerized City Council member here. 

Photo by Tone.