BEAUTIFUL LOSERS
February 6 - May 8, 2005
Beautiful Losers: Contemporary Art and Street Culture celebrates the extraordinary creative production and cultural influence of youth cultures. Skateboarding, graffiti, and punk have not only affected the worlds of fashion, music, literature, and film, but they have also inspired a generation of young artists who identify with the iconoclastic lifestyle and counterculture stance of these creative forces born from the street. The unifying traits of these young artists, whose styles and distribution channels still remain largely outside the mainstream, include an interest in pop culture iconography, a sense of the absurd, and a strong do-it-yourself attitude. Beautiful Losers traces the early influences on this new generation of artists, filmmakers, and designers, while also exploring the broader cultural trends that inform their work.
Beautiful Losers at the Orange Lounge features a multimedia installation by the design and media collective the Art Dump. Through video, audio, and tactile means, the Art Dump's new installation, entitled You Are Here, explores the impact of the skateboarding and punk rock youth cultures on the worldwide mass consumer population.
Based in Southern California, the Art Dump is the in-house art department for the Girl Skateboard Company. Under the Girl banner, the Art Dump is responsible for the art and design of seven brands, including Girl, Chocolate Skateboards, Fourstar Clothing, Royal Trucks, Lakai Footwear, Ruby Republic, and Crailtap.com. Exhibiting as the Art Dump in You Are Here are Rob Abeyta Jr., Eric Anthony, Jeremy Carnahan, Andy Jenkins, Spike Jonze, Tony Larson, and Andy Mueller.
Beautiful Losers is organized by the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, and the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, and is guest-curated by Aaron Rose and Christian Strike with Rene de Guzman, Thom Collins, and Matt Distel.
Presented by TSABrand
Major support from Nike and Agnes b.
Additional support provided by Curators' Circle.
Exclusive online and print action sports sponsor Transworld Skateboarding
Exclusive broadcast media sponsor FUEL
Media support provided by OC Weekly & KCRW
Beautiful Losers is presented in conjunction with Eclectic Orange
Orange Lounge design and construction funded by the Segerstrom Foundation.
Major support for Orange Lounge programs is provided by The James Irvine Foundation.
