Robbie Conal: The Missing Link
Nov 18, 2010 - Dec 22, 2010
Country Club is pleased to present The Missing Link, a survey of paintings and drawings by seminal Los Angeles-based artist and political activist Robbie Conal. Curated by Julie Miyoshi, the exhibit highlights Conal鈥檚 twenty-five year arc as painter and political provocateur, including his legendary and widely influential paintings-cum-political posters Contra Cocaine (1988), Freedom From Choice (1992), and Little White Lies (1996). In addition to the politically charged paintings and drawings made for his infamous guerrilla poster campaigns, the exhibit will draw upon Conal鈥檚 lifelong love of baseball, and will include more recent works depicting skeletal figures playing America鈥檚 pastime. Also on exhibit will be a grouping of smaller scale skull and text paintings from a new series entitled Knuckleheads. For the past fifteen years, Conal has also focused on a body of work he calls 鈥渄ecade鈥� paintings 鈥� painstakingly detailed large scale works satirizing American political and cultural history from the past six decades. The Missing Link will feature Conal鈥檚 decade painting, The Clintons Decade (the 90鈥檚).
The totality of Conal鈥檚 art practice occupies a unique and important position in Los Angeles contemporary art history. During the 1980s in Los Angeles, Conal developed an iconic, satirical portrait painting style combined with succinct, punning text to express his concerns about abuses of power by politicians, bureaucrats, and corporate power brokers, among others. Conal鈥檚 public, guerrilla poster campaigns during this period were legendary. In 1986, he rendered his paintings of Ronald Reagan and cabinet members Donald Regan, Caspar Weinberger and James Baker into a poster series entitled Men With No Lips. In 1987, he followed up with Women With Teeth featuring Nancy Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Jeane Kirkpatrick and Joan Rivers. In 1988, Robbie and his volunteer postering crews disseminated his most infamous portrait of Ronald Reagan, entitled Contra Diction 鈥� a notorious image, which along with Contra Cocaine, have become recognized all over the world as defining images of 1980s American politics. Conal鈥檚 career has been fueled by his prescient perception of the larger socio-political matrix and his acerbic, razor鈥檚 edge perspective on the interaction of politics, popular culture and art history. After receiving his MFA from Stanford in 1978, his mentor Leon Golub suggested Conal 鈥減oint his finger directly at the culprit.鈥� Conal鈥檚 interpretation of Golub鈥檚 advice was the catalyst for a thirty year campaign of installing unsanctioned posters of his galvanizing political imagery throughout city streets 鈥� inspiring an entire generation of younger artists to follow suit, including artists such as Shepard Fairey, among others.
Conal has exhibited internationally, including the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles and Art Catalogues at Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Conal has been featured in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, People, Interview, BOMB, CBS鈥� This Morning, Charlie Rose, The Bill Maher Show, and MTV News. He was the subject of the 1992 documentary Post No Bills. Conal received an MFA from Stanford University, and has been awarded grants by the National Endowment for the Arts, The City of Los Angeles, and the Getty Trust.
The totality of Conal鈥檚 art practice occupies a unique and important position in Los Angeles contemporary art history. During the 1980s in Los Angeles, Conal developed an iconic, satirical portrait painting style combined with succinct, punning text to express his concerns about abuses of power by politicians, bureaucrats, and corporate power brokers, among others. Conal鈥檚 public, guerrilla poster campaigns during this period were legendary. In 1986, he rendered his paintings of Ronald Reagan and cabinet members Donald Regan, Caspar Weinberger and James Baker into a poster series entitled Men With No Lips. In 1987, he followed up with Women With Teeth featuring Nancy Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Jeane Kirkpatrick and Joan Rivers. In 1988, Robbie and his volunteer postering crews disseminated his most infamous portrait of Ronald Reagan, entitled Contra Diction 鈥� a notorious image, which along with Contra Cocaine, have become recognized all over the world as defining images of 1980s American politics. Conal鈥檚 career has been fueled by his prescient perception of the larger socio-political matrix and his acerbic, razor鈥檚 edge perspective on the interaction of politics, popular culture and art history. After receiving his MFA from Stanford in 1978, his mentor Leon Golub suggested Conal 鈥減oint his finger directly at the culprit.鈥� Conal鈥檚 interpretation of Golub鈥檚 advice was the catalyst for a thirty year campaign of installing unsanctioned posters of his galvanizing political imagery throughout city streets 鈥� inspiring an entire generation of younger artists to follow suit, including artists such as Shepard Fairey, among others.
Conal has exhibited internationally, including the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles and Art Catalogues at Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Conal has been featured in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, People, Interview, BOMB, CBS鈥� This Morning, Charlie Rose, The Bill Maher Show, and MTV News. He was the subject of the 1992 documentary Post No Bills. Conal received an MFA from Stanford University, and has been awarded grants by the National Endowment for the Arts, The City of Los Angeles, and the Getty Trust.
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Country Club is pleased to present The Missing Link, a survey of paintings and drawings by seminal Los Angeles-based artist and political activist Robbie Conal. Curated by Julie Miyoshi, the exhibit highlights Conal鈥檚 twenty-five year arc as painter and political provocateur, including his legendary and widely influential paintings-cum-political posters Contra Cocaine (1988), Freedom From Choice (1992), and Little White Lies (1996). In addition to the politically charged paintings and drawings made for his infamous guerrilla poster campaigns, the exhibit will draw upon Conal鈥檚 lifelong love of baseball, and will include more recent works depicting skeletal figures playing America鈥檚 pastime. Also on exhibit will be a grouping of smaller scale skull and text paintings from a new series entitled Knuckleheads. For the past fifteen years, Conal has also focused on a body of work he calls 鈥渄ecade鈥� paintings 鈥� painstakingly detailed large scale works satirizing American political and cultural history from the past six decades. The Missing Link will feature Conal鈥檚 decade painting, The Clintons Decade (the 90鈥檚).
The totality of Conal鈥檚 art practice occupies a unique and important position in Los Angeles contemporary art history. During the 1980s in Los Angeles, Conal developed an iconic, satirical portrait painting style combined with succinct, punning text to express his concerns about abuses of power by politicians, bureaucrats, and corporate power brokers, among others. Conal鈥檚 public, guerrilla poster campaigns during this period were legendary. In 1986, he rendered his paintings of Ronald Reagan and cabinet members Donald Regan, Caspar Weinberger and James Baker into a poster series entitled Men With No Lips. In 1987, he followed up with Women With Teeth featuring Nancy Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Jeane Kirkpatrick and Joan Rivers. In 1988, Robbie and his volunteer postering crews disseminated his most infamous portrait of Ronald Reagan, entitled Contra Diction 鈥� a notorious image, which along with Contra Cocaine, have become recognized all over the world as defining images of 1980s American politics. Conal鈥檚 career has been fueled by his prescient perception of the larger socio-political matrix and his acerbic, razor鈥檚 edge perspective on the interaction of politics, popular culture and art history. After receiving his MFA from Stanford in 1978, his mentor Leon Golub suggested Conal 鈥減oint his finger directly at the culprit.鈥� Conal鈥檚 interpretation of Golub鈥檚 advice was the catalyst for a thirty year campaign of installing unsanctioned posters of his galvanizing political imagery throughout city streets 鈥� inspiring an entire generation of younger artists to follow suit, including artists such as Shepard Fairey, among others.
Conal has exhibited internationally, including the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles and Art Catalogues at Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Conal has been featured in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, People, Interview, BOMB, CBS鈥� This Morning, Charlie Rose, The Bill Maher Show, and MTV News. He was the subject of the 1992 documentary Post No Bills. Conal received an MFA from Stanford University, and has been awarded grants by the National Endowment for the Arts, The City of Los Angeles, and the Getty Trust.
The totality of Conal鈥檚 art practice occupies a unique and important position in Los Angeles contemporary art history. During the 1980s in Los Angeles, Conal developed an iconic, satirical portrait painting style combined with succinct, punning text to express his concerns about abuses of power by politicians, bureaucrats, and corporate power brokers, among others. Conal鈥檚 public, guerrilla poster campaigns during this period were legendary. In 1986, he rendered his paintings of Ronald Reagan and cabinet members Donald Regan, Caspar Weinberger and James Baker into a poster series entitled Men With No Lips. In 1987, he followed up with Women With Teeth featuring Nancy Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Jeane Kirkpatrick and Joan Rivers. In 1988, Robbie and his volunteer postering crews disseminated his most infamous portrait of Ronald Reagan, entitled Contra Diction 鈥� a notorious image, which along with Contra Cocaine, have become recognized all over the world as defining images of 1980s American politics. Conal鈥檚 career has been fueled by his prescient perception of the larger socio-political matrix and his acerbic, razor鈥檚 edge perspective on the interaction of politics, popular culture and art history. After receiving his MFA from Stanford in 1978, his mentor Leon Golub suggested Conal 鈥減oint his finger directly at the culprit.鈥� Conal鈥檚 interpretation of Golub鈥檚 advice was the catalyst for a thirty year campaign of installing unsanctioned posters of his galvanizing political imagery throughout city streets 鈥� inspiring an entire generation of younger artists to follow suit, including artists such as Shepard Fairey, among others.
Conal has exhibited internationally, including the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles and Art Catalogues at Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Conal has been featured in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, People, Interview, BOMB, CBS鈥� This Morning, Charlie Rose, The Bill Maher Show, and MTV News. He was the subject of the 1992 documentary Post No Bills. Conal received an MFA from Stanford University, and has been awarded grants by the National Endowment for the Arts, The City of Los Angeles, and the Getty Trust.
Artists on show
