LINDSEY KUHN "100 BUCKS"
Black Book Gallery proudly presents 100 Bucks by Lindsey Kuhn, opening on Saturday, October 14th with a free reception and live music by Nuns of Brixton and Cyclo-Sonic. Doors open at 5pm and the music starts at 6pm with the artist holding court in person. Presented in partnership with Ska Brewing, this opening is our way of closing out summer on a high note and is not to be missed!
Lindsey Kuhn has been showing with Black Book for going on sixteen years and epitomizes the gallery’s ethos of DIY counter-culture and punk aesthetics. An iconoclastic creator since his youth, Kuhn deftly criss-crosses the worlds of art, music and skateboarding, leaving an indelible mark on each. He’s designed original silk-screened rock posters for legendary musicians including AC/DC, The Pixies, Devo, Johnny Cash, Pearl Jam, and hundreds more. As the mastermind behind Conspiracy Boards and the custom print shop Swamp, both located in Denver since the 1990s, Lindsey’s work has inspired legions of artists and skaters for more than three decades.
The exhibition 100 Bucks showcases Kuhn’s take on culturally loaded symbols and personas, specifically a cast of renegade influencers whom the artist deems as “Bucks.” This new series includes 38 unique works that appropriate the hundred dollar bill using screen-printing techniques, both core emblems of Pop Art in the Andy Warhol tradition. In these works, Kuhn has replaced the bills’ presidential portrait with notorious figures such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Joey Ramone, Carl Sagan, and pro skater Jeff Phillips. Set against a hyper-saturated patterned background, this series recalls the psychedelic poster art of the 1960s at the apex of the Haight-Ashbury hippie era, when cult worship was also peaking.
100 Bucks taps into the cultural nostalgia for a time that predates the internet. Just as society changes and evolves, our currencies—financial, cultural and social—have also changed, reflecting our ever-accelerating technological progress, for better or worse. The hundred dollar bill was redesigned in 2013 to include additional security features (a 3-D Security Ribbon, “color-shifting” ink, etc.), but Kuhn’s depiction harkens back to its previous iteration (when it was just a piece of paper and not a token of the rising surveillance state).
Like the cultural icons depicted in these artworks, Kuhn portrays the bill itself as a kind of historical relic — a testament to our changing values, both literally and figuratively. With Kuhn’s signature blend of satire and sarcasm, 100 Bucks pays irreverent homage to our society’s driving forces: money and celebrity.
Lindsey Kuhn (b. Evanston, IL, 1968) has exhibited internationally in Japan, France, Switzerland, Germany, Argentina, as well as in many prominent galleries in the United States. He was featured in the documentary film, “American Artifact: The Rise of American Rock Poster Art” (2009) and his work was included in the seminal publication “Art of Modern Rock: The Poster Explosion.” The artist lives and works in Denver, Colorado. For more information please contact the gallery.
