Exhibition Dates: December 4th – January 29th, 2010
Location: 432 Julia Street, New Orleans, LA 70130
Opening Reception: Saturday, December 4th, 6– 8 pm
Gallery Hours: Monday– Saturday 11:00 am – 5:00 pm
Contact Info: 504.522.1999; www.arthurrogergallery.com
The Arthur Roger Gallery is pleased to present “Water, Water Everywhere So Let’s All Have a Drink,” a video installation created by the Okay Mountain Collective. The exhibition will be on view at the Arthur Roger Gallery at 432 Julia Street from December 4th, 2010 – January 29th, 2011 and will coincide with the city-wide art exhibit, Prospect.1.5. The gallery will host an opening reception on Saturday, December 4th, 2010. The artists will be in attendance at the panel discussion, “Through the Looking Glass: Video Art Today”, moderated by Dan Cameron, at the Arthur Roger Gallery on December 9th, 2010.
Water, Water Everywhere So Let’s All Have A Drink, 2010, Installation View.
In its video installation Water, Water Everywhere So Let’s All Have a Drink, 2010, Okay Mountain presents a video that satirically pays homage to the saturation of mass media found in our culture. The video is a compilation of a list of daytime television moments that the artists found memorable. Working in small groups, the artists scripted, acted out, created hand-drawn props and graphics, filmed and recorded soundtracks to create an assemblage of videos that humorously critique the media’s barrage of imagery. The title Water, Water Everywhere, So Let’s All Have a Drink is a twist on a traditional song in which sailors bemoan their ironic thirst when stuck at sea and suggests that despite the availability of more information than ever before sometimes it may lack content or quality.
Formed in 2006 and based in Austin, Okay Mountain is a collective consisting of ten artists who live and work in Austin, Cambridge, Chicago, and Los Angeles. All exhibit as solo artists as well. Originating as an artist-run alternative gallery space, Okay Mountain evolved into an artist collective when its founding members began creating art together outside of the gallery environs. What began as collaborative drawing sessions during weekly staff meetings has since developed into a wide range of collaborative projects across a variety of media, including drawing, video, sound, performance, prints, zines, murals, and large-scale sculptural installations. Their shared artworks reveal the unique perspective provided by a group dynamic, give emphasis to drawing and the artist’s hand, and are always leavened by a sense of humor, whimsy, and larger-than-life Texan spirit. Playing on the conventions and absurdities of contemporary consumer culture and drawing upon pop graphics and styling, their works are scrappy, colorful, and maximal-just like the artists themselves. Most of the artists are graduates of the University of Texas at Austin, others are graduates of University of California Los Angeles, Rhode Island School of Design, and the University of Kansas.
Okay Mountain has exhibited at Freight + Volume, NYC, Austin Museum of Art, Galeria Enrique Guerrero in Mexico City, Paragraph in Kansas City, PULSE in Miami, Texas State University in San Marcos, TX and the Creative Research Lab in Austin. Upcoming projects include exhibitions at Blaffer Art Museum, Houston, TX, and McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX.
For additional information please contact the Arthur Roger Gallery at 504.522.1999 or visit our Web site www.arthurrogergallery.com.