For over two decades, Arthur Roger Gallery has been home to Waters’ provocative and hilarious explorations of taste, trash, and taboo. In The Worst of Waters, he once again leaves an indelible mark on the cultural landscape–violating our very conception of natural categories and deftly replacing them with his own–namely, the Great, the Glamorous, the Obscure, and the Obscene. In The Worst of Waters, we are treated to the artist’s iconoclastic commentary on topics of public interest, such as pyromania, cosmetic tweakage, and Midwestern torture-murder, to name but a few. Themes and motifs of provocation — race, sex, gender, consumerism, and religion — are unapologetically central to Waters’ practice and presented with his paradigm-jolting brand of wit and cynicism. Lovingly fashioned from pop culture pulp, Waters’ photographs and sculptures adorn the gallery walls like sacred relics of pop culture gone deliciously wrong. In this exhibition, the only thing Waters is guilty of is delightfully bad taste.
