NEXT EXHIBIT

ART VOTES: Opening Friday, July 30th @ 7pm

The Rogue Buddha Gallery is hosting a three-day pop-up art exhibition
opening Friday, July 30th and running through Sunday, August 1st.
The exhibit will feature work by local artists themed around a
positive message about voting. Additionally, the exhibit will be
judged by a committee of local art experts, and the winning work will
be reproduced as free, limited-run posters.

The opening reception will be hosted by Entenza running mate, artist,
arts advocate and former gallery owner, Robyne Robinson!

UNDER OUR SKIN
OPENING RECEPTION: Friday June 25th, 7pm
EXHIBITION RUNS: June 25th - July 25th, 2010
FEATURING: Thom deVita, Nick Bubash, John Wyatt

Proving that flesh art is no flash-in-the-pan, influential tattooists Thom deVita, Nick Bubash, and John Wyatt return triumphantly to the Rogue Buddha Gallery in Northeast Minneapolis for their second show. Featuring new and unseen works by three of the artists responsible for igniting the “tattoo renaissance” in America, these images and assemblages re-define taboo and tradition, forging a modern language that straddles both artistic and cultural divides. Melding technique with tribal, institution with icon, and the painterly with the primitive, each image stands in tribute to the process of reinvention and the power of each artist’s personal vision.

Described by his contemporaries as “a magician who has changed the way we see”, Thom deVita’s montages combine recovered findings from our world with the personal myths of his imagined one. John Wyatt’s austere photographs of tattooed and tattooer invite viewers to behold the narrative contained in flesh and film alike while self-proclaimed extremist Nick Bubash’s rich assemblages and sculptures, deeply influenced by world cultures and religions, teeter precariously (but not preciously) at the intersection of identity and origin.

Since first showing at the Rogue Buddha Gallery in 2005 all of the artists careers have blossomed on a grand scale. Their work has been included in exhibits at Old Dominion University Gallery, Mesa Contemporary Art, and will be exhibited in there own 3-man show at the Andy Warhol Museum in may of 2011.

About Under Our Skin by the Warhol Musuem

The world of Thom deVita is a rare place where inked lines, tantric visions and mythologies based in urban legend and pure whimsy converge. As the forefather of modern-day tattooing, deVita created an entire way of life in his tattoo shop in New York’s Alphabet City in the 60s and 70s, and while he inked clients from a variety of backgrounds and leanings, he so too created memorable works of art that titillate in their strange subject matter and at times haunting auras.

Nick Bubash, one of deVita’s students, and now a talented tattoo artist in his own right, learned not only the skills of the tattoo needle while working under deVita, but also picked up a strong skill-set in terms of making art. Bubash’s multi-layered collages and paintings cull heavily from his long tattooing career, becoming visual playgrounds that bring together elements of actual tattoos that he has inked with formal patterns and arrangements influenced from his world travels. To say that Bubash’s works of art are complex is an understatement; one simply need stand before them to realize that the layers of his collages mimic the layers of skin and personal histories that his tattoos have penetrated.

John Wyatt’s photographs are striking portraits of a number of tattoo aficionados around the country who are either fully inked, or close to it. We see these intriguing figures in their home environments, alone at times, or with lovers or close friends in others. Their monochrome palette allows the viewer to see past the bright colors surely involved in the subjects’ actual tattoos, luring the eye into the subjects’ faces and personas. Wyatt’s intimate pictures tell a personal story, no doubt tinged with a hard edge or unbelievable tale in each case.

All told, the works in this exhibition tell a tale that plays out on the flesh of a nation, day in and day out. Each artist plugs into the long history of tattooing and tattoo-based art, making it all the richer thanks to his creative juice, mighty
ink gun, and dedication to the field.

Eric Shiner
The Milton Fine Curator of Art
Warhol Musuem