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"Lift Off" by Prpject Ethos review
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The artsts left to right: Felicia Khong, Gianni Coria, Justin Mentell, Manuel Cuchilla, Chase
Wood, Terry Kim
Editor’s Note: Due to my involvement in the show I will refrain from writing about my contribution with any opinion. If you want to know more about my involvement and my take from a more personal level, check out my take from my website: The Terry Kim Experience
Last Friday, June 6th, Project Ethos threw their tenth show, “Lift Off,” at the club The Vanguard in Hollywood. “Lift Off” featured eight artists, three musical performers, and six fashion designers. The venue was split into two basic section with the fashion show and music performances happening inside in the main building and the artwork being displayed outside on the patio.
One of more interesting aspects of fine art shows (by fine art I mean like painting exhibitions and things like that) is that the quality of the show is completely separate from the quality of the art. This is pretty unique to this genre if you think about it because if a music show is a good show it is more than likely because of the music (or the performance of the music) being good. Ditto for theater or cinema.
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With art though, the art can be amazing but the show could be considerably less so, and vice versa because the show aspect is pretty separate from the work.
That being said, “Lift Off” was very fun and enjoyable art show. To get an idea of what it was like, imagine an outdoor club with a very lounge-y atmosphere. Since “Lift Off” was more of a fashion show/club event, the crowd reflected more of that kind of scene. Not being the typical art show audience I think made them more engaged into the artwork since it was something that maybe they don’t see too often.
Each artist was given their own little section and wall to display their work and the overall layout had almost like a trade show feel to it. Some of the artists really went all out with their set-ups. Glitz & Grime blanketed two walls with salon style and threw up a video projection on a giant Buddha statue (which was very cool.) Tomer Peretz set up his station like a photo studio and was taking snaps of some models that he had covered in silver and gold body paint.
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There was very little stylistic consistency from artist to artist. Whether this hurts the overall quality of the show can really go either way depending on the viewer. On the one hand, it’s a good random pick of ten different styles ranging from pop, to low-brow, to abstract in all kinds of mediums from collage to oil to digital prints. On the other it can be seen as a random mess. Personally, I think each artist more or less presented their artwork well enough that I sided with of the former as opposed to the latter. The quality was sometimes a bit sketchy, but sine this is a show about showcasing artists who are still young and yet established, that is probably to expected. It’s more of a show to see potential than a polished product.
Another interesting aspect of the art for myself though were the varying backgrounds of the artists involved. For example, Glitz & Grime are two guys and a girl who work during the day on the production side of TV channels like E! and G4. Felicia Khong is from a girl group called Jazmin (Jazmin was on some pop group competition on MTV.)
All in all, it's a pretty unique and fun way to experience new and upcoming artists.
