Wunderground

Next weekend starts the crazy RISD Museum show of Providence poster art from 1995-2005. The early/mid nineties were a crucial time for rock posters and Providence artists...and the museum is having a show to commemorate it.

Exerpt from the site:

WUNDERGROUND: PROVIDENCE, 1995 TO THE PRESENT

September 15, 2006-January 7, 2007

PROVIDENCE, RI — For the past decade, Providence has been the site of a radical underground art scene, giving rise to a multi-faceted, unbridled aesthetic that is as distinct as it is influential. The work earns international press ranging from music and fine art to comic and shelter publications, yet the artists maintain their underground life-as-art practices. This fall, the Museum presents Wunderground: Providence, 1995 to the present, an exhibition celebrating Providence’s intersection of art and music.

This watershed exhibition consists of two parts, representing present and past: Shangri-la-la-land and Providence Poster Art, 1995-2005. Organized by Judith Tannenbaum, Richard Brown Baker Curator of Contemporary Art, the exhibition is conceived by a core group of eight artists: Mat Brinkman, Brian Chippendale, Jim Drain [RISD ’98, Sculpture], Leif Goldberg [RISD ’97, Film, Animation, Video], Jungil Hong [RISD ’99, Ceramics], Xander Marro, Erin Rosenthal [RISD ’98, Film/Animation/Video] and Pippi Zornoza [RISD ’01, Printmaking].

For Shangri-la-la-land the eight artists will construct a sculptural installation especially for the Museum’s soaring 30-foot Main Gallery, transforming it into a fantastic landscape loosely based on the idea of a village. Taking the raucous interiors of such Providence artists’ collectives as Fort Thunder and Dirt Palace as a guide, bets are on for a lively spectacle.

Providence Poster Art, 1995-2005 will display, floor-to-ceiling, some 2,000 screen-printed posters advertising rock shows, art exhibitions, and community events held in Providence since 1995 — a comprehensive timeline of the signature creative activities of the underground’s last decade: silk-screening and noise music. Over 200 artists created these colorful, graphic, cartoony posters for happenings at off-the-radar venues such as Rogue/Renegade, Box of Knives, and Pink Rabbit. Headsets with recordings of live shows will pepper the galleries.