Beautiful Losers

Steve and I visited the Orange County Museum of Art located in Newport Beach for the show Beautiful Losers. "Beautiful Losers: Contemporary Art and Street Culture celebrates the extraordinary creative production and cultural influence of underground youth subcultures." Basically disaffected youths disenchanted with the "bourgeois" culture into which they're born and therefore needing to create a subculture to feel good about themselves. I do give them props for creativity, for activity (not to be confused with activism) and not passivity. Yet, much of their angsty art is either boring or depressing. I really don't care how society has "damaged" or "disppointed" them. Mostly I hate preachy art that attempts to tell all those who come to view it what bastards they are for mostly getting along quite well in society. There is some technically interesting art in which the design element is fetching but the content is ho-hum. But then, there was one room that made the trip to the hinterlands of OC worth it. The work of Evan Hecox, Thomas Campbell, and Ryan McGinnis was a delight to view. It was like stumbling from gloomy, rat invested, pee reeking alleys riddled with bums to wide sunny spaces vibrant with color and the smell of fresh cut grass. Granted I do not know (or care to know) the philosophy behind the work of these artists, but the work itself expressed a joy and delight in living that positively refreshed me after the previous boughts with depression experienced in the former rooms. Perhaps because of the happier frame of mind they seemed to be working from, they're work was visually more vibrant, alive, and explorative.