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 A Year in Review: Rewind 2012|A Sneak Peek 13
A helluva year indeed! Our annual Year in Review brings you the best highlights of John's exhibitions, and happenings of 2012, including Context at Art Miami during Art Basel, We Could Be Heroes at the MOA, Post Modern Blues at Nox Contemporary and the highly-buzzed about performance piece, The Next Supper at UMOCA in September.
Another record year for sales, several of Bell's early paintings were acquired along with new work including neon pieces and limited edition prints.
This year Bell embarks on one of the largest shows of his career at BYU's Museum of Art with a retrospective of his early architectural work and new exterior sculptural pieces surrounding the museum grounds. He's also been invited to create a site specific work for a unique, high profile project which we'll be revealing soon.
Read on and revisit the past year with us. The support of collectors, dealers, gallerists, art organizations and friends like you who continue to engage in a thoughtful art dialogue with John, attend shows, buy work and read these emails, we simply say THANK YOU!
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Context Art Miami|Art Basel
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John returned to Art Basel, Miami for the 5th year with Cancio Contemporary this time at Context Art Miami. He mounted several pieces (shown) including the timely The Backside of Hope on the heels of the reelection of Barack Obama and two new neon works that dealer Luky Cancio imparts, "many collectors were excited about the evolution of John's work with the neon pieces which generated a lot of buzz."
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We Could Be Heroes at MOA
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On December 7th, 2012 Jeff Lambson curator of Contemporary Art at BYU's Museum of Art realized his exhibit, We Could Be Heroes; The Mythology of Monsters and Heroes in Contemporary Art to record attendance. Years in planning, the show delves into the growing captivation with heroes and monsters in contemporary pop culture. Among an international roster of artist's, Bell created the large-scale, in the museums' infinity goes up on trial, (pictured top) specifically for the show which serves as an homage to musical icon, Bob Dylan. The artist's mixed media work, an evening at Christies (bottom second from left) is also on display.
"From persona to persona, decade after decade, Bob Dylan has embodied both sides of the coin hero and monster. Voice of a generation, traitor, folk hero, Judas, the greatest songwriter in music history to he can't even sing. From counter culture icon to being awarded the presidential Medal of Freedom. His ongoing legacy has generated as much discourse as anyone in the history of pop culture". ~John Bell
This is a must-see exhibition! Runs through April 6th>>>visit BYU MOA
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The culturally relevant performance piece.
Nearly 70 guests were seated at a large king's table covered with Bell's partially finished canvases, which served as a protagonist and tablecloth. Guests became the artists, the subject and the art during the performance. Bell encouraged participants to use their food, floral arrangements, candle wax, wine corks and fire to add to the 64-foot painting Bell printed with pop culture imagery and politically charged text designed to provoke guests to complete the canvases.
"His work aligns itself with some of our most important democratic and participatory ideals. Bell does this while maintaining his usual keen focus on the nature of celebrity and our roles as consumers in the marketplace." ~ Adam Price, Executive Director Utah Museum of Contemporary Art
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Post Modern Blues| Nox Contemporary
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John kicked off 2012 with Post Modern Blues in March.
The exhibition was comprised of several new and revisited pieces shown for the first time in Utah including paintings, installation, mixed media and a photographical display, Portraits without Faces, where the subject's primary source of expression, their face is removed and replaced with a mask. At the core of the exhibition were Bell's paintings, wrought with recurring images of celebrities, modern art masters, monkeys and iconic cartoon characters, many of which are appropriated from what Bell calls "Google collaborations." ...Bell's sojourn through the postmodern miasma takes him through the territory of personal history, artistic and cultural progenitors and even audience participation to locate the crux of what it means to be an artist. ~Brian Staker, City Weekly
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Collector Purchases|Acquisitions
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Significant pieces from John's early work found homes with collectors as well as new neon art and limited edition, digital archival prints and the Portraits without Faces photographs.
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