February 8 to April 21, 2008
Thaddeus Strode: Absolutes and Nothings presents a selection of large-scale paintings by this LA-based artist as part of the Kemper Art Museum's Contemporary Projects series. Strode's first major museum show, the exhibition will include two dozen mixed-media paintings--wild mash-ups of California surf and skateboard culture, Zen philosophy, rock music, literature, film, and comic books.
Strode's large-scale canvases and vibrant colors combine elements of music, text, and contemorary culture to complicate and expand the viewer's aesthetic experience, employing both humor and horror to create remarkable fantasy worlds. Born in Santa Monica in 1964, Strode draws freely on the youth culture in which he came of age--comic books, adventure stories, horror films--as well as the culture and clichés of the southern California lifestyle.
Strode's unique oeuvre merges historically oppositional styles and modes--figuration versus abstraction; expressive versus rational--in new and provocate ways. His work also features a diverse cast of characters--gorillas, castaways, ghosts, and monsters--which combine elements of the grotesque and a variety of transitional states of being.
Thaddeus Strode: Absolutes and Nothings is curated by Sabine Eckmann, director and chief curator, and Meredith Malone, assistant curator.
About Thaddeus Strode
Born in 1964 in Santa Monica, CA, Thaddeus Strode studied at the Otis/Parsons Art Institute and the California Institute of the Arts, earning a BFA degree from the latter in 1986. His work has been exhibited across the United Statesand internationally, including more than twenty solo gallery shows at the Kunstverein in Heilbronn, Germany; neugerriemschneider in Berlin; Galerie Michael Janssen in Cologne; Galleria Gio Marconi in Milan; the Cirrus Gallery and the Happy Lion, both in Los Angeles; among others. Recent group exhibitions include Sympathy for the Devil: Art and Rock and Roll Since 1967 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Imagination becomes Reality at the ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany; KLF: Strictly Painting at the KLF Project Space in New York; and Funny Cuts: Cartoons and Comics in Contemporary Art at the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart. His work is in public and private collections worldwide. He lives and works in Los Angeles.Thaddeus Strode: Absolutes and Nothings at the MildredLaneKemperArt Museumis his first solo museum exhibition.
Funding Credit
Support for Thaddeus Strode: Absolutes and Nothings was provided by James M. Kemper, Jr.; the David Woods Kemper Memorial Foundation; the Hortense Lewin Art Fund; and individual contributors to the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.
Interactive Media
AUDIOGUIDE PODCAST >>
Both video and audio files are available. Watch the video for a virtual visit of exhibition highlights with commentary from the artist and curators. You can also download the tour and bring it in to enjoy in the Museum before your next visit
OR, check out an iPod at the Museum's visitor services desk for an audiotour while you're at the Museum.
Thaddeus Strode's iMix
Volume 1 >>
Volume 2 >>
Related Information
Educational Resources >>
Press Release >>
Exhibition Catalog Info >>
Thaddeus Strode, Absolutes and Nothings, 2001. Mixed media on canvas, 86 5/8 x 83 1/16". Private collection, Los Angeles. Image courtesy of neugerriemschneider, Berlin.
Thaddeus Strode, Executioners and Prisoners (Praise for the Morning), 2007. Mixed media on canvas, 97 11/16 x 77 9/16". Courtesy of neugerriemschneider, Berlin.
Thaddeus Strode, Under Sea World I Worship You / And I'm Never Coming Down, 2005. Mixed media on canvas, 96 7/8 x 128 3/4". Private collection. Image courtesy of neugerriemschneider, Berlin.
Thaddeus Strode, Gothic Mirrors in the Age of Electronica, 2004. Mixed media on canvas, 84 1/6 x 112". The John L. Stewart Collection.
