The West Coast William Powhida?

A friend sent me this image by Joe Sola, who is currently having a show at The Happy Lion in LA, with the note that she thought he was a West Coast William Powhida. Perhaps, but something tells me we should all lobby to have Sola attend the Straight White Middle Class Male Panel at #class proposed by An Xiao, though I’m not even sure if he’s straight.

If you need any more proof of his similarity to Powhida, then just read the first paragraph of this Artforum review:

As Joe Sola would have it, art is a culture industry that is simultaneously ridiculous and totally irresistible. His works relate to the field like an overenthusiastic child who squeezes the cute kitten to death. An LA art-world veteran, Sola’s first solo exhibition at this gallery features six watercolors and a short video, each presenting weighty humor about the politics of looking and posturing.

Now, I’m not saying I’ve witnessed Powhida squeeze kittens to death, but I’m just saying that I don’t want to be the guy who digs up his backyard … if you know what I mean.

I wish I were in LA this week so I could check out Sola’s show, which closes this Saturday, February 13.

Image caption: Joe Sola, “Me’n Kippenberger” (2010), via Artforum.com

One response to “The West Coast William Powhida?”

  1. LK Avatar
    LK

    Joe Sola is hilarious.
    For me it’s lampooning the male German artist thing that is so great about this painting—those dudes all referred to each other incessantly like some uptight clique [a la Imi Knoebel’s deeply bland “24 Colors—for Blinky”, or frequently writing cryptic notes to each other in their work]. The lederhosen and genital love-knot is apt.
    This pale Beuys club needs to be retired.

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