NEW YORK, NY.- Olsen Gruin announces Wall of Sound, an exhibition featuring music-inspired multimedia works by Kevin Bourgeois. The anticipated show comprises a curated selection of collage and acrylic compositions on wood panel.
Music has always been an intrinsic element in Bourgeois’ creative process and daily routine. “I consider it a universal cultural language with many diverse incarnations and forms,” he affirms. Wall of Sound turns its focus toward the visual art that complements the vast lexicon of music.
The phrase “Wall of Sound” was originally devised to describe Phil Spector’s production methods. According to Spector, the aim was “to create a dense aesthetic critical shorthand, mixed well enough that the audience would then perceive each of the different combinations as one distinct sound or form.” This concept mirrors the augmenting process Bourgeois implemented in creating this body of work.
Through collage Bourgeois seeks to transform the literal imagery of each album’s formal narrative. His process of embellishment and jigsaw remixing of multiple record jacket sources results in an alternative visual dialogue and imbues an abstracted or figurative aesthetic to be interpreted by the viewer.
Kevin Bourgeois (b.1969) is an American artist, muralist, and activist known for his photorealistic social-political graphite drawings and thematic installations.
Bourgeois is a self-taught artist who depicts his subjects in narratives that deal with the struggle for identity. Using collage methods to dissect pop culture through a combination of photorealism, illustration, and pop symbolism, Bourgeois explores past cultural movements as well as current ideologies, mass media, and a search for self. Collage and assemblage are of crucial importance to Bourgeois’ practice in both his graphite works and those that incorporate found objects.
He has been commissioned to create murals for AOL Ventures and Allison Sarofim, and has exhibited in New York with Causey Contemporary, Exit Art, Museo do la Ciudad de Mexico, Collector's Contemporary in Singapore. Recently, Bourgeois exhibited at Palazzo Ca'Zanardi during the 2015 La Biennale di Venezia. Bourgeois also presented his work at Volta 12 in Basel Switzerland with a site-specific interactive installation titled, At Pl ay in the Fields With the Lord.
Bourgeois lives and works in New York, NY where he DJs for immersive theater when he’s not in his studio drawing.
