Attention graffiti fans and fiends: the great New Orleans-based artist who calls himself READ is having an exhibition of what he calls “indoor artworks” at an Arabi art gallery. The show, opening Saturday, will feature new mixed-media paintings, sculpture and a site-specific installation by the multidisciplinary master, best known for his various graffiti tags.
If you think of graffiti tags as brand names, then READ is right up there with McDonald’s and Morris Bart. “READ is – without question – the most visible graffiti writer in New Orleans,” wrote street art authority Kady Perry in her 2019 book “New Orleans: Street Art, Murals and Graffiti.”
“His tags,” Perry wrote, “can be found towering over highways and streets from riverbank to riverbank.”
Mural presumably by READ on Dauphine Street near Press Street (Photo by Doug MacCash, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Coast to coast
Mr. READ’s daring, sometimes unlawful paintings go far beyond New Orleans as well. In the 2013 Yale University publication “The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti,” Rafael Schacter calls READ “the most active coast-to-coast writer in the United States.”
His “industrious and indefatigable ethico-aesthetic has become a ubiquitous part of the U.S. landscape,” Schacter wrote. Translation: READ has been a busy dude, painting murals across the country with a socially subversive agenda all his own.
But the quantity of READ’s work isn’t what will draw fans to his exhibit in Arabi. This denizen of the dark streets is a terrific designer, whose somewhat nostalgic style is based on the lettering found on antique posters, advertisements and book jackets. It is simple, clean, and compelling.
The “Open Your Eyes” Naval Station tag (above) seems larger than this monstrous tag that appeared last spring on an unoccupied hotel in New Orleans East. (Photo by Doug MacCash, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
OPEN YOUR EYES
Though the secretive artist’s intentions are obscure, the sometimes spectacularly large tags attributed to him, particularly READ MORE BOOKS and OPEN YOUR EYES, seem to plead for awareness.
In 2016, READ was interviewed in The Gambit weekly newspaper, where he explained how his background as a street painter relates to his studio art.
“In terms of shows, I still try to maintain the same value system I hold in graffiti practice,” he said. “Even as a fine artist, I still consider myself a (graffiti) writer first.”
“First-Name Basis,” an exhibit of works by the renowned street artist READ, opens with a reception from 7 to 10 p.m., Saturday (Jan 18), at the Art Conscious Gallery, 6601 St. Claude Ave., Arabi. The show continues for one month.
The “OPEN YOUR EYES” giant graffiti tag is most visible from the Holy Cross neighborhood Industrial Canal levee. (Photo by Doug MacCash, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
