PAINT IT NOW

Beware the dangers of too much TV

By JOHN BARERA

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It's printed across your hoodie, stenciled on your Dumpster and plastered on your blog banner. Urban style is the new aesthetic of contemporary art in this decade, and it's hard to avoid: Spray paint, pop art, stencils, consumer culture and graffiti have come to define this latest trend. From São Paulo to Seoul, urban artists, those oft-unsung heroes of the art world, might be more comfortable mixing wheat paste than schmoozing with gallery owners. Tapping the internet's advantage of instant contact, this work is shared and documented quickly, jumping from sketchy nightclub bathrooms into the blogosphere and right onto your iPhone.

Graff work et al may shine in the urban environment, but is it fine art? Overkill Studio thinks so, and they're placing their bet. "We are not trying to look at it as the aesthetic of illegal art, but the end result of too much TV ... the overkill of media influence," says artist Buildmore, a self-professed "medicine man," searching for values other than money to motivate. "People think it's junk because it's on the street."

Buildmore, along with Kenji Nakayama, Evoker and Morgan Thomas, make up the core group of Overkill Studio's artists in South Boston's Distillery building. He leads me through an unassuming door marked "restroom" and upstairs into the studio itself. Founded to give painters a forum to work, critique and share secrets, they are taking full advantage of the space. Thomas' paint-covered hands gesture across the latest results—a wall she has infused with the Hindu and miniature painting influences she picked up while living in India.

Adding more international flair to this group is Japanese-born artist Nakayama. "I was no one, but people kept asking me about my work," he says, looking up from cutting stencils. "Buildmore and Darkcloud were the first to catch me." Nakayama's paintings have an epic sense of photo-realism that lead people to ask if they are photoshopped. "Being a sign painter and engineer taught me to appreciate the craft and focus on that," Nakayama says. Working by hand for months on a piece, avoiding laser cuts and other shortcuts, he was recently rewarded with solo shows in Melbourne, Australia, LA and beyond.

These artists have also left their mark on Boston, with Nakayama's inviting entryway to 179 Mass. Ave., and Evoker's playful "Hug Life" window piece at LAB. The first big group project followed—the alley outside Central Kitchen in Cambridge. This ever-changing, open-invite space has seen artists from around the world dropping by to add and take away. By all accounts, it is an ever-evolving destination in the world of urban artists.

Staying focused on expanding their realm, Overkill now approaches their first group exhibition. Individual works from affiliated artists hang alongside two group walls painted in black and white, a visual communication between friends, blending styles into a large-scale "diagram." Complementing the locals is a slew of painters from New York, including former Bostonian Darkcloud alongside fresh talents like Celso, Deeker and the ELC Crew. The show also finds time to address one of the other more striking trends in modern art today: free pizza and beer.

PAINT IT NOW

PRESENTED BY OVERKILL STUDIO

THURSDAY 8.21.08-THURSDAY 10.2.08

THE DISTILLERY GALLERY

516 EAST SECOND ST.,

SOUTH BOSTON

978.270.1904

OPENING RECEPTION THURSDAY 8.21.08

7PM-11PM/FREE

DISTILLERYBOSTON.COM

OVERKILLSTUDIO.COM