SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- Cain Schulte Contemporary Art presents the newest metal sculptures by David Buckingham in Hell Is Other People. The exhibition opened on March 22 and runs through April 28, 2012.
The artist's sixth solo exhibition at the gallery addresses a variety of issues found within American culture, from gun fascination, violence and rampant capitalism to current neuroses surrounding gender, sexuality, and the attainment of beauty through artificial means. The most recent works draw text and surface inspiration from the works of Mel Bochner and from the color studies of Ellsworth Kelly and Damien Hirst. Buckingham also explores a new political involvement in works such as “Die Yuppy Scum”, inspired by Occupy Wall Street. Buckingham's deceptively simple sculptures made of found metal are stunningly direct in technique yet maintain a semiotic ambiguity that is cleverly disconcerting and dispassionately humorous. His varied but incredibly cohesive work often recalls the aesthetic principles of Pop Art, text based Conceptual Art and the mischievous theories of the Situationist International; he melds and perverts the basic tenets of these movements in an exceptionally complex and daring pastiche.
He takes lines from modern film classics ("Show Me the Money"), generic pornography ("Oh Baby Yeah Oh God"), classic rock and punk songs ("White Punks on Dope"), while incorporating other ubiquitous phrases that have permeated the media-saturated American mind.
Regarding the various perceptions of his art, he says "all readings of my work are valid." The viewer is left free to contemplate the playful and paradoxical nature of his work; it is a giddy celebration of, and a venomous assault on, modern American culture.
David Buckingham is a New Orleans native who now lives and works in Los Angeles. He was educated at the Rivington School in New York City, and has shown in solo and group shows in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berlin, New York, and Chicago. His work has been included in an exhibition at the Riverside Art Museum, and in several private collections throughout the United States.
