Sugar Rush — Art Without the Artitude
A decade ago, the cutting-edge art magazine, Hi-Fructose, began featuring groundbreaking artwork and the artists who create them. In the old days, these works might have been pigeonholed as avant garde or post modern art, maybe dismissed as pop, outsider, outlaw or god forbid — commercial art. In other words, not serious art. But wait!
Whatever it is, the current exhibit of art showcased in the Richmond CA-based magazine’s pages and now exhibited in a legit fine art museum is eye-popping and provocative. The show at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento is simply electric. It pumps up the sound, flips up the heat and “Turns the Page: The First Ten Years of Hi-Fructose”.
Founding editors, Annie Owens-Seifert and Daniel “Attaboy” Seifert, say some have called the art they’ve showcased quarterly as low-brow. At least one of the artists whose work they’ve featured they met at ComiCon in San Diego, not the usual venue for discovering emerging fine artists and their work, but hey, it’s cool.
So, if a museum art exhibit brings to mind blue-haired grandmas sipping cheap wine, speaking in hushed voices while guys in tasseled loafers and pinkie rings shuffle around dazed, you’re in for a surprise.
The museum threw a raging adult party on its outdoor plaza last week. Hipsters and tricksters showed up for DJ dancing, aerial artists performed in the pavilion, party goers dressed in sugar-pop costumes while artists painted on the skins of live models. Beautiful millennials lounged in strappy sandals on white leather settees and bros drank craft beers amidst the non-stop goings on.
To cool off , they crowded inside for a glimpse of the eye-popping art work. Trust me. It was not your grandma’s art reception.
“Turn the Page: The First Ten Years of Hi-Fructose” is organized by the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art and funded by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Virginia Tourism Corporation, as well as many other donors. Select modern art pieces in the Crocker’s permanent collection are presented in adjoining exhibit spaces. Media sponsor: SacTown Magazine.
