Photo by Douglas Lyle Thompson
Last week’s New York Magazine featured a piece by Steven Kurutz on artist’s Michael Anderson’s mural up now at Ace Hotel (29th and Broadway). For those of you keeping score, we featured Anderson’s show at Marlborough gallery at the end of March.
Anderson collects street posters in multiples mostly from New York but has been known to snag a few from his travels abroad. His work at Marloborough incorporated more varied imagery, while the mural at Ace consists solely of graffiti stickers. That exhibition consisted of more formal collages, using commercial street posters from movies, TV, and products. It was Michael Anderson the artist, whereas his mural at Ace is more Michael Anderson the curator, as he tells New York.
When told of Anderson’s collection of stickers, graffiti writer Steve Powers dismissed Anderson as a “fanbot” and scoffed at his hoarding and collecting, saying that the stickers were meant to be “ephemeral.” I’d argue against that notion. Graffiti takes something that already exists, the street, public property, architecture, and adds to it. It’s public work in its purest form and therefore can be taken and added to by the public. I see the Ace Hotel as more an homage rather than a proud display of a “fanbot’s” collection. Since when does a graffiti artist get angered by appropriation?
Photo by Douglas Lyle Thompson
