Upcoming Gallery Schedule

KNOCK-OFFs

Richard Artschwager > Kanishka Raja
John Armleder > Juli Raja
Sol LeWitt > James Hull & Denise Kupferschmidt
Barry McGee > Suzannah Sinclair
Rob Pruitt > Sheila Gallagher
Rolex, Cheap! > Alfredo Conde
Rachael Whiteread > Matthew Littel (Utile, Inc.) and Sheila Gallagher

April 16 - May 15, 2005 >> Open Final Sunday! May 15 from 12 - 5 pm
Opens on a Saturday! Artists’ talk @ Noon April 16
Opening Reception 7 - 9 pm, April 16, 2005

Images of originals and knock-offs side by side

Essay by James Hull on Knock-Offs

Cate McQuaid article on Knock-Offs

Green Street presents Knock-Offs, an exhibit of objects, wall paintings and installations created specifically for Green Street. As the name implies, the show will include unauthorized versions of artworks by “big name” artists created by smaller name artists.

Half of these works will be (re)produced by artists that have been hired and trained to produce the work of these “big name” artists for public and private collections. These works will be produced without the artist’s or their gallery’s permission, which will be the only difference between the Green Street Gallery commissioned work and the “original” work being ”Knocked-off”. None of the work done under the name of the well known artists will be for sale - eliminating the criminal side of this activity. Instead we want to investigate the contemporary practice of using studio assistants, who are artists in their own right, to produce “blue chip” works. The conceptual and visual content will be (re)produced in a completely serious, laboriously time consuming fashion - just as when working for the artist or artist’s studio assistant - which is one reason that the “big name” artists need the help.

The other half of the work in the Knock-Offs exhibit will be: three outright forgeries (knock-offs which exist as a result of the desire to have a work by a famous artist which, otherwise, would be too expensive or unavailable), three works that are copies of this type of knock-off or “fake, fakes”. These carefully constructed and painted unique works of art end up more valuable than the mass-produced counterfeit objects that they imitate, a twist that points out some of the underlying complexities involved. These artworks focus on the significance of forgeries, the boundaries of good-natured mimics and our daily encounters with more obvious fakes – it will be the audience’s job to figure out which is which and why that matters.

– James Hull, Curator