Author Archives: theoelsby

Roger Gastman, co-author of The History of American Graffiti, has just curated the two-person exhibition Uphill Both Ways, featuring art by graffiti artists Pose and Revok. In addition to the exhibition at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery, Chicago-based Pose and Detroit-based Revok are also collaborating on a large-scale mural on Houston and Bowery streets in New York City.

Uphill Both Ways is inspired by the work of late graffiti artist NEKST. The exhibition recounts the challenges Pose and Revok have dealt with in the legal sector and a general theme of human struggle that seems to run through the body of work by each artist. Both Pose and Revok are members of world-renowned graffiti crew Mad Society Kings (MSK), as well as West Coast arts collective The Seventh Letter. While there are many similarities apparent between the two artists, Pose and Revok are stylistically and technically very different in many ways. Pose’s work generally alludes to pop and comic art, skateboarding, advertising, graphic arts, collage, sign painting, and graffiti. Pose strives to paint the human condition as he sees it. Revok’s art creates abstract geometric patterns with vibrant colors, and does so through the use of found materials such as pieces from abandoned homes, schools, businesses, and churches in order to revive and reinterpret the hopes, dreams, and aspirations of the people from whom these found-bits have been sampled.

Uphill Both Ways opens on Saturday June 29th at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery, with a reception to be held from 7-9pm. The show will be open for viewing from June 29th-July 27th 2013.