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Carl Ferrero's water color series "Three Way Tie for Last" at the Kathleen Cullen gallery drags the representation of private sexual escapades into the public space. The exhibition is filled with colorful serial narratives telling the tale of misadventures in gay male promiscuity. His work incorporates text and images which are similar to Raymond Pettibon's works in that they utilize a rough scratch-and-gesture brush mark. There is even some kindred spirit with the works of artists such as early Sue Williams or even David Wojnarowicz's personal and political narratives. However Ferrero's quirky imagery and guffaw one liners are a far cry from Wojnarowicz's political art-writing of the past. Consider the outrage of Wojnarowicz written just over a decade ago in Memories That Smell Like Gasoline: "I wake up every morning in this killing machine called america and I'm carrying this rage like a blood filled egg and there's a thin line between the inside and the outside a thin line between thought and action and that line is simply made up of blood and muscle and bone and I'm waking up more and more from daydreams of tipping amazonian blowdarts in 'infected blood' and spitting them at the exposed necklines of certain politicians or government healthcare officials". Ferrero draws and writes upon the fringe, with a comic honesty which
is almost embarrassing. His work manages to draw you into the story line
with his wonderful use of color. Once engaged the text is easy to grab
onto. For example in one colorful and explicit image of a man fucking
another man's ass titled "Viagra", the text tucked off to the
side of the figures states "I was staring at his tacky décor
the entire night. Thank god for Viagra." Other cheeky catch phrases
include references to "bunker busting" a code for fist fucking,
a reference to Dick Cheney, a pseudonym for an anonymous sexual partner's
online avatar in a chat room. While Ferrero's text-laden images are a
far cry from the likes of Wojnarowicz some ten or even twenty years ago,
there is something equally radical about his work, in that it lulls you
into the narrative using the formality of color and a comic book narrative
format. The exhibition can literally be read from wall to wall, in a serial
manner similar to the comic book styling of Frank Miller or Justin Hall's
"True Travel Tales". Ferrero's work is able to capture the eye,
string along the heart and make you complicit with a wink and a giggle
in a stark and often laugh out loud queer life. By Andrew Cornell Robinson Exhibition InformationCarl James Ferrero in the Project Room: Three Way Tie For Last Kathleen Cullen Fine Arts Email Exchange With The ArtistAndrew Cornell Robinson: The images look terrific. I really enjoyed the text narrative in your work. Very funny stuff. Where do the stories come from? Are they autobiographical? (I have a few stories like that too...) Carl James Ferrero: The text is a kind of an amalgam of many things. Some of the short phrases are just song lyrics that mean a lot to me, and inspired certain imagery. The slogan-like ones are based on political posters, particularly ones from China in the 70s. The sexual encounter stories are modeled on the Craigslist personals, where guys warn each other about men online who are drug addicts or just bad news. I just wondered what it would be like if the guys they were talking about were really Dick Cheney, or Karl Rove. But I must confess they are not autobiographical, they are all fiction. I shy away from autobiographical material because I want to maintain a little mystery about myself. ACR: Who are some of the artists, and or influences within your art work? Raymond Pettibon? CJF: Some influences are indeed Mr. Pettibon, but also the comic
book artist/graphic novelist Frank
Miller, Steve
Ditko, another comic book artists, the work of Barbara
Kruger, the Bay Area painters Joan
Brown and David
Park, Mike
Kelley, and the writing of Walter
Benjamin, Herbert
Marcuse and Georges
Bataille. ACR: In the press release and statement about your work I came across this quote: "His painting is not concerned with the specific reality of objects, but the objects' status as symbols charged with affective value." What is meant by "specific reality of objects"? Can you elaborate on this for me? CJF: What this means is that I want the work to go beyond just being a painting with a capital P. It's not meant meant to be looked at as though its only purpose is to decorate a wall. The work is meant to be a disruption of expectations. I use blatant political, psycological and sexual imagery and writing to trigger familiar or repressed associations and judgements in the viewer. I want the viewer to relate to the words and images, and to make what she or he wants of them— with a little guidance from me, of course. Related Links
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 Viagra. 2006, Watercolor on paper, 30x22"  A Lack Of Color.
2006, Watercolor on paper, 27.5x25.25" Butt, 2006, Watercolor on paper, 30x22"  What's So Bad About
the Truth?, 2006, Watercolor on paper, 35.25x27.5"Images are copyright of Carl Ferrero. Courtesy of the artist |
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