MSCHF, “Art 2”

By Jody Zellen

Perrotin Gallery, Los Angeles, California

Exhibition continues through June 1, 2024

May 4, 2024

MSCHF, “Murakillendorf’s Venus,” 2024, oil on canvas, 29 x 51”. All images courtesy of Perrotin, Los Angeles

Quotation. Appropriation. Art about art. Using the works of others as points of departure is hardly new. Throughout history, artists have borrowed from, modified, erased and even copied pieces verbatim as homages or critiques. The list is long and includes a wide range of approaches. Yasumasa Morimura and Cindy Sherman re-staged famous paintings as photographs, while Rachel Lachowicz, Deborah Kass, and Elaine Reichek have replicated works by their more famous male counterparts, often infusing them with a feminist agenda. The Brooklyn, NY collective MSCHF is a somewhat recent addition to this diverse group of artists. While their work is as much about consumerism and consumer culture as it is about art, they play around with the idea of readymades.

MSCHF, “JaguarKourosDavidCowBoyMan,” 2024, oil on canvas, 25 1/4 x 59 3/4”

Coincidently, at the same time MSCHF’s exhibition is taking place, pieces by Elaine Sturtevant (1924-2014) are on view nearby at Matthew Marks Gallery. Throughout her long career, Sturtevant produced precise copies of works by well-known artists to challenge ideas of originality. In the current exhibition there are exacting recreations of celebrated works by Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Jasper Johns and Felix Gonzalez-Torres, as well as “The Dark Threat of Absence” (2002) in which Sturtevant reproduces the jarring video “Painter” by Paul McCarthy (1995).

MSCHF, “Flower Boy (Botched Portrait de jeune garçon á la guirlande de fleurs,” 2024, oil on canvas, 34 3/8 x 28 1/4 x 2”

MSCHF's approach is more sardonic and tongue-and-cheek as the group toys with art history and high and low cultures. While many of their projects are also commodities available at their online store, they are quite serious about their gallery presentations. This installation includes 249 reproductions of Pablo Picasso's tiny carved wooden sculpture, “Le Poisson” presented as a large grid on the wall like a choreographed school of fish. Titled “Possible Real Copy Of Poisson By Pablo Picasso,” this piece does contain one Picasso original. In another series based on the book “Animorphs” by Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant, MSCHF creates oil paintings where a classical sculpture transitions to a contemporary work as illustrated in “JaguarKourosDavidCowBoyMan.” Against a blurred landscape, the painting shows various Kouros sculptures that morph into Michelangelo's “David” and finally into Takashi Murakami's “My Lonesome Cowboy.” A similar transition occurs in “Murakillendorf's Venus.” Outlined in yellow, the painted reproductions morph from the ancient “Venus of Willendorf” to Murakami's absurdly large busted sculpture “Hiropon.”

MSCHF, “Touch Me Sculpture One More Time,” 2024, bronze concrete, plastic, electronics, 66 15/16 x 43 5/16 x 3 15/16”

In the “Botched Masters” series, MSCHF starts with found 17th and 18th century religious paintings. They recklessly paint over these (possibly) valuable oils, obscuring faces and turning figures like Mary and Jesus into cartoon blobs, in essence destroying the original while creating new value. In “AirBnB (Botched L'Adoration des Bergers),” they cancel out the haloed Mary and replace her with an incongruous representation. Similarly, in “Flower Boy (Botched Portrait de jeune garçon à la guirlande de fleurs),” they obscure an 18th Century depiction of a young boy with a crudely painted and modernized rendition. These works are simultaneously horrifying and humorous. 

Another art about art reference is “Touch Me Sculpture One More Time,” a large free-standing sculpture in which bronze bodies in the style of Michelangelo and Bernini are entangled together on top of a pentagonal shaped white pedestal including an illuminated LED display with an ambiguous numerical readout. “Bullets Fired Into A Wall By A US Veteran” references Chris Burden's “Shoot.” “Met's Sink Of Theseus” calls to mind both Duchamp's “Urinal” and Maurizio Cattelan's gold-plated toilet “America” (2016) that was originally installed in a restroom at the Guggenheim Museum and later stolen from the Blenheim Palace, at which time it was reportedly melted down.

MSCHF, “Met’s Sink Of Theseus,” 2024, pipes and fixtures removed from the

Metropolitan Musem of Art affixed to a basin, cast in resin, 56 x 28 x 30”

Scattered throughout the exhibit are colorful “Bootlegs,” cartoony sculptures based on the boots worn by Astro Boy (a 1960s Japanese cartoon). Like disembodied figures situated randomly across the gallery, these oversized resin boots sprout ungainly hairy legs. MSCHF's works are all about camp. They are ironic and seductive while in the know about contemporary art and popular culture. They also strive to challenge accepted norms about the art marketplace and conventions of art connoisseurship and consumption. The exhibition asks viewers to think about craft and digital culture, as well as expanded boundaries of what is accepted or acceptable for artists and for galleries to exhibit.

Jody Zellen is a LA based writer and artist who creates interactive installations, mobile apps, net art, animations, drawings, paintings, photographs, public art, and artist’s books. Zellen received a BA from Wesleyan University (1983), a MFA from CalArts (1989) and a MPS from NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program (2009). She has exhibited nationally and internationally since 1989. For more information please visit www.jodyzellen.com