Icons for the 90s

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Icons for the 90's

GL Sullivan

"ICONS FOR THE '90's..."

GL SULLIVAN

September 7 - November 5, 1989

Opening Reception:

September 7, 7-9:30 pm

ART AND CULTURE CENTER

Hollywood, Florida

This Exhibition presented artist's GL Sullivan's ongoing investigation into America's fascination with consumerism. Through deconstruction, assemblage and paint, Sullivan has transformed familiar products, appliances, celebrities and objects of contemporary American culture into postmodern altarpieces and tabernacles, inviting us to explore our reactions to these strange American Icons.

LIST OF WORKS:

I) "the ICONOGRAPHER..."

1989, Mixed media with Computer...

2) "BURNT PHONE SACRIFICE MELTDOWN..."

1989, Mixed media with phones...

3) "COSMIC HORIZON..."

1989, Electronic Painted Monitor...

4) "PETE ROSE: the All-American Icon..."

1989, Mixed media with Autographs...

5) "Portrait of PAIK..."

1989, Mixed media with Autograph...

6) "CIVIL IDIOSYNCRASY..."

1989, Mixed media installation...

a) "ICON LOST..."

b) "the CHICAGO 8..."

c) "the BLACK PANTHERS..."

d) "ICON ABANDON..."

e) "...... that all men (and women) are created equal..."

f) "WE THE PEOPLE... means ALL the people..."

g) "ICONOCLASTMAT..."

7) "Why is this man smiling?"

(Portrait of John Cage)

1975/89, Mixed media with Keyboard...

8) "1984..."

1980/89, Electronic mixed media installation...

9) "HYDROGEN FUSION..."

1989, Painted Monitor...

10) "STEP INTO THE FUTURE..."

1972/89, Electronic mixed media installation...

with "Celestial Presence" (1972, mixed media

painting) American Flag, Computer, misc.

Icons and taped music by GL Sullivan and

King Felix...

11) "RIOT ART ALTAR..."

1972/89, Mixed media installation with tear gas

canisters, tear gas grenades, knee knockers, etc...

a) "GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA, '72.."

b) "ATHENS, OHIO, '73..."

c) "BRIXTON, ENGLAND, '85..."

d) "ATHENS, OHIO, '74..."

e) "BEIJING, CHINA, '89..."

f) "TRANQUILITY BUS ALTAR RAIL..."

with "GRAND FUNK SACRIFICE: a Rock 'n Roll

Iconoclast..."

12) "STELLAR FORMATION..."

1985, Painted Monitor...

13) "Disappointed of you, People..."

(Portrait of Johnny Lydon)

1980, Mixed media...

14) "Pretty Vacant, SID..."

(Portrait of Sid Vicious)

1979/89, Mixed media...

15) "CONSUMER ICON ALTAR..."

1974/89, Mixed media with consumer products...

16) "GALACTIC EMISSION..."

1989, Painted Monitor...

17) "MODERN ICON ALTAR... with

GOLDEN ICON ALTAR..."

1983/89, Electronic mixed media installation

with Painted Monitors and Golden Icons...

GALLERY OF ICONS:

"the ICONOGRAPHER..."

"BURNT PHONE SACRIFICE MELTDOWN..."

"COSMIC HORIZON..."

"PETE ROSE: the All-American Icon..."

"HYDROGEN FUSION..."

"STEP INTO THE FUTURE..."

"GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA, '72.."

"ATHENS, OHIO, '74..."

"the CHICAGO 8..." "GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA, '72.." "the BLACK PANTHERS..."

"TRANQUILITY BUS ALTAR RAIL..."

with "GRAND FUNK SACRIFICE: a Rock 'n Roll

Iconoclast..."

"BEIJING, CHINA, '89..."

"Disappointed of you, People..." "Pretty Vacant, SID..."

"CONSUMER ICON ALTAR..."

"CENTER BATS ONE FOR TWO ON SHOWS

Hispanic collection dominates; '60's pop art is

predictable"

By Helen L. Kohen

Art Critic

The Art and Culture Center in Hollywood opens the season with two shows, one staid and refined, one a Day-Glo fracas in a hallway.

"Latin American Artists from the Southeast Coastal Region" is the main attraction, a showcase of paintings and photographs by 17 artists who live in Texas, Louisiana, Georgia and Florida. The hallway show, an installation by Broward's own GL Sullivan, means to be as serious as the Latin show, but it has more flash than depth. We'll look at the big one first ...

... Active and colorful, her works shake up this show, and serve as the bridge between it and the center's other offering, "Icons for the 90's". Icon's artist, GL Sullivan, has a voice from the '60s: Antiwar, antiestablishment, anti-consumerism, anti-media. He does crazy things to television sets with acid-toned pinks, greens and oranges, transforming fractured appliances into icons.

In this show he also has a sort of altar to Pete Rose that includes a signed baseball and three Wheaties boxes that show Rose batting, Imagine, saving cereal boxes. That's devotion.

But the best of Sullivan's efforts has been expended on "Riot Art", a group of newspaper clips that feature real riots, framed with wooden spools, the pellet-like "knee-knockers" the police use to rout rioters. The works are protected by a clear substance that looks like melted plastic - as if each had been finished off in the microwave. It's not all that heady, but it's colorful.

the Miami Herald

Friday, September 8, 1998

EXPRESSIONS WITH DON WEBB, 10/6/89, WLRN/Channel 17

DON WEBB interviews GL SULLIVAN about

the "ICON'S for the 90's..." exhibition, with

WENDY BLAZIER, Director of the Art & Culture

Center.

Excerpts from the Interview:

DW: GL, you may consider this affront, one critic said about your exhibit, that "it's colorful, but not all that heady".

GL: I think that's a little wrong. I think there's quite a bit going on there. There's always a bit of satire and a bit of wit in my work. It may be subtle, it may be blatant, but there's plenty going on there. And, there's many many levels the work can be approached from.

DW: OK, aren't you glad I brought that up?

GL: (Laugh) yeah!!!

DW: OK...

DW: You do crazy things with televisions?

GL: Right, I take dead TV's and bring them back to life.

DW: I like that.

GL: This is the front piece when you walk in. It's called "the Iconographer..." , the one who creates Icons, who decides what in society is gonna become an Icon. So, it's the first thing you encounter when you walk in... it's actually a Computer, not a TV.

DW: And it is functional, isn't it?

GL: No.

DW: Well, come on.

GL: Very cerebrally functional.

DW: (Laugh) Well said.

DW: GL, it has been said about you, that you are pretty much "anti" (laugh).

GL: (Laugh) well.

DW: I have a few examples: Anti-war, anti- establishment, anti-consumerism, anti-media...

GL: Well, I wouldn't really say "anti", I'm just more concerned that people really become aware of what's going on out there. I'm more in the business of making people aware, than being "anti" anything.

DW: Wendy, how do you react to GL's work?

WB: Well, I've been familiar with GL's work for five or six years. I think that the show created a lot of interest. We've had overwhelming attendance. The work is something that kind of stops you in your tracks and involves you in looking and dissecting the pieces. It's been a good show for the center. I think that it's provocative and unusually striking.

DW: What is it someone said, "day-glow in a hallway"?

GL: (Laugh) Right, it's funny in the 60's they called it "day-glow", in the 70's it was

"fluorescent', now in the 80's it's "neon".

GL: ...I decided to go into other products, other than TV's... So, I chose the "telephone" as one of my main Icons. I think outside of the TV monitor, the Telephone is probably the most prominent Icon in our society...

GL: ... under (the "Riot Art Altar") is part of the Rock 'n Roll altar that is sort of spread

throughout... there is the "Tranquility Bus Altar RAIL" ... in the back is a performance piece I did in 1975, where I chopped up a Grand Funk Railroad record with an ax, lit it on fire and made a piece out of it.

DW: (Laugh) You are an irascible artist. I guess you know that.

GL: (Laugh)

DW: Thank you, GL for being with us tonight

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