Stevio...LA LA Lovin' It?: 3 Kings...past, but still noteworthy

Archive #3.

During my hiatus, I got emails that Patti Astor had curated a show entitled "3 Kings" at Subliminal Projects featuring her long time artist friends Lee Quinones, Futura and Fab 5 Freddy. All New York, All old skool graffiti! Thanks Patti!

Patti Astor and Fab 5 Freddy (credit: Platinum Cheese)

"One of the very first people who believed in us in New York was a young lady by the name Patti Astor at the Fun Gallery who gave us our first exhibition. So, here we are reintroducing that as a sort of redux to what happened almost 30 years ago in New York where a whole new movement was surfacing literally from the subways underneath and coming above ground for a whole new close-up." Lee Quinones, graffiti artist.

There's not much to say about these artists that hasn't already been said. You can check out my interviews with Fab 5 Freddy and Futura for Unleashed Magazine (Art in the Streets, Futura, Fab 5 Freddy and Patti Astor). Back in the '80s there might have been some confusion to an untrained eye about whose work was whose, but not today! The "3 Kings" showed how unique and different these artists' styles have become.

Lee presented his Frankenstein ("The Creation of Three Mile") painting which is part of a triptych warning us of the dangers of nuclear energy! I have a print of this from the 1997 "Contents Under Pressure" group show in London's Tramshed.

My favorite paintings of the "3 Kings" show were the set of 12 that captured history, icons and hip hop breakbeats painted by Lee. Check out out the Yellow Sunshine painting and the break below.

12 paintings, Lee (credit: Arrested Motion)

Lee, (credit Platinum Cheese)

Futura has continued to push his iconic imaginary into the abstract. His large canvases shown at Subliminal continued his limited color palette style. Each painting made a profound statement with or without the paintings' menacing titles (Panic Button, Mockba, Black Sparrow, Orange Julius and Mecano.)

Futura (credit: Hypebeast)

Fab 5 Freddy reinforced his New York roots with digital prints on canvas entitled Chinatown and Spanish Harlem with images of subway trains; his Revision Decision reminded folks of Freddy's infamous 1980's Campbell's Soup train. (It seems that Fab 5 Freddy's resurgence on the art scene has caused some negative ripples as reported by LA.'s respected graff artist, Revok.)