The Nightclub Meets The Gallery In These Famous Works Of Art
nightclub-inspired-art-list
July 21, 2016
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# The Nightclub Meets The Gallery In These Famous Works Of Art
120 years ago, impressionist painter
Edouard Manet made A Bar at the Folies-Bergére,
a realist-impressionist scene
depicting a barmaid at the eponymous Paris nightclub. Today, clubbing
might be less about trapeze artists, chandeliers and prostitution, but
artists' documentary urge hasn't curbed. Recently, art institutions'
increasing interest in artist/DJ hybrids or curators who invite artists
who lurk in nightclubs more often than museums has produced some
interesting results. For instance, this summer New York's New Museum
[invited NON Records to perform
in their lecture hall][1]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener"}, and this year's [Berlin Biennale][2]{:
target="_blank" rel="noopener"} is accompanied by a soundtrack,
[*Anthem*][3]{:
target="_blank" rel="noopener"},
which pairs artists and
musicians for a series of singles, like Hito Steyerl with Juliana
Huxtable and [Fatima Al-Qadiri][4]{: target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}.
Some artists have made work specifically
about their nightlife experiences. From capturing subcultural
communities from the inside, to installations that mimic the electronic
audio-visual sensations of clubbing, or the future of nightlife
prophesied, here is a crash-course in contemporary art born of,
displayed in, or inspired by the free and experimental space of the
nightclub.
## Wolfgang Tillmans
[Tillmans][5]{: target="_blank"} is
perhaps the most famous artist to be inspired by club culture. The
German photographer began his career in the rave scenes of '90s London
and Berlin, and besides having his work hang at Panorama Bar, he is
allegedly one of the only people allowed to take photos inside Berghain.
His status as an accepted member of the club community gains him access
to spaces that might otherwise shirk photographic documentation, like
New York's now-closed queer utopia The Spectrum, where he shot a
[candid scene][6]{:
target="_blank"} at a monthly lesbian
party called Dagger. Music, obviously, plays the central role for any
seasoned clubber; Tillmans has been known to perform as a DJ in his own
right, and in 2014, he turned his Berlin exhibition space Between
Bridges into a "[playback
room][7]{: target="_blank"}"
where visitors could hear a selection of pop records on a quality sound
system.
[Wolfgang Tillmans: Interview][8]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener
noreferrer"}
## Daniel Wickerham and Malcolm Lomax
Baltimore artists Malcolm Lomax and
Daniel Wickerham sent out a craigslist casting call for gay bears for
their 2015 project Girth
Proof. The chosen bears were
digitally rendered into fictional hosts for parties at a made-up club
called The Cave.
The hyper-ornamented flyers
advertise four weekly parties slated for 2018: "Insecurity," "Revenge,"
"Immaculate Conception," and "Anti-Gravity." They all project warped,
anarchic views of the freedom of the nightclub and the sexuality of
certain gay club spheres and are rendered in an excessive, illusionistic
aesthetic that blurs the lines between the digital and the physical. For
instance, "Insecurity" advertises the opportunity to lose yourself,
while "Immaculate Conception" promises "lube as interface" and a
"purification after party." "Revenge" touts apple turnovers, fisting,
and the opportunity to club a police officer, and "Anti-Gravity" offers
free DNA testing. The works were exhibited at Dem Passwords Gallery in
Los Angeles, but they can also be browsed (with a chainsaw cursor) on a
[digital companion
piece][9]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener"} to the show.
## Daniel Pflumm
[Daniel Pflumm][10]{: target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}'s career as an artist grew with his career as a club
owner, DJ, and promoter in 1990s Berlin. In 1992 he opened the illegal
spot Elektro, which was soon followed by a string of other clubs:
Panasonic, INIT-Bar, and Galerie
Antik, which closed in 2003. In 1995, he also a co-founded the label
Elektro Music Department with Klaus Kotai and Gabriele "Mo" Loschelder,
the DJ duo Kotai + Mo, and his graphic designs graced the covers of the
label's records. His best works are in video, evolving from exhibitions
he would stage in the chill-out rooms of his clubs. Fast-paced cuts,
like *Logo auf
Schwarz,* are loops of
appropriated commercial clips, breaking down corporate logos into their
most basic aesthetic elements and providing visual stimulation to match
the club's audio.
[YouTube Video (hiTdcf8mhcg)][11]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener
noreferrer"}
## Mark Leckey
Created entirely from found footage, the
1998 film Fiorucci Made Me
Hardcore is an audio-visual
collage of British dance and club scenes from disco to rave. Inspired by
the magic of the music video, Leckey created a sentimental picture of
the evolution of the British dance floor. The soundtrack, which has
since been released on vinyl (and [sampled by Jamie XX][12]),
is dissonant with the video, emphasizing the bizarre nature of the act
of dancing en masse. The artist won the Turner Prize in 2008, the most
British of all art awards, and today is known as one of the forerunners
of contemporary British video art, but his connection to music hasn't
faded. The artist is represented by PAN records, who in 2015 released
Hecker Leckey Sound Voice
Chimera, a joint production
of Leckey and Florian Hecker, based on the vocal track of Leckey's 2010
GreenScreenRefrigeratorAction.
Read our interview with him
[here][13]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener"}.
[Fiorucci made me Hardcore][14]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener
noreferrer"}
## MSHR
[***MSHR***][15]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener"}, a
collaborative project by Portland-based artists Brenna Murphy and Birch
Cooper, is an experimental series of installations, custom sculptural
synthesizers and synaesthetic performances. The DIY synthesizers
juxtapose natural elements like conch shells and driftwood against
geometric forms and reflective textures, and 3D-printed, digitally
imaged sculptural sets are inspired by sacred symbolic shapes. The
project is contextualized in art galleries or festivals like Berlin's
[CTM][16]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener"}-affiliated [transmediale][17]{: target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}, but with their
ritualistic performances, the artists intend to "place the human body into a dynamic
relationship with sound and light, generating expanded sensory
experiences." With droning sound
and a sci-fi-shaman aesthetic, MSHR is totally the new age hippie of the party.
## Wu Tsang
[External Content Content](//v.traileraddict.com/52989){:
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"}
Wu Tsang's fictionalized documentary
film ***Wildness*** (2012) is
centered around the Los Angeles bar the Silver Platter, a historic
meeting place for gay Latino immigrant communities that opened in 1963. In the '90s, the scene shifted towards a space for transgender
women and drag performers, but it was still a **Latinx local
\[Latino locale?\]**. Until 2008, that
is, when Tsang collaborated with DJs NGUZUNGUZU and Total Freedom to
launch a weekly party called Wildness, which drew a new,
college-educated, queer, "hipster" crowd to the bar and attracted
art-world attention. The film documents the clash in subcultural scenes
and explores the idea of "safe spaces" with narration by the
anthropomorphized bar that's voiced by Guatemalan transgender actress
Mariana Marroquin. The film premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in New
York in 2012, and the same year was featured in the Whitney Biennial and
the New Museum Triennial.
## Dan Witz
Dan Witz is best known for his
monumental paintings of mosh pits, but a recent exhibition,
[*Mosh Pits, Raves, and One Small
Orgy*][18]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener"} saw his work extend to other realms. The
artist styles himself as a 21st-century "academic realist painter" and
expanded his exploration of sweaty, writhing bodies into (besides the
orgy) scenes of dancers at an unidentified party in New York. In
contrast to the aggression and masculinity of the mosh pit scenes, Witz'
Brite Nite paintings present, in photorealistic accuracy,
the euphoria of losing yourself on the dance floor. Using oil paint, one of the most traditional
forms of fine art-making, the paintings preserve for posterity the
fairly normie-looking party, elevating it to something a bit more
beautiful.
## Michael Alig
Notorious club kid-turned-murderer
Michael Alig was released from prison in 2014 after serving 17 years for
the murder and dismemberment of his friend and drug dealer, Angel
Melendez. The party monster spent his time behind bars rehabilitating
his drug habit, ["suffering" and
punishing himself][19]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener"}, but also working on creative pursuits, like
writing a memoir called *Aligula*, and immortalizing
his club compatriots in a series of acrylic-on-canvas portraits. Besides
masterpieces like *Glowing Demon
Baby* and *Michael's Cum On Hitler's Face*, Alig painted Limelight legends like Amanda Lepore, Leigh Bowery, [James St. James][20]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener"}, and Lady Bunny. And one
seductive *Self-Portrait with
Goggles.*
[Limelight Documentary-Peter Gatien, Michael Alig][21]{: target="_blank"
rel="noopener noreferrer"}
## Cory Arcangel
Once grouped with early net artists,
Cory Arcangel's recent practice delves more into musical tropes.
*THE AUDMCRS UNDERGROUND DANCE
MUSIC COLLECTION OF RECORDED SOUND* is a collection of 839 underground trance LPs that the artist
bought from retired DJ Joshua Ryan. Realizing that, at a certain age,
both the records and the artist himself and would outgrow the dance
floor, Arcangel's project was simply to create a catalogued archive for
posterity. It's been exhibited at museums and galleries in Paris,
Montréal, Reykjavik, and more, but the most endearing part of this work
is Arcangel's personal narrative explaining his introduction to
techno---or in the artist's words, "*PURE, CHEAP, PLASTIC, BATTERY-POWERED MACHINE
MUSIC*{::}***"***---and the
experience of going to a Skrillex concert in his mid-30s, trying not to
have a heart attack.
[Cory Arcangel - Super Mario Clouds - 2002][22]{: target="_blank"
rel="noopener noreferrer"}
## Bernadette Corporation
"I had barely even been to a nightclub
when I was by some freak circumstance approached by the manager of Club
USA to throw parties in the VIP room alongside Michael Alig, the king of
nightlife back then," Bernadette Van-Huy, one founding member of the
elusive Bernadette Corporation, told [*Dazed*][23]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener"} in 2012. The collective materialized in the
club scene, evolving into a DIY, half-joke of a fashion line that got
picked up by real stylists and was featured in magazines like
Harper's Bazaar
and *Purple*. Later, the collective went on to make a magazine, documentaries
and more political work, but even at their [2013 retrospective at London's
ICA][24]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener"}, they never lost the subversive flavor of
their nightlife beginnings.
[1]: http://www.newmuseum.org/calendar/view/683/non-legacy-systems
[2]: http://www.electronicbeats.net/feed/angel-ho-mix-berlin-biennale/
[3]: http://bb9.berlinbiennale.de/anthem-2/
[4]: http://www.electronicbeats.net/fatima-al-qadiri-in-conversation-with-kenneth-goldsmith/
[5]: http://www.electronicbeats.net/feed/wolfgang-tillmans-exhibits-high-end-music/
[6]: http://www.contemporaryartdaily.com/2015/10/wolfgang-tillmans-at-david-zwirner/2014-tilwo0387/
[7]: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/sep/12/wolfgang-tillmans-music-playback-room-berlin-gallery
[8]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw4udGI8s_I
[9]: http://duoxduox.com/boyd/girth-proof/
[10]: http://www.danielpflumm.com/
[11]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiTdcf8mhcg
[12]: http://www.electronicbeats.net/jamie-xx-gives-the-scoop-on-his-debut-solo-lp-in-colour/
[13]: http://www.electronicbeats.net/heres-why-mark-leckey-is-dance-musics-favorite-artist/
[14]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dS2McPYzEE
[15]: http://www.mshr.info/
[16]: http://www.electronicbeats.net/contemporary-experiments-collide-with-pioneers-at-ctm-2016/
[17]: http://www.electronicbeats.net/ctm-and-transmediale-2015s-most-compelling-installations/
[18]: http://jonathanlevinegallery.com/exhibits/mosh-pits-raves-and-one-small-orgynew-paintings-by-dan-witz/#&gid=null&pid=10
[19]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/21/michael-alig-interview
[20]: http://www.michaelalig.com/store/james-in-yellow-wig
[21]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1yk143-dRg
[22]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCmAD0TwGcQ
[23]: http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/14640/1/bernadette-corporation-club-kid-collective
[24]: https://www.ica.org.uk/whats-on/bernadette-corporation-2000-wasted-years?lid=35536
---
id: c4674f93-1eca-40e1-83ed-83c2bd035176
blueprint: article
title: 'The Nightclub Meets The Gallery In These Famous Works Of Art'
date: 2016-07-21T15:06:50+02:00
wp_id: '117754'
slug: nightclub-inspired-art-list
teaser_image: legacy/nightclub-inspired-art-list/DanWitz_BriteNite2_L.jpg
contents:
-
type: text
text: '<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">120 years ago, impressionist painter Edouard Manet made </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="http://www.manet.org/images/gallery/a-bar-at-the-folies-bergere.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A Bar at the Folies-Bergére</a>, </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">a realist-impressionist scene depicting a barmaid at the eponymous Paris nightclub. Today, clubbing might be less about trapeze artists, chandeliers and prostitution, but artists’ documentary urge hasn’t curbed. Recently, art institutions’ increasing interest in artist/DJ hybrids or curators who invite artists who lurk in nightclubs more often than museums has produced some interesting results. For instance, this summer New York’s New Museum </span><a href="http://www.newmuseum.org/calendar/view/683/non-legacy-systems" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">invited NON Records to perform in their lecture hall</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, and this year’s <a href="http://www.electronicbeats.net/feed/angel-ho-mix-berlin-biennale/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Berlin Biennale</a> is accompanied by a soundtrack, </span><a href="http://bb9.berlinbiennale.de/anthem-2/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Anthem</span></i></a><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">, </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">which pairs artists and musicians for a series of singles, like Hito Steyerl with Juliana Huxtable and <a href="http://www.electronicbeats.net/fatima-al-qadiri-in-conversation-with-kenneth-goldsmith/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fatima Al-Qadiri</a>.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Some artists have made work specifically about their nightlife experiences. From capturing subcultural communities from the inside, to installations that mimic the electronic audio-visual sensations of clubbing, or the future of nightlife prophesied, here is a crash-course in contemporary art born of, displayed in, or inspired by the free and experimental space of the nightclub. </span></p><h2>Wolfgang Tillmans</h2><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="http://www.electronicbeats.net/feed/wolfgang-tillmans-exhibits-high-end-music/" target="_blank">Tillmans</a> is perhaps the most famous artist to be inspired by club culture. The German photographer began his career in the rave scenes of ’90s London and Berlin, and besides having his work hang at Panorama Bar, he is allegedly one of the only people allowed to take photos inside Berghain. His status as an accepted member of the club community gains him access to spaces that might otherwise shirk photographic documentation, like New York’s now-closed queer utopia The Spectrum, where he </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">shot</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> a </span><a href="http://www.contemporaryartdaily.com/2015/10/wolfgang-tillmans-at-david-zwirner/2014-tilwo0387/" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">candid scene</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> at a monthly lesbian party called Dagger. Music, obviously, plays the central role for any seasoned clubber; Tillmans has been known to perform as a DJ in his own right, and in 2014, he turned his Berlin exhibition space Between Bridges into a “</span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/sep/12/wolfgang-tillmans-music-playback-room-berlin-gallery" target="_blank"><span style="font-weight: 400;">playback room</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">” where visitors could hear a selection of pop records on a quality sound system. </span></p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qw4udGI8s_I" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Wolfgang Tillmans: Interview</a></p><h2>Daniel Wickerham and Malcolm Lomax</h2><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Baltimore artists Malcolm Lomax and Daniel Wickerham sent out a craigslist casting call for gay bears for their 2015 project</span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Girth Proof. </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">The chosen bears were digitally rendered into fictional hosts for parties at a made-up club called </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Cave. </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">The hyper-ornamented flyers advertise four weekly parties slated for 2018: “Insecurity,” “Revenge,” “Immaculate Conception,” and “Anti-Gravity.” They all project warped, anarchic views of the freedom of the nightclub and the sexuality of certain gay club spheres and are rendered in an excessive, illusionistic aesthetic that blurs the lines between the digital and the physical. For instance, “Insecurity” advertises the opportunity to lose yourself, while “Immaculate Conception” promises “lube as interface” and a “purification after party.” “Revenge” touts apple turnovers, fisting, and the opportunity to club a police officer, and “Anti-Gravity” offers free DNA testing. The works were exhibited at Dem Passwords Gallery in Los Angeles, but they can also be browsed (with a chainsaw cursor) on a </span><a href="http://duoxduox.com/boyd/girth-proof/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">digital companion piece</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to the show. </span></p><h2>Daniel Pflumm</h2><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="http://www.danielpflumm.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Daniel Pflumm</a>’s career as an artist grew with his career as a club owner, DJ, and promoter in 1990s Berlin. In 1992 he opened the illegal spot Elektro, which was soon followed by a string of other clubs: </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Panasonic, INIT-Bar, and Galerie Antik, which closed in 2003. In 1995, he also a co-founded the label Elektro Music Department with Klaus Kotai and Gabriele “Mo” Loschelder, the DJ duo Kotai + Mo, and his graphic designs graced the covers of the label’s records. His best works are in video, evolving from exhibitions he would stage in the chill-out rooms of his clubs. Fast-paced cuts, like </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Logo auf Schwarz,</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> are loops of appropriated commercial clips, breaking down corporate logos into their most basic aesthetic elements and providing visual stimulation to match the club’s audio.</span></p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiTdcf8mhcg" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">YouTube Video (hiTdcf8mhcg)</a></p><h2>Mark Leckey</h2><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Created entirely from found footage, the 1998 film</span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> is an audio-visual collage of British dance and club scenes from disco to rave. Inspired by the magic of the music video, Leckey created a sentimental picture of the evolution of the British dance floor. The soundtrack, which has since been released on vinyl (and </span><a href="http://www.electronicbeats.net/jamie-xx-gives-the-scoop-on-his-debut-solo-lp-in-colour/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">sampled by Jamie XX</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">), is dissonant with the video, emphasizing the bizarre nature of the act of dancing en masse. The artist won the Turner Prize in 2008, the most British of all art awards, and today is known as one of the forerunners of contemporary British video art, but his connection to music hasn’t faded. The artist is represented by PAN records, who in 2015 released </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Hecker Leckey Sound Voice Chimera, </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">a joint production of Leckey and Florian Hecker, based on the vocal track of Leckey’s 2010 </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">GreenScreenRefrigeratorAction. </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Read our interview with him <a href="http://www.electronicbeats.net/heres-why-mark-leckey-is-dance-musics-favorite-artist/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.</span></p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dS2McPYzEE" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Fiorucci made me Hardcore</a></p><h2>MSHR</h2><p><a href="http://www.mshr.info/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><b><i>MSHR</i></b></a><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">, </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">a collaborative project by Portland-based artists Brenna Murphy and Birch Cooper, is an experimental series of installations, custom sculptural synthesizers and synaesthetic performances. The DIY synthesizers juxtapose natural elements like conch shells and driftwood against geometric forms and reflective textures, and 3D-printed, digitally imaged sculptural sets are inspired by sacred symbolic shapes. The project is contextualized in art galleries or festivals like Berlin’s <a href="http://www.electronicbeats.net/contemporary-experiments-collide-with-pioneers-at-ctm-2016/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CTM</a>-affiliated </span><a href="http://www.electronicbeats.net/ctm-and-transmediale-2015s-most-compelling-installations/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">transmediale</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, but with their ritualistic performances, the artists intend to “</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">place the human body into a dynamic relationship with sound and light, generating expanded sensory experiences.</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">” With droning sound and a sci-fi-shaman aesthetic, MSHR</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">is totally the new age hippie of the party.</span></p><h2>Wu Tsang</h2><div class="outer-embed-ta"><p><a href="//v.traileraddict.com/52989" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">External Content Content</a></p></div><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Wu Tsang’s fictionalized documentary film </span><b><i>Wildness</i></b> <span style="font-weight: 400;">(2012) is centered around the Los Angeles bar the Silver Platter, a historic meeting place for gay Latino immigrant</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> communities that opened in 1963. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the ’90s, the scene shifted towards a space for transgender women and drag performers, but it was still a </span><b>Latinx local [Latino locale?]</b><span style="font-weight: 400;">. Until 2008, that is, when Tsang collaborated with DJs NGUZUNGUZU and Total Freedom to launch a weekly party called Wildness, which drew a new, college-educated, queer, “hipster” crowd to the bar and attracted art-world attention. The film documents the clash in subcultural scenes and explores the idea of “safe spaces” with narration by the anthropomorphized bar that’s voiced by Guatemalan transgender actress Mariana Marroquin. The film premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2012, and the same year was featured in the Whitney Biennial and the New Museum Triennial.</span></p><h2>Dan Witz</h2><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Dan Witz is best known for his monumental paintings of mosh pits, but a recent exhibition, </span><a href="http://jonathanlevinegallery.com/exhibits/mosh-pits-raves-and-one-small-orgynew-paintings-by-dan-witz/#&gid=null&pid=10" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mosh Pits, Raves, and One Small Orgy</span></i></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> saw his work extend to other realms. The artist styles himself as a 21st-century “academic realist painter” and expanded his exploration of sweaty, writhing bodies into (besides the orgy) scenes of dancers at an unidentified party in New York. In contrast to the aggression and masculinity of the mosh pit scenes, Witz’ </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Brite Nite </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">paintings present, in photorealistic accuracy, the euphoria of losing yourself on the dance floor. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Using oil paint, one of the most traditional forms of fine art-making, the paintings preserve for posterity the fairly normie-looking party, elevating it to something a bit more beautiful. </span></p><h2>Michael Alig</h2><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Notorious club kid-turned-murderer Michael Alig was released from prison in 2014 after serving 17 years for the murder and dismemberment of his friend and drug dealer, Angel Melendez. The party monster spent his time behind bars rehabilitating his drug habit, </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/21/michael-alig-interview" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">“suffering” and punishing himself</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, but also working on creative pursuits, like writing a memoir called </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Aligula</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">, and immortalizing his club compatriots in a series of acrylic-on-canvas portraits. Besides masterpieces like </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Glowing Demon Baby</span></i> <span style="font-weight: 400;">and </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Michael’s Cum On Hitler’s Face</span></i><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">, </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Alig painted Limelight legends like </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Amanda Lepore</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">, </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Leigh Bowery</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">, </span><a href="http://www.michaelalig.com/store/james-in-yellow-wig" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">James St. James</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, and </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Lady Bunny</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">. And one seductive </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Self-Portrait with Goggles.</span></i></p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1yk143-dRg" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Limelight Documentary-Peter Gatien, Michael Alig</a></p><h2>Cory Arcangel</h2><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Once grouped with early net artists, Cory Arcangel’s recent practice delves more into musical tropes. </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">THE AUDMCRS UNDERGROUND DANCE MUSIC COLLECTION OF RECORDED SOUND</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> is a collection of 839 underground trance LPs that the artist bought from retired DJ Joshua Ryan. Realizing that, at a certain age, both the records and the artist himself and would outgrow the dance floor, Arcangel’s project was simply to create a catalogued archive for posterity. It’s been exhibited at museums and galleries in Paris, Montréal, Reykjavik, and more, but the most endearing part of this work is Arcangel’s personal narrative explaining his introduction to techno—or in the artist’s words, “</span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">PURE, CHEAP, PLASTIC, BATTERY-POWERED MACHINE MUSIC</span></i><b><i>”</i></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">—and the experience of going to a Skrillex concert in his mid-30s, trying not to have a heart attack. </span></p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCmAD0TwGcQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Cory Arcangel - Super Mario Clouds - 2002</a></p><h2>Bernadette Corporation</h2><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“I had barely even been to a nightclub when I was by some freak circumstance approached by the manager of Club USA to throw parties in the VIP room alongside Michael Alig, the king of nightlife back then,” Bernadette Van-Huy, one founding member of the elusive Bernadette Corporation, told </span><a href="http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/14640/1/bernadette-corporation-club-kid-collective" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Dazed</span></i></a> <span style="font-weight: 400;">in 2012. The collective materialized in the club scene, evolving into a DIY, half-joke of a fashion line that got picked up by real stylists and was featured in magazines like </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Harper’s Bazaar </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">and </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Purple</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">. Later, the collective went on to make a magazine, documentaries and more political work, but even at their </span><a href="https://www.ica.org.uk/whats-on/bernadette-corporation-2000-wasted-years?lid=35536" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span style="font-weight: 400;">2013 retrospective at London’s ICA</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, they never lost the subversive flavor of their nightlife beginnings. </span></p>'
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# The Nightclub Meets The Gallery In These Famous Works Of Art 120 years ago, impressionist painter Edouard Manet made A Bar at the Folies-Bergére, a realist-impressionist scene depicting a barmaid at the eponymous Paris nightclub. Today, clubbing might be less about trapeze artists, chandeliers...
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Some artists have made work specifically about their nightlife experiences. From capturing subcultural communities from the inside, to installations that mimic the electronic audio-visual sensations of clubbing, or the future of nightlife prophesied, here is a crash-course in contemporary art bor...
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Music, obviously, plays the central role for any seasoned clubber; Tillmans has been known to perform as a DJ in his own right, and in 2014, he turned his Berlin exhibition space Between Bridges into a "[playback room][7]{: target="_blank"}" where visitors could hear a selection of pop records on...
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[Wolfgang Tillmans: Interview][8]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"} . ## Daniel Wickerham and Malcolm Lomax . Baltimore artists Malcolm Lomax and Daniel Wickerham sent out a craigslist casting call for gay bears for their 2015 project Girth Proof. The chosen bears were digita...
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For instance, "Insecurity" advertises the opportunity to lose yourself, while "Immaculate Conception" promises "lube as interface" and a "purification after party." "Revenge" touts apple turnovers, fisting, and the opportunity to club a police officer, and "Anti-Gravity" offers free DNA testing. ...
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Fast-paced cuts, like *Logo auf Schwarz,* are loops of appropriated commercial clips, breaking down corporate logos into their most basic aesthetic elements and providing visual stimulation to match the club's audio. [YouTube Video (hiTdcf8mhcg)][11]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"} ...
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Read our interview with him [here][13]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener"}. [Fiorucci made me Hardcore][14]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"} . ## MSHR [***MSHR***][15]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener"}, a collaborative project by Portland-based artists Brenna Murphy and Birch Cooper, ...
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The DIY synthesizers juxtapose natural elements like conch shells and driftwood against geometric forms and reflective textures, and 3D-printed, digitally imaged sculptural sets are inspired by sacred symbolic shapes. The project is contextualized in art galleries or festivals like Berlin's [CTM]...
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The project is contextualized in art galleries or festivals like Berlin's [CTM][16]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener"}-affiliated [transmediale][17]{: target="_blank" rel="noopener"}, but with their ritualistic performances, the artists intend to "place the human body into a dynamic relationship w...
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The film documents the clash in subcultural scenes and explores the idea of "safe spaces" with narration by the anthropomorphized bar that's voiced by Guatemalan transgender actress Mariana Marroquin. The film premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2012, and the same year was featur...
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