penishere we have a wonderful piece of 13th century art
wow isn’t that just majestic okay let’s take a little closer look at this masterful work
oh
what the everloving fuck
My first major solo show, SHELL GAME, closed last Tuesday.
Shell Game was covered by the New Republic, Rolling Stone, Fast Company, Wired, Reuters, the American Reader and many more. The openings were attended by hundreds of people –– many of whom, through their support of Shell Game’s kickstarter, made this whole project possible.
I’m starting to think about my next project, which will explore ideas of explicitly digital culture and privacy. I may even work with an institution or cultural organization to bring it to life on the largest scale possible.
Without the support of hundreds of people online, Shell Game would never have happened. The internet believed in me, believed in the promise of my art, and showed that in concrete ways.
The internet gave me Shell Game.
I want to give them something back.
Today is May Day. The day of workers, immigrants, beautiful young girls, and rebellion. I’m releasing all the art from SHELL GAME on Creative Commons. Share. Remix. Make art. Wheatpaste the world.
Click each image to see it in high resolution. Non-commercial use only and attribution is mandatory (see CreativeCommons below).
![blastedheath:
Henri Therme (French, 1910-1971), L’homme en colère [The angry man]. Oil on canvas, 65 x 53 cm.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/acbb832bce5dcfc4dc956696f1a651e9/tumblr_ml00abTuM51rv7wcro1_500.png)
blusterousiris: Excerpt from my Huffington Post article
Activist/artist Molly Crabapple’s new series of paintings titled “Shell Game” at Smart Clothes Gallery in New York portray a darkly humorous year in cartoonish figures.
Her canvases tackle global turmoil in 2011, including the rise of Occupy Wall Street, Anonymous hackers, the health insurance crisis, the Tunisian Revolution, protests in Greece, and the Spanish M15 movement.
While “Shell Game” bursts with depictions of corruption and violence, for Crabapple, the past few years have been a mix of birth amid destruction. “Yes, it was awful, but it was also magic, she told Wired in an interview. “It was the magic of people speaking to each other, waking up, helping each other. For every person beaten up, everyone arrested, it was also a year of fierce aliveness.”
Like Hannah Hoch’s politically-charged Dadaist collages or Frida Kahlo’s symbolic works, in Crabapple’s paintings a political message emerges from the visual chaos.
As Occupy Wall Street unfolded right outside her window, Crabapple sketched posters for the movement in real time. “Shell Game” began as a Kickstarter project. It’s worth noting that her paintings about the power of a united crowd would not have been possible without crowdsourcing.
“Shell Game” will be on view April 14 - 23 at Smart Clothes Gallery in New York.
