SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2008
ROSTARR – WRECKLESS ABANDON
Curated by Al Moran
O.H.W.O.W. / 3100 NW 7 AVENUE / MIAMI / FLORIDA / WWW.OH-WOW.COM
As you walk the exhibition space the evidence is clear that Romon Kimin Yang, the artist; the painter, has arrived. Also known as Rostarr, Yang is a member of the genial urban improvisers the Barnstormers’ collective. Yang now sheds all labels and groups as he matures profoundly with this first solo exhibition in Miami, Florida, titled: Wreckless Abandon, reckless by design and adventurous by choice.
Early on in the 1990’s, Rostarr broke through the New York City art scene with his signature trademark, a guerrilla type of graphic design, using the newest digital media tools at the time. He mastered these tools and evolved from his iconography and graffiti subject matter. Now a soloist, Yang is evermore a Renaissance-man who has often executed a series of works in several media.
Yet, his moving image output doesn’t stop there, with a recent screening of the video, Kill the Ego – an audio-visual collaboration with photographer and artist Stephan Crasneanscki at the Centre Pompidou in France, he begins to explore and experiment with new paths in the realm of video art. Even more so, Rostarr continues to surprise us as he removes his newly acquired and validated filmmaker’s cap and easily trades it once again for a French artist’s beret during a very recent visit to the Nam June Paik Art Center for a massive painting installation. This is reckless abandonment in action.
Indeed, the show, Wreckless Abandon, demonstrates the imaginative ways in which Rostarr has reached across his design output and known creative persona to re-invent his art and himself today. His work here breaks with not just dualities and dichotomies as usual, but transcends as the works embody the creative free spirit needed to surpass resistance of any kind. Rostarr manages to cross the bridge because his visual harmonies are geometrical lines undefined by formulaic patterns.
Certainly, this exhibition is not post-graffiti, it’s just Rostarr, it’s anti-anxiety, call it organic harmonies of the self in re-discovery. My strongest suggestion is this; choose your own title for the show. Walk away with a unique interpretation, juxtapose two dynamic words together or think of one word that has all the meaning you can put into it and that’s the show – for you or maybe not.
Excerpt from the essay Organic Harmonies by Rey ParlÃ
Wow
