February 27 – March 28, 2009
Reception: March 5, 2009, 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Currently exhibiting in the Alcoves of the Riverside Art Museum from February 27th to March 28th is a collaborative art installation of screen printed posters by the Southern California artist group, Cat Cult.
Based in Los Angeles, California is a group of artists who are sharing their thoughts and talents in order to create contemporary art under the pseudonym, Cat Cult. Seeking inspiration from modern life in Southern California and their feline mascot, Cat Cult creates intriguing street art. Graffiti art has acted as some of the primary inspiration for many of the participating artists in Cat Cult. Experimenting with “various mediums, from printmaking to illustration and painting”, Cat Cult strives to create contemporary and one-of-a-kind pieces.
The pieces included in this show are six out of a series of collaborations between Cat Cult and Southern California street and graffiti artists. Using the screen printed poster as a base, artists added additional screen prints, drawing and painting in these collaborative pieces.
The focal point of each poster is the unmistakable image of a cat. Cat Cult has chosen the cat as their central symbol because “…cats have been used throughout history to represent important figures within ancient fables and myths in cultures and societies across the globe. Cat Cult embraces these multidimensional identities that the cat embodies and plays upon these iconic ideas in playful and ironic ways throughout the urban environment”. The cat icon serves as a stand in for the graffiti writer’s signature.
Each Cat Cult poster has an individual theme and iconography yet all six posters are unified by their street art technique. Gathering inspiration from life in the Inland Empire, some incorporate images of American pop culture while others were inspired by friends who lead “gluttonous [lifestyles] sometimes full of youthful destruction”. A handmade catalogue with photographs of the artistic collaborators accompanies this exhibition.