The Ying-yang of art
It seems like surrealism and popular culture are polar opposites, surrealism digs into the dreams and subconscious while pop culture focuses on the surface and common things. But in our society, the two tend to mesh together to form the great art movement called pop surrealism. This art form is like the ancient chinese concept of yin-yang, an idea that describes how seemingly opposite forces are interconnected and interdependent.
What is pop surrealism?
Pop Surrealism, or Lowbrow art, describes an underground visual art movement that began in the Los Angeles area in the late 1970s.
History
Two of the first artists to create what is now called lowbrow art were underground cartoonists like Robert Williams and Gary Panter. The first few shows were in alternative galleries in New York and Los Angeles, three of which were Psychedelic Solutions Gallery, La Luz de Jesus, and 01 gallery. The movement is growing with hundreds of artists adopting this new style. As the number of artists grew, so did the number of galleries showing pop surrealism; The pop surrealist magazine Juxtapoz, first published in 1994, has helped direct and grow the movement. The term "pop surrealism" was created by The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum for its 1998 exhibit called Pop Surrealism. The exhibit featured work by over seventy artists, some of which were Mark Dean Veca, Gregory Crewdson, Paul Henry Ramirez, Tony Matelli, Mariko Mori, Ashley Bickerton, Art Spiegelman, Tony Oursler, Mary Carlson, Brad Eberhard, Tony Oursler, and Cindy Sherman. The exhibit was memorialized in the 1999 book Pop Surrealism.