Back in 2017, Keri Cox, Dena Haden and Jeremiah Hernandez founded Superflat NB, an organization dedicated to giving visual artists a significant role in beautifying the city of New Bedford with the aim of fostering pride and the ownership of shared spaces through public art.
It worked. In fact it worked so well that Adams Media, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, has recently published “On the Wall Posters: Street Art,” a softcover book featuring the art of local and regional artists who have created art under the aegis of Superflat NB.
It has been distributed nationally to outlets such as Barnes & Noble and Urban Outfitters and through Amazon, meaning national exposure for local artists and for New Bedford as an art destination. In addition, it is available locally at the Co-Creative Center and at Footprints Bookshop in the Kilburn Mill.
The book does not pretend to offer any insights into the creations of the artists, or provide biographical information, or offer any historical or philosophical framework. However, it contains 30 11” X 14” pages featuring the work of 18 distinct artists or crews. The pages are perforated for easy removal and frameable or ready to pushpin to a wall as a poster.
But to paraphrase David Byrne: How did we get here?
In September, when I first received an email from Maria Orlandi, marketing and publicity associate for Adams Media / Simon & Schuster, announcing the publication of the poster book, my first thought was it was likely one in a series of regional focuses.
But there was no Brooklyn or Los Angeles or Atlanta version.
The only previous poster book was focused on art influenced by trippy 1960s-era psychedelia.
So of all the cities in the country with an abundance of street art, how was New Bedford selected?
The answer came from Adams Media Production Project Manager Michelle Kelly, who suggested Superflat NB for the project.
She said: “When I heard that Adams would be pursuing a project on street art, I immediately thought of New Bedford. As a resident of Fairhaven, I spend a lot of time in New Bedford and always enjoy viewing the vibrant art and murals throughout the city.”
Kelly also noted she did not know any of the artists personally, but added: “I really love the work of Boston Maki which is showcased in the book — there is a certain energy that radiates from the imagery. ‘Love Rainbow’ by Cey Adams is another favorite of mine because of its vibrant colors and simple but important message.”
She did some research on Superflat NB and presented it to her colleagues. And then things were soon underway.
However, when Superflat NB was contacted, Hernandez initially thought it was a scam of some sort but soon the channels of communication opened and things were underway.
In September 2022, 50 images were sent to the publisher. At first, the art of 30 artists was offered up for review. Eventually a wider net was cast, and close to 100 artists who had collectively created nearly 300 works of art were considered.
The definition of street art was expanded to include work that was “influenced” by street art (as opposed to graphics that were directly painted on walls, fences and other structures) and the winnowing began.
“On the Wall Posters: Street Art” is a celebration of the most grounded artists in the city of New Bedford (even the ones who did not make the final cut) and for Superflat NB.
But to dig a little deeper into “how did we get here?”, one must know how Superflat NB got its name. The founders — Cox, Haden and Hernandez — were influenced by the contemporary Japanese artist Takashi Murakami, who coined the term “superflat” in 2000.
An integral element of Murakami’s aesthetic philosophy is his belief that differences in social class and popular taste have “flattened,” producing a culture with little distinction between “high” and “low.”
But even in 2000, that was an old idea. In 1990, the Museum of Modern Art presented “High & Low — Modern Art and Popular Culture,” curated by Kurt Varnedoe, which focused on the slow and steady bleed of pop culture into what was once called “high art.”
Focusing on five areas — words, graffiti, caricature, comics and advertising — Varnedoe focused on the inevitability of the rise of pop culture, even slyly suggesting that two paintings by the great cubist painter Georges Braque, done in 1911 (“Les Portugais” and “Homage to J.S. Bach”) may effectively be the first two pop art paintings, because they include text.
Let’s jump back to the present. Look at enough street art with a serious eye and one will see all of the five elements of Varnedoe’s theory about the rise of pop culture: words, graffiti, caricature, comics and advertising.
All the solo artists and crews with their spray cans and brushes and stencils and stickers and markers are part of a long tradition, wed not only to the Western canon but also to hip-hop culture.
And it’s a beautiful marriage.
A final note: many of the works that appear in “On the Wall Posters: Street Art” no longer exist. Such is the nature of the beast as many were only designed to exist for a short time or they were painted over with respect and sometimes without or were slowly faded by the elements. Street art is ephemeral.
But someone else always steps up and with the touch of a brush or the hiss of an aerosol can. Street art is enduring.
Email arts columnist Don Wilkinson at dwilkinson@newbedfordlight.org
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