Sept 25 - Oct 26, 2008

KITSCHY, GAY, AND OVER IN A SECOND
Team Macho

Team Macho, Toronto's renegade art stars, defiantly return to Magic Pony September 25th with Kitschy, Gay, and Over in a Second. An exhibition of new paintings, drawings and collage, Team Macho present their most accomplished, mature work to date. Exhibition runs September 25 to October 26. Opening reception will be held September 25, 7-10pm, artists will be in attendance.

Comprised of members Nicholas Aoki, G. Stephen Appleby-Barr, Christopher Buchan, Lauchie Reid and Jacob Whibley, Team Macho focus their collective efforts on developing an artmaking practice that spans the worlds of both art and illustration. Team Macho have created a highly personal visual rhetoric and vocabulary, brimming with inside jokes and absurdity. In what might appear to be a dysfunctional dynamic, the group thrives upon maintaining a healthy mix of competition, well-meaning antagonism, and gentle hostility toward each other.

Kitschy, Gay, and Over in a Second resurrects beloved subjects with an expanded repertoire of oil, airbrush, resin, collage, lightboxes and typewriter art. Witty vignettes, hilariously inappropriate juxtapositions, inside jokes, détourned flea-market landscapes and subverted narratives collide. Dadaist nonsense, science fantasy, parallel universes, escape artistry, alchemic texts, homoerotic neon wizards, vintage catalogues and books on tape variously provide inspiration. Tragic mistakes are revisited with the return of creations Whiskeyboot and Leunbre. Lush treatments and a refined approach to materials provide insight into Team Macho's respect and affection for the seemingly absurd, perverse and tasteless worlds they create.

In contrast to earlier spontaneous, haphazard means of creation (where drawings were essentially left to be found and subsequently approved, altered or subverted), there is now an emphasis on fostering an initial dialogue, playing to each other's strengths, and capitalizing upon any resistance. Moving away from large five-man productions, this exhibition features mainly two or three-man collaborations. The product of evolving relationships, (both creative and personal) Kitschy, Gay, and Over in a Second is a compelling psychological profile of Team Macho's particular collaborative practice.

Pre-empting their critics by declaring their own (metaphoric) demise, Team Macho invite the public to join them in an evening of art and necrolatry. An expiration attributed to a mixture of pretentious tastelessness, homosexuality and a curiously brief natural life span, this exhibition is an elegy to the dearly departed.

Team Macho have exhibited at Magic Pony since 2005, with Friends 4 Life (June 2005), Team Macho is a Tough Man (May 2006) and Fancy Action Now (2007). Magic Pony published their first monograph in 2007, entitled Fancy Action Now: The Art of Team Macho.

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contact@magic-pony.com

Selected Artwork