Cuts You Up - Michael Bühler-Rose

1 color puff print front and back on black Comfort Colors tee. 100% ring spun cotton

Produced in conjunction with Michael Bühler-Rose's exhibition "Cuts You Up" at Andrew Rafacz Gallery.

"Cuts You Up" presents a series of conceptual mix tapes, poetically titled with dedications to other artists designated only by their initials, as well as a large wall work that draws from popular music and art history and is directly related to the artist’s ongoing studiolo series that explores one’s inner life through collections. All of these wall works have been meticulously produced by way of wood intarsia, a process of creating mosaic-like imagery though the use of different species (and thus, colors) of wood.

The title of this exhibition, "Cuts You Up", is taken from the popular 1989 song by former Bauhaus lead singer Peter Murphy, but it also captures something very immediately personal for the artist. When asked what “cuts you up and spits you out?” Murphy explained, “the path of discovery, self-knowledge, wisdom… once you feel you have it. Then the path will spit you out, or off the way, and ruin your assumptions of this path.”

This desire to cut up and reassemble is at the heart of Bühler-Rose’s exhibition. In his series of “Mixtapes for Artists,” he references his own personal collection of tapes, borrowing from their titles and original brand names, while also riffing newly on the artists to whom they are dedicated. Although these conceptual playlists cannot be heard, the titles and look of the particular cassette tape are highly suggestive and evocative, allowing the viewer to imagine the songs that are included on each. There is a playfulness at work in the artist’s titles and dedications. One of the works included, “Cuts You Up (for G.M.C.),” references Gordon Matta-Clark, renowned for literally cutting up spaces and activating them as a new concept.

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