by Melissa Komar
Enjoy rockin’ out with your mohawk at Vans Warped Tour? Ever wonder where the whole punk scene began? Look no further than The Galleries at Moore College of Art and Design’s latest exhibit, Pretty Vacant: The Graphic Language of Punk.
Curated by Kaytie Johnson, the Rochelle F. Levy Director and Chief Curator of the Galleries at Moore, the exhibit will be on display from January 25th until March 15, 2014. The opening reception will be held on January 24 from 6-8p.m. The exhibit and opening reception are free and open to the public.
Hundreds of posters, flyers, handbills, record sleeves, badges, and other graphic materials of mid-1970s punk bands, including The Clash, The Ramones, and The Sex Pistols, will be on display. Other punk and post-punk bands featured in the exhibit include A Certain Ratio, The Adverts, The B-52s, Bauhaus, Blondie, the Buzzcocks, the Circle Jerks, The Cramps, The Cure, the Damned, Devo, Elvis Costello, The Fall, Fear, Gang of Four, Generation X, The Gun Club, Iggy Pop, The Jam, Joy Division, Killing Joke, Kraftwerk, Lou Reed, New Order, Public Image Limited, Sham 69, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Television and X-Ray Spex.
The works on display are on loan from New York-based collector Andrew Krivine. Pretty Vacant looks to recall the spirit of anarchism, the celebration of negativity, the creativity, and violence and protest that was classified as punk. The exhibit will be accompanied by a catalogue.
The Galleries at Moore College of Art and Design are located between 19th and 20th on Race Street. The Galleries are open Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Friday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Galleries are closed Sundays and all academic and legal holidays.
For more information, visit www.thegalleriesatmoore.org or call 215-965-4027.
