There's a lot not to like about Kid Acne's work, if you're a cynic like me. Too polished, a lack of puritan graf roots, too graphic-design-student, too commercial... all wild and unfounded allegations that I have made against him and many other urban success stories without foundation and not without simmering jealousy.
Having stumbled upon this mini retrospective at the winter garden in his hometown, I was expecting little, but discovered lots. The works on display actually diplayed an honesty, a diligence and a dedication to pure drawing that was both refreshing and alarming: this is not bog standard MTV/bandwagon/mobilecommunications advertising lapdog, this has a sincerity. The display of many many sketchbooks- not just the 'im a sketchbook but really he spent 3 days on me' crap that's blogged cockily, but genuine drawing, exploring, re-working to find an idea- was testament to the kid's craftsmanship. Sometimes it was indeed a bit clichéd, a bit slick- but one got the impression it was fairly genuine.
The exhibition sadly waned towards the end, with the artist evidently beginning to believe his own hype- the installation of 6ft fibreglass catoon-o-ghosts around a wiegiboard as part of some new direction into ironic recasting of 80's fantasy was clumsy and a bit too earnest. Icing on the sugar coated cream that wasn't necessary. The work is just fine as it is- raw, simple, obvious and of a high quality- no need to gild the lily.
All in all it was a pleasing little exhibition- a great insight into a working process of one of the mainstream success stories of crossover graf.
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