My 2 Cents on the 99Cent Store Art Show
It could have been in any vacant building. The choice of the 99 Cent Store was everything. Pick one that’s not only vast and cavernous, but situated in the heart of Los Angeles’ museum district – adjacent to Hollywood and Beverly Hills – and a sense of surrealism and juxtaposition comes into play.
I was lucky to be there for the installation, with participating Sociopop artist MX Farina. His repurposed shopping bags and clothing screenprinted with variations of the 99 Cent Store logo were some of the most site-specific pieces in the show. They’re a vibrant “commentary on the value of art in a generic society,” Farina muses.
The behind-the-scenes glimpse was even more awe-inspiring to me than the more polished display of Sunday night’s opening. It was like a scene from the TV show Pluribus: dozens of people streaming in and out of this eerily revived commercial space, diligently focused on constructing their installations in every corner of the sprawling ruins. Completely in the zone, they carried out their tasks with a sense of unity, peace, purpose, humor, and celebration. Some alone, others in small groups, they transfigured the abandoned, grungy floors, shelves, and walls of our yesterday into a rainbow of present possibilities. It felt like a metaphor for a new world and model being built by the artistic mindset: from a spirit of imagination, play, self-expression, vision, community, and horizontal versus top-down structure. This show was free to be part of and to view. A sort of anti-art fair to kick off Frieze Week (involving several events which you have to pay a pretty penny to peruse) in Los Angeles.
Artists (which this show reminds us we all are) were not just reviving the old, but morphing it into something completely different. It was a poignant demonstration of new life repurposing and sprouting out of something whose time had passed. It felt like both the apocalypse and utopia. It bridged nostalgia and futurism. The fluorescent light bars, the original 99 Cent Store soundtracks (both curated music and sales announcements) echoing throughout while everyone worked, the re-electrified loudspeakers, live register monitors, the original 90’s colors and fonts of the signage speckled throughout the space.
As much a work of art as the contents it holds, the 99 Cent Store, and therefore the show, is beloved by and accessible to everyone. Internationally known artists like Barry McGee (the organizer), Shepard Fairey, and Kim Gordon mingled with artists who may have never exhibited work before, apart from on the street. Jeffrey Deitch strolled through the crowds. Musicians set up stages, skaters slid down installed poles, screenprinters pressed shirts, models stutted on the checkout conveyor belts. Outside, mobs of people crowded the store, forming an aura of wonder, curiosity, and excitement around the city block. They tagged the windows while waiting in endless lines for a chance to come inside. If you didn’t make it that night, the show remains open all week for people to explore. 12-6 pm through Sunday, through March 1st. All of the art is for sale!
On a personal level, the show dispelled the awful, untrue old feeling I’m guilty of having been haunted by – that I’ve seen it all in the art world. It reawakened a sense of what’s possible; it made me want to engage more with fellow artists, participate in remaking our world, and have FUN doing it!
This art show was conceived of by Barry McGee and brought about with support from The Hole NYC and Jeffrey Deitch Gallery. Barry, and especially his late wife, Margaret Kilgallen, were two of my first favorite artists when I was in undergrad at Tyler School of Art. It’s fantastic to see what Barry and his friends are still doing for the art world and for all of us, decades later.
