Art for the Masses: Pop Art Images at the Rourke

William Charles Harbort a.k.a. Billy Chuck gives a new conceptual and marketing face to Pop Art, scaling back the often overblown Pop size to make small to medium works that are affordable for the general public. Populism, historical awareness, comedic relief, art savvy, and technical prowess are all terms that come to mind when viewing Harbort’s mixed-media, high-gloss works.

Harbort’s technique is inventive.  He buys inexpensive framed art and creates a pastiche of new images over the existing paintings and prints using processes such as collage, painting, marking, and drawing.  In addition, he adheres oddments like plastic bugs, decals, coupons, and other identifiable consumer and cultural tidbits to the surfaces.  Finally, each creation receives a poured resin or acrylic finish which congeals and holds the disparate elements in place.
 
Regarding Harbort’s imagery—which he terms the works’ “ingredients”—the gamut runs from glamour girls, rodeos, war machines, idyllic cottages, and bunny rabbits, to ubiquitous reminders of mortality symbolized by skeletons, skulls, and in the case of “Dakota Ghost,” the image of a machine that lifts the deceased into an awaiting coffin.  In this work, we also witness a pin-up girl and text that reads “Dakota,” plus Harbort’s signature splashes of expressionistic color that move beyond the picture plane and onto the frame.
 
As far as meaning or content, Harbort sees his works as “unfinished narratives.”  He is certainly working in the vein of Neo-Expressionist artists like David Salle who often throws seemingly unrelated narrative elements together, or Barbara Kruger, who also uses image and text. These artists paved the way for the style that Harbort finds himself grappling with, a style he updates by self-consciously reaching for “low-brow” instead of “high-brow” images and status.

His titles alone speak volumes about overall content.  They include: “Consume” and “Once Upon a Time” plus “Who Do Voodoo?” and “War and Peace.”  “Once Upon a Time” seems to suggest Eden-like losses, such as lost innocence and lost chivalry, plus the tree images seem to reference pristine nature, while the stand-out fluttering birds appear dazed and confused as though they, not Adam and Eve have been booted out of the Garden.

Even the exhibition’s reception features a Pop Art flare. Debbie Cakes will be served, and a shopping cart full of smallish works will be on sale for as little as $49.95. In fact, the most expensive work is listed at “495.95,” a bargain to be sure for this up-and-coming artist whose intellectually and visually seductive works demand attention, reflection, and serious consideration.
If You Go

“An Art Supermarket”
Artist: William Charles Harbort
Gallery: The Rourke Art Gallery
Preview: Friday, March 28 from 6:30-8:00
Opening: Sunday, March 30 from 1:30-3:30
Gallery Talk: Sunday at 2:30