M+B presents The Americana

If you're in Paris this month you should definitely hit up the Colette concept store and boutique to check out this exhibition.

"M+B and Colette are pleased to announce an exhibition of photography which celebrates and informs the discourse on Americana, through a focus on depictions of California lifestyle.

This group show pairs emerging and established artists, ranging from documentary images which shed light on historically important moments from the 20th century, to conceptual contemporary oeuvres. The exhibition showcases the evolving nature of American art, and the photographic medium. The works of Lisa Jack, LeRoy Grannis, Hugh Holland, Joseph Szabo and Hunter S. Thompson offer a window into defining events and movements of the 1960s and 1970s.

Grannis and Holland capture the rebellious surf and skate culture which came to represent the West Coast and American leisure time. Szabo is a delightful east coast counterpart to Grannis and Holland; his work  documenting the culture of Jones Beach in the 1970s depicted through summer leisure at the beach and particularly the feeling of possibility and promise, touched with youthful angst that is all part of the identity of an American teenager.

Simultaneously rebellious, and freshly youthful, sunbathers, surfers and skaters began to embrace the cohesive identities that created a culture of subcultures. They celebrate both their individuality and their strong group identity, similar to the Hells Angels photographed by Hunter S. Thompson. Lisa Jack’s portraits, however, describes a different yet concurrent culture: that of 70’s youth culture combined with contemporary associations. Hersitter is President Barack Obama at 18 years old, merging a synecdochal image of the ’70s liberal youth culture on college campuses— a counterculture in their own right—with the epitome of the mainstream: our current presidential leader. Ironically, Jack’s images capture youth and adolescent uncertainty, and depict the promise of tomorrow while similar images, aged roughly twenty years later, stood for the promise of America throughout his campaign." - So sick I wish I could go!