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Arts & Culture

Paul Kremer: “Great Art In Ugly Rooms” at the Brandon

Artist Paul Kremer, member of Houston's I Love You Baby artist collective, is showing his collection "Great Art in Ugly Rooms" at the Brandon contemporary art gallery through February 16th. The exhibition is a blog come to life, as Kremer has been digitally creating these images and posting them to his blog (of the same name) since early last year. Paul Kremer spoke with Houston Public Media's Dacia Clay at the Brandon in both an extended audio interview, and a video tour of the exhibition.
 

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Kremer was inspired to create the “Great Art In Ugly Rooms” blog when he saw a photo of a piece by artist Kaz Oshiro hanging in a plain-looking living room rather than a gallery. Fascinated by the effect of seeing art in a different context, Kremer, a website designer, set about finding photos of “ugly” rooms to digitally place works of art in. His work gives a new frame to great art – a Matisse hangs over urinals in a public restroom, Grant Wood’s American Gothic hangs in a wood-paneled dining room behind a cheap chandelier. The humor in his work and the accessibility of the Tumblr blog format introduce new audiences to the artists he features.

Now, with over 300 images posted to his blog, Kremer has brought the “great art” full circle by taking his images off the screen and into an art gallery. Seeing images of great art placed in ugly rooms, printed on canvases the size of the original works, and then hung on the clean gallery walls of the Brandon creates a sort of dizzying Droste effect.

The show is on view at the Brandon through February 16.

For more information about the show: thebrandoncontemporary.com.

For more about Paul Kremer and his blog: oilpanllc.com and greatartinuglyrooms.tumblr.com.