“Pussy Riot, The Pope, Putin & Peach Boy” Shocking & Humorous Art Show | SF

Submitted by the Event Organizer

Pussy Riot, The Pope, Putin, and Peach Boy is a solo exhibition of new and selected work by Masami Teraoka, opening with a reception at Catharine Clark Gallery on January 9, 2016 from 4 – 6 pm.

On view January 9 – February 20, 2016, the exhibit features four large triptych paintings more than a decade in the making, in which Teraoka continues his brazen portrayals of abusive power. While shocking and lurid, the exhibit (titled after the villains and heroes in the artist’s theatrical renderings) is also sardonic and impishly humorous: power changes hands, traditional roles reverse, and fates are reimagined. Mirroring the triptych construction of his paintings, Teraoka’s tableaus literally and figuratively open the secretive and dark underworlds of institutional power to Teraoka’s singular brand of unabashed truth-telling, searing criticism, and playful ridicule.

Teraoka’s work in multi-frame panels, wrought in the style of medieval and renaissance religious triptychs, began in the early 1990s as a response to revelations of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Since then, Teraoka has used his stylistic transformation to evocatively explore topics ranging from the invasion of Iraq, to Karl Rove, to gender stereotypes. In his latest body of work, Teraoka draws on specific current events in which members of the music group Pussy Riot, The Pope, Vladimir Putin, and the geisha Momotaro play central roles. In Pussy Riot/Russian Orthodox Confessors, Teraoka references the band’s 2012 protest performance in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Tried and imprisoned for ‘hooliganism,’ Pussy Riot drew world-wide attention for their caustic views of Vladimir Putin and the Catholic Church.

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