Bash Compactor: So I Creep

With the exception of a limited few, I view most street artists and graffiti writers the same way I view subway platform break dancers: Sure, that shit was interesting years ago, but if you’re still into it, you’re the equivalent of a European tourist blocking my way to the Q train. And I kind of want to toss you in front of said Q train.

It was with that mentality that I went into the opening party for Creep Show, an exhibit at [Bold Hype gallery] showing the work of Orlando-based street artist Dolla. The gallery itself had started in Florida before moving to Manhattan in May, and James Kellogg was one of the three curators who moved up with it. “We wanted to juxtapose that high fructose West Coast kind of style to New York’s,” Kellogg told me. Sure!

The show itself had a heartwarming story, as Kellogg and friends got to exhibit Dolla’s work, helping out a hometown hero. The art itself focused on Dolla’s trademark “Creeps,” a cross between aliens and bug-like creatures; there were spray painted wooden pieces, crafted vinyl pieces, huge murals and 3D artwork.

The keg was a nice touch and seemed popular with the mix of suburban dads, Japanese kids in street wear, Jersey girls and neck-tattooed stowaways from the Lower East Side who took in the work while wearing outfitruining 3D glasses. There were some aficionados in the crowd, however. “This is what Lichtenstein would have been doing if he was still alive,” a hippie dad type told me. Artist [Gilbert Oh] agreed. “Keith Haring would have loved this show,” he said.

And the living artists seemed to be enjoying themselves as well. Rocking an Ecko flannel, baggy jeans and Nikes, Dolla was happy to be showing in New York City. “I started putting [Creeps] out on the street, I wanted to do something that was mine,” he told me. Having heard that the man moves convincingly between the graffiti and street art worlds, where there’s generally tension between the roughneck vandal graffiti artists and the gallery-oriented street artists, I questioned him about the beef between them, but Dolla said he never got any shit for it. “I think graffiti artists are becoming more open-minded and accepting,” he offered. I thought about that as I wandered down the hall into the other galleries, searching for one that was offering up snacks.