Neuwirth’s new, yet-to-be-titled show is opening May 11 at Ryan Rhodes Designs in Seattle’s Sodo neighborhood. This exhibition features new work in neon, glass, multimedia, and video, and explores the ideas of contemporary culture’s constant cycle of buildup to an event, the event itself, and the memory of the event as definitive of modern identity.
On February 3, 2011, Neuwirth awoke on the side of Seattle’s Aurora Avenue after a string of events that should have left him dead. The golden blownglass skull piece, The Conversation, and this photo is his recreation of that experience.
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who: Dylan
Neuwirth
what: Artist
Nathaniel Willson
H
e once watched Up in Smoke in jail, and now his 24-inch Disappear Here piece spelling out “Up in Smoke” in neon is just one of the items in Seattle artist Dylan Neuwirth’s current body of work that reflects his colorful past— as is the 61-inch-by-72-inch neon, faceted diamond that was once the hallmark of his former glam-rap alter-ego Gold Hick. If that sounds like a lot to take in, that’s the beauty of Neuwirth’s body of work and of Neuwirth himself. Neuwirth credits early exposure to working in theater and stagecraft, which he describes as “visual sleight of hand“ for his rich, graphic approach. “I like to create objects that are so visually strong that surfaces and materials become their own indelible image, and that image becomes an object in your mind,” Neuwirth says. “That object becomes an idea, which spurs the poetic narrative.” His rap sheet reads like those of some of his own musical heroes: creative childhood growing up in Athens, Georgia;
details: Dylan Neuwirth is a contemporary Seattle artist working in mixed media, specifically neon. His artistic influences include Banks Violette; Mike Kelley; Dash Snow; Anselm Reyle; the early indie and grunge rock scene in Athens, Georgia; David Bowie; William S. Burroughs; and Bret Easton Ellis.
evolution into an artist; local renown; dark period of drugs and alcohol; jail time; renaissance. It’s that evolution that has allowed Neuwirth to produce his recent body of work called “The Conversation,” which was shown at Seattle’s Punch Gallery in November 2011. Both referential and postmodern allegory, Neuwirth’s piece drew inspiration from Shakespeare’s Hamlet to the words of Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho and Glamorama) to present a highly personal show that embodied Neuwirth’s past in his potent visual style. As for the future, Neuwirth’s evolution as an artist seems to revolve around particular words or symbols that serve as a personal mantra for a period of time. Like Gold Hick’s diamond, his new talisman is a logo that Neuwirth designed. It simply says, “PUNK.” Drawing on his musical influence and a current style, he’s dubbed “gutter-glam.” “It’s a joke in the punk world, like, ‘What is being punk?’” Neuwirth explains. “If you’re the punkest of all, it’s being yourself.” GRAY ISSUE No. three
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