Dope Underground Up Exhibition

   I saw a lot of intriguing and powerful pieces in the Underground Up in the Visual Arts gallery at NJCU the other day when we visited. All of them caught my attention, but there were two pieces in particular that really drew me in. The first piece that really caught my attention the most was the Shield Of Justice by Distort. I really thought Distort's piece was super cool, creative, and unique. The first thing I thought to myself was how did he paint and/or draw over the hood of the car... Not only was Distort's piece fascinating to me, but I thought it brought out a very powerful message about females. The car hood that he used as a material to express himself with his piece depicts a lonely destructive city. You mainly see like trees without leaves, looking as if there were falling and they were affected by what happened in the area. Then the image shows an abandoned car in flames next to another car that looks like it was left abandoned as well. On top of the image that shows this destructive city, you see two females. I noticed afterwards that in between the two women, there was a man, which looked like he was being murdered by the two women on the picture.  This art work shows and expresses that women too, can be powerful, strong, and daring. I like this piece because even though it is a tad violent, it lets people know that women can be just as daring as men. This artwork might be humiliating for the male figure because men are scientifically naturally physically stronger.

Shield of Justice by Distort.

   The second piece that also really caught my attention was The Night At The Museum by Clarence Rich. I thought The Night At The Museum was pretty interesting, dark, trippy, but true. In this painting you see two images split in half (in my opinion that is what it looks like). The first image, which is on my left side shows a cat, but it is not your ordinary cat. This cat looks animated and kind of odd. At the bottom of the cat, there is a painting cut in half of a lady. In the middle, where the images are cut, you see a girl. The girl is posing for the camera in a way which calls for, "Look at me, I am taking a picture with these portraits". She looks like she wants the attention on her... On the other side, you see an image of  a cat, but this cat looks normal. Underneath the cat, you see the same portrait of the lady that was on the other side, but just this side, the lady looks discombobulated and creepy looking. To me the colors used here on the images looked pretty trippy. It gave it like a psychedelic look to the painting, which I thought was dope. After looking at it for a while, I thought to myself, that this piece means living in a reality that is not yours or even real. This reminded me of all the pictures that are posted daily on instagram by people who try to be someone they are not through social media, especially instagram, which its purpose is to post pictures. I know so many people who show off on the gram and try to paint their life as perfect on the media, when in reality, they are not what they portray themselves to be. These individuals fail to perceive that it is not healthy and that this is them being awfully untrue with themselves... This art work is important because this is what our generation is all about. Technology has become so advanced that it gives us the options to play a different role as a character when being online from being offline, and it is honestly sad truth behind this generation and society itself.

The Night At The Museum by Clarence Rich