Story and Photos by  Joshua ‘Creep’ G[Gallery = 50]

941 Geary Gallery, started by Justin Giarla of Shooting Gallery and White Walls, opened a new show this past November 6th featuring the work of Glen E Friedman entitled “Fuck You All”. The show runs until December 31st, and not only showcases what seems like an endless number of Friedman’s photographs but also some never before seen collaborations with Shepard Fairey based on a few of the photographs.

Whether or not you have ever heard the name Glen E. Friedman before this show, if you listen to rap, punk, or skate you have no doubt seen one of Friedman’s iconic images.  Before getting into the show, the gallery had a pretty nice sized line outside the door. It wasn’t that the gallery was overly packed, but it was in an effort to allow people to see the work and really enjoy the show. It was a good idea, as there was so many photographs to be seen that if there was too many people, you wouldn’t have been able to take your time and really enjoy the work.  Watching people look at the work, it wasn’t the normal gallery crawl of people moving from image to image. People took their time, smiled at the photographs of bands they grew up listening to, and maybe even got to see some photos they never saw before. The group shot of Minor Threat sitting on the porch, or Tony Hawk when he wasn’t a household name were just a few of the images I saw that brought smiles to the patrons faces.

For the reception both Glen E Friedman and Shepard Fairey were in attendance. Glen was pretty signing the posters and books that were available at the show, and Fairey was planted in the back of the gallery right below the massive wall that held his works. He was chatting with fans, signing books and posters, and generally looked happy to converse with anyone that walked up. Fans were able to not only look at prints made by Fairey, but also some originals. It’s nice to be able to see that layers of texture and print goes into each one of these pieces. There was also two screen prints on metal, that were done in a way that many thought they were etchings.

The crowd stayed strong right up to the closing hour of the show, and from the looks of it everyone was having a blast. 941 Geary has successfully showed fans of art why this gallery should always be on your radar. It’s also only a short walk to White Walls and Shooting Gallery, so this one area is a real hot spot for great art.

–Joshua ‘Creep’ G