YARROW SLAPS
NA(w)LA(se) nostalgia..ancient wunz..labor..self-exploration

Opening Reception: Saturday January 25th, 6 – 9pm
Exhibition Dates: January 25th – February 29th, 2020

1. Nostalgia
2. Ancient wunz
3. Labor
4. And self-exploration

These are 4 groupings of thought that occur in all stages of life. Please take your time when navigating these environments. For they are precious zones. – Yarrow Slaps

A lifesize painting of Allen Iverson stares back at the viewer, the figure carefully scanning the court, donned in a Sixers jersey, headband, cornrows, and tattoos. The quietly confident player who ushered in a new era in the NBA, leading a generation of players raised on hip hop who had no interest in compromising themselves so that they could be more “marketable” in the eyes of conservative white management and ownership groups. In many ways, the supremely poised, yet introspective character of Allen Iverson speaks to an attitude that permeates the latest exhibition of paintings and multimedia works by San Francisco-born and raised artist Yarrow Slaps. Deftly bouncing from subject to subject, NA(w)LA(se) nostalgia..ancient wunz..labor..self-exploration brings together a collection of the artist’s work focusing on everything from the construction of identity and selfhood to memory and the divine.

The painting of Iverson bedecked in all the customary logos is a reference to the cover of the Playstation 2 game, NBA2K3–the popular basketball video game of the early 2000s. Using the game’s “create a player” mode as a point of departure, the artist creates a series of paintings speaking to the construction of identity and selfhood, with a range of characters being created–both mortal and divine in nature. There are tributes to great players such as the WNBA’s Lisa Leslie and rap greats such as the recently passed Nipsey Hussle, with other figures taking on a more imaginary and even godlike presence. One character stands tall, wearing only basketball shorts yet crowned with a floating halo and monarch butterfly wings. Their attribute ratings beside them, from the typical block, 3pt and steal abilities, to more holistic measures of mental, heart, hustle, and grace.

For years, Yarrow has developed a loose and improvisational style of figuration, his confident brush and linework providing a distinctive sense of intentionality and life to even the most mundane of objects. His unique hand and poised decision making combined with a subject matter focused largely on people of color, connects the artist with a legacy of painters from Alice Neel to Jordan Casteel, however, there’s a precision and flatness to the work that speaks more to the tradition of the Persian miniature. Yet it’s his idiosyncratic subject matter and unexpected lattice of references that sets him apart–famous characters within California rap and the Bay Area Hyphy movement of the early 2000s, are contrasted by more harrowing scenes such as a painting of the viral video of BBQ Becky–the white woman made world-famous for calling the police on a group of black folks enjoying a barbeque on the banks of Oakland’s Lake Merritt. As a native son of the Bay Area, there’s a warm sense of localism that permeates Yarrow’s paintings, but the broader themes of identity and heart, community and self-worth, all handled with a freewheeling spontaneity and sensitivity to detail, carry forth the artist’s rich universe to which the paintings are but an invitation.