"The Trash Can School" Curated by Vonn Sumner

Basement Projects

207 North Broadway, Santa Ana, California
February 2-24, 2018

Opening Reception: Saturday, February 3, 6p-10p.
Gallery hours by appointment

Basement Projects is pleased to announce a very unique exhibition: The Trash Can School. Curated by painter Vonn Sumner, the show’s title is a play on the ‘Ashcan School’ of east coast painters from 100 years ago who depicted the struggles of daily life in the urban centers they lived in. The current show takes the theme of the common trashcan as both a symbolic icon and a concrete object, presenting fine art based on the lowliest of subject matter. Each invited artist was asked to make something incorporating/responding to the theme of a trashcan. The results are diverse and engaging and often humorous. 

The Trash Can School is a descendant and homage to the spirit of the Beat Generation artists and writers who lived in and influenced Sumner’s native San Francisco Bay Area counter culture in the post-war era. Now in the time of digital corporate media and extreme economic inequity, as billionaires run the country and the world, the trashcan takes on a renewed relevance as a representative ‘spirit-animal’ of those who find themselves marginalized, minimized, ignored, disgusted or otherwise discarded by the current consumer culture.

The exhibition includes: a typically endearing drawing by celebrated painter Wayne Thiebaud; a classic piece by seminal Bay Area artist Wally Hedrick, one of the original instigators and practitioners of what would come to be known as Beat culture; a painting by legendary bluesman and artist Mike Henderson; a
signature papier-mâché piece by Jean Lowe…and much more. An eclectic and diverse selection of artists are included in the show, all responding to the ridiculous yet relevant theme of the trashcan.

Participating artists: Randall Cabe, Gabriella Castillo, Averi Endow, Wally Hedrick, Mike Henderson, Jessie Henson, Laura Hipke, Jean Lowe, Kim MacConnel, Robin McCauley, Christian Ramirez, Gloria Rivera, Richard Sumner, John Scane, Wayne Thiebaud, Kimberly Trowbridge, Jason Umfress, Fritz Welch and LG Williams.