'ApresGarde' Covers Lowbrow's Flank at Gallery 1988

How many names does one movement need? Lowbrow, pop surrealism, post-pop, post-brow, underground, outsider — there are plenty of labels already for the axis of figurative, hallucinatory artwork that runs through comix, custom car culture, and graphic illustration via L.A. and the Mission School. Nevertheless, a show at Gallery 1988 offers up yet another name: ApresGarde. These artists, the show's statement says, "are enthusiastically promoting the idea of a vital 'rear guard,' an anti–Avant Garde that takes its cues from Street art, Lowbrow art and other inspirational subcultures that the 'official' art world refuses to recognize." Well, whatever you want to call the genre, the show promises a stash of cartoony, colorful delights. Curated by Anthony Ausgang, who is featured in the 2005 book Pop Surrealism, it includes paintings from Attaboy, The Pizz, Stephen Holman, Andrew Foster, Jason Maloney, Paul Arden, Germs, and Dame Darcy, along with dolls from Marcel DuJure and prints from Howard Hallis and KRK Ryden. No doubt it'll look like a few cans of spray paint, a dozen Warner Brothers reels, and the pin-up collection from your great-uncle Fred exploded all over the gallery. Call it eye candy.