Gregory Sale's Love Buttons

Local Produce
July 10th - September 27th, 2008

Along with landscape studies by photographers Mark Klett and Matthew Moore, musings on mortality by Mayme Kratz, personal confessions by Angela Elsworth and more signature Arizonia by James Turrel, are delicate paintings by Iraqi born Hayv Kahramann, who is new to the gallery. Her painting Female Genital Mutilation depicts flowers pierced with needles in a style that courts Orientalism, giving the viewer a tinge of guilty pleasure. Also new to the gallery is Rhonda Zwillinger, now an Arizona resident but made famous in the East Village of New York during the chaotic 1980's, when she was an art scenester par excellance. Her beaded work dangles between garment and sculpture.

Gregory Sale's new work continues his habits of intervention and participatory art, and is a curious link to SMoCA's Branded exhibit. Love Buttons is an ongoing project by Sale that meddles with marketing, not, like the works in Branded and On Display, by comment, but by active participation in the world of advertising.

Love Buttons consists of a number of round plastic covered metal buttons, made like the pin-ons common to advertising and political campaigns, and similar round, white plaques that function as street signs. Working with a number of volunteer poets, Sale has made buttons that feature snippets of verse that, when collected and seen together, spin different messages of affection. The work at Lisa Sette is part of a public art project that has given away the buttons like advertising tokens at events and festivals. Unlike similar badges that sell politicians or soft drinks, this collection of tiny artworks, of course, only brands itself. We only care about art, however, when it helps us remember what we truly cherish.

Photos courtesy of the artist and Aaron Abbott

Artists included in Local Produce are: Angela Ellsworth, Hayv Kahraman, Mark Klett, Mayme Kratz, Nissa Kubly, Elena Lourenco, Carrie Marill, Matthew Moore, Marie Navarre, Gregory Sale, Julianne Swartz, James Turrell, Anthony Velasquez and Rhonda Zwillinger.

Local Produce
July 10th - September 27th, 2008
Lisa Sette Gallery
4142 North Marshall Way
Scottsdale, AZ 85251
Tel.: (480) 990-7342
Web: lisasettegallery.com