On our recent whirlwind trip through Europe, EMERGE had the good fortune to get stuck in Munich thanks to a temporarily misplaced passport. The richest city in Germany is a shockingly green and pretty town, known to locals as the "million village" for it's small-town feel, despite the stately boulevards lined with luxury shops and the overall affluence of its populace. While we missed the most recent Andreas Gursky exhibition we were hoping to see (luckily, it's at Matthew Marks Gallery here in NYC), we did get to catch a quirky little show by one of our favorite graphic designers, the New Zealand-born, Berlin-based Paul Snowden, who has turned his cheeky street campaign/tee shirt range WASTED GERMAN YOUTH into the starting-point for "The Deconstruction of Capitalism, currently on view at the A/K/A Gallery on Muellerstrasse.

Blending Snowden's signature typographic style and rave-oriented subject matter with several lightboxes, photographs and a large scale installation of a perspective-scrambling proportions, the show hews rather loosely to its title, but was a fun little discovery nonetheless. Ranging from large-scale printouts to screenprints and boards printed with enameled paint both in the gallery space and the stairwell leading to the second floor space, Snowden's work is both funny and thought provoking. It's open to interpretation just what he's getting at through references to rave culture, late nights on drugs, Scarface and appropriated BBC graphics.

If you happen to be wandering around Munich and wonder what those stickers reading Wasted Germany Youth plastered everywhere are about, perhaps this show will help clear it up:






The Deconstruction of Capitalism






4:30 Thursday Morning






I Wasn't There, I Didn't Do it






Amen






The Deal At Sosa






Iraq Dirty / Iraq Clean

WASTED GERMAN YOUTH

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