Recently EMERGE swung by in Chelsea for a cool show by two relative newcomers to New York's bustling contemporary art scene. Entitled simply Colby Bird and Joshua Fields, the show was curated by our friend (and tremendously skilled artist) Alex Dodge and man it's a doozy.

"A crystalline stream of urine, a dirty fridge filled with 40-ouncers, stereo speakers, a grunge idol's suicide note" begins a write-up of the show in the Village Voice, setting the tone with mock dismissiveness only to validate the depth and sincerity of Bird and Field's work as more than mere "boy art" despite its exploration of hip-hop, grunge and pop culture through the tropes and vocabulary of the art world.

Indeed, it's no small feat to find two young artists transcend such massively generational points of reference as Kurt Cobain, Chris Farley and the grotesque ostentation of bling to make poignant and meaningful works of art. While their subject matter is very familiar terrain in the contemporary art scene, Bird and Fields manage still to turn photos of pee pee and gold fronts constructed from a champagne bottle rapper into artistic gold through conceptual rigor and a desire to transcend mere "sampling" to articulate something more delicate yet infinitely more enduring.






Territorial Pissings Joshua Fields




The Birth and Death of Chris Farley Joshua Fields





Untitled Colby Bird





Ring Flash Self Portrait with $6 Champagne-wrapping Gold TeethColby Bird

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