Random Act - Americana Art Show

One of M&F's favorite street artists, Random Act, opens her new solo art show 'Americana' tonight at Lab Art.  Here is a story that was originally posted on the Huffington Post.  In the meantime, enjoy these words about and art from Random Act.

The show will also feature impressive collaborations with fellow LA street artists, Snyder, Lydiaemily, KH. no 7 and more.

Random Act

The Revolution Will be Lived

In this day and age, there is almost a digital buffer between people and the lives we live.  Nearly every interaction is filtered through some sort of screen or technology.  However, Los Angeles based fine artist Adrea LaHue a.k.a. street artist Random Act, uses life to break free from this technology cave that we each live in.  Her latest solo art show 'Americana: The Revolution Will Be Live' travels back to pre-digital times, and capture the essence and the glory of what it means to be American.   

Andrea is perhaps best known as her alter ego, the street artist Random Act.  Random Act is how Andrea signs her pieces when she paints gorgeous larger than life flowers on abandoned buildings in dilapidated urban areas.  Random Act is based in Los Angeles but took her show on the road last year when she drove across the entire United States during a journey she entitled 'Cross Country Random Act of Flowers'.  Andrea painted over 150 flowers in 49 cities, from LA to Harlem.  Along her journey, she accumulated the experiences that will comprise the body of her upcoming art show, Americana. 

If exciting lives lead to exciting art, then this show will be a thriller.  Just as Vincent Van Gogh lopped off his ear, Andrea has her own epic battle stories to tell.  For instance, her painting hand is currently bandaged in a plaster cast from her knuckles up to her elbow after she broke her hand in two places in a fight trying to free her feisty 5 pound puppy dog from the clamped jaws of a pit bull.  Its stories like this that have inspired Andrea's fine art for her show, Americana.  One of our favorite pieces is a painting of her same puppy dog, Buckley.  Andrea's heroism did get save Buckley from the pit bull, and her painting pictures Buckley smiling as the Texas wind blows through his hair.

Andrea's paintings look great on plywood on the streets and on a canvas hanging on the wall.  The paintings for her upcoming show are beautiful pieces of work that stand on their own, each as something aesthetically strong and pleasing.  Beyond that, Andrea says her paintings seek to 'redeem' and 'reveal'.  Redeem because the energy of the pieces is hopeful and bright.  Random Act says that she is aware that everything in life has both good and bad elements.  Her goal is to 'redeem' the moments that make up life by taking the bad and re-mixing it into something good.  She succeeds in doing this, and the pieces are not static.  Rather, the mixed medium materials keep revealing themselves in new ways.  Like a narrative with many sub-plots, each painting has many parts contributing to the whole and Andrea's backgrounds are loaded with subtle tangible recollections from Andrea's travels across Americana.  

The tag line for Andrea's Americana harkens back to Gil Scott-Heron's famous declaration, 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised'.  Indeed, the Revolution won't be found on any screen, because each person's true revolution cannot be broadcast, it must be lived.  Walk away from your computer.  Set down your cell phone.  Keep an eye out for Random Acts of flowers on the streets, and come experience Andrea Lahue's revolution for Americana.