Compound Yellow's featured artist Gary Cannone dominates every
part of the compound with his LA from Chicago brand of
conceptual art. Fun name drops include Bernini and Maritizo
Catalan. Tune in for the rest.
bio:
Gary Cannone
(Guerino
Giovanni Cannone) was born in 1964 to Italian immigrants working
factory jobs in Chicago. He learned english from American 70s
television and was obsessed with Norm Crosby, Carol Burnett, the
Three Stooges, Mad Magazine, Wacky Packages, and the Marx Brothers.
His grandfather (and namesake) was crushed to death by a pool table
the day before Cannone’s eighth birthday in a warehouse
accident.
He played in the early 80s leftist punk rock band The Leeches but,
as his interest in performing music waned, he saw Vito Aconcci
lecture and decided to become an artist. Cannone exhibited
conceptual and often dadaistic art while headquartered from
Chicago, Rome, and Los Angeles until he was diagnosed with Multiple
Sclerosis in 2013. As the disease took a toll on his body, he took
a hiatus but began to work again digitally using social media to
distribute art and jokes. Interest in his communal project of
parody album covers “Albums by Conceptual Artists” led to
invitations to exhibit again. He began exploring the effects of his
disease on his body and brain which led him back to the comedic
tropes he loved so much as a youngster; adressing his disability
through the lens of slapstick rather than advocacy.
Cannone’s recent work can be described as a decidedly reductive art
executed with the deft skill of a prop comic. The resulting
ensemble explores fragility, instability, urges, communication,
humiliation, tension, torture, gravity, parody, dexterity, and
death.
Bad At Sports is a weekly podcast about contemporary art. Founded in 2005, badatsports.com focuses on presenting the practices of artists, curators, critics, dealers, various other arts professionals through an online audio format.