Oil Spills and Soda Cans

How furious are you about the 50,000 barrels of crude spewing into the Gulf of Mexico every day? Pissed enough to make a protest poster? Well, Atlanta-based provocateur Greg Mike already did it. Titled “Thanks, BP!,” the 28-year-old studio artist’s smart-ass PSA stars a maniacally smiling, oil-slicked soda-can character that’s...

By S. Pajot

June 24, 2010

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How furious are you about the 50,000 barrels of crude spewing into the Gulf of Mexico every day? Pissed enough to make a protest poster? Well, Atlanta-based provocateur Greg Mike already did it. Titled “Thanks, BP!,” the 28-year-old studio artist’s smart-ass PSA stars a maniacally smiling, oil-slicked soda-can character that’s flipping the bird from both fists while a gooey pelican sits on its head. “The piece is my sarcastic jab at corporate America, who is putting money over the well-being of our environment,” Mike says.

Download the free poster at gregmike.com, bribe your friend who works at FedEx Office to print 400 free copies, and go poster the windows of BP’s American headquarters. Then pop off to Butter Gallery for a look at Greg Mike’s new sculpture show, “Popstars and Cokeheads.” “It’s a series of Madd cans, ranging anywhere from pop cultural icons to twisted drug addicts and freaks,” Mike explains. “I wanted to make a body of work utilizing an object we usually don’t ever think of being art — the soda can — and turn it from trash into something that is visually stimulating and entertaining.”
Tuesdays-Saturdays, noon. Starts: July 3. Continues through July 31, 2010

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