FIFTY24SF Gallery present’s “You Can’t Win” by PEZ and Joshua Blank, featuring collaborative works and zines by both artists. The title of the show, “You Can’t Win,” has roots in the year 2001 when PEZ and Joshua lived in San Francisco and collaborated on a zine by the same name. Both owned very little more than their bicycles and cameras and would set off on adventures with marginal characters in hopes of making and finding the inspiration for art; and the zine itself became a part of this adventure. Documenting tragic, erotic and peculiar situations, this culminated in the “You Can’t Win” zine. In 2004, Joshua moved to New York City to pursue fashion photography, and the zine lost momentum. After individually refining their talents and pursuing photography zines on their own, PEZ and Joshua’s reconvened in San Francisco last year, and this show marks the revival.
Although the work that PEZ and Joshua were accomplishing during 2001 went largely un-noticed, in retrospect the immediacy and relevancy of what they were doing is easily evident. Their work, unbeknownst to them, played an integral part in the larger graffiti movement of the past 25 years and has been recognized by the bigger players in the movement for its honesty and innovativeness; Shepard Fairey has even remarked that “Pez, a bike messenger, has crushed every city he’s live in…” Rediscovering these pioneering artists and bringing them to the public’s attention through these new works is what makes You Can’t Win one of the more exciting exhibitions at FIFTY24SF Gallery this year. The show runs from August 6th – August 25th with an opening reception occurring on Friday, August 6th at 7:30PM/
“We were and are both very depressed individuals and do not really view ourselves as really fitting into any group, but as persons who kind of sit on the cusp of several. More as loners than anything else.” -PEZ and Joshua Blank
