Friday, June 14th, 2013

Zak Arctander
Jesse Butcher
Andrew Doak
Alan and Michael Fleming
Alex Gartelmann
Ethan Gill
Ivan Lozano
Andrew Mausert-Mooney
Casey McGonagle
John Opera
Auggie Oz
Benji Pearson
Mike Rea
Oli Rodriguez
Jonas Sebura
Nicolas Wiley

WEIRD DUDE ENERGY is a survey of artist dudes who cultivate the intersection of elegance and Dudeliness. Coursing between the tiles of the weight room’s floor and pulling the foam through a beer bong’s tube there is an energy. In WEIRD DUDE ENERGY an unease transmits through the works like the dissonant proportions cursing the limbs of pubescent boys. Stained with the trauma of puberty WEIRD DUDE ENERGY strikes a balance between restraint and total release. GDBD is drawn to the complicated and embarrassing gestures of Dudehood. Bask in the glory of this Dudery and join GDBD in inviting the WEIRD DUDE ENERGY to wash over us like an enveloping mist of AXE. Can you abide?

 Gurl Don’t Be Dumb is a Chicago-based curatorial project founded by Eileen Mueller and Jamie Steele trafficing in artists that reclaim the rejected with irreverence and total genius. Our aim is to build playful exhibitions in an effort to free the works from the academy and facilitate empowered viewership. We wish to expand the discourse between works making the exhibition a celebration of interpretation rather than an exercise in divination. In other words, just picture a corn dog bathed in pink neon glow: that’s GDBD.