F**K I Love You Los Angeles – Raif Adelberg

with Support from American Rag Cie, the Standard, PBR

Step inside the HVW8 Gallery and see artist / designer Raif Adelberg transform the space into a punk rock flophouse. Channeling CBGB, Barbara Kruger, and Vivienne Westwood, the space Raif creates is called Dead Boys Clubhouse. It’s an environmental space that pops up around the world and creates this incestuous gang.

Bratty, caustic, and in-your-face, that’s the surface of Adelberg’s art, pop imagery that comes together in paintings and silkscreens on canvas, wood, paper and clothing. But look a little closer and you will see that FUCK I LOVE YOU is all about perception and free will. “To look at things in a negative light is a choice. When you get upset you’re really relinquishing your power to the subject matter. It’s all about the power of choice,” he says.

While Adelberg’s intent isn’t to shock you, he also won’t mind if you are…and you wouldn’t be the first. At a recent show in London (Doyle Devere Gallery) he grabbed the attention of the local bobbies who demanded that the words “FUCK I LOVE YOU” on the gallery walls inside be covered up. “It’s interesting that such a positive message can be viewed in such a negative light, I think more people need to say FUCK I LOVE YOU. Its amazing to me a simple gesture can receive such a reaction either way,” says Adelberg.