The Shell Game - The Art of Molly Crabapple

Shell Game

“Bracing, exuberant altarpieces for the revolution.” – Chris Hayes

Shell Game is a series of large-scale paintings about the revolutions and crisis of 2011, including the mortgage bubble, the Greek anti-austerity protests, and Occupy Wall Street. Shell Game is comprised of nine, 6’x4′ paintings and one 3’x3’ painting about the revolutions and crises of 2011 (six of which have already been sold to collectors) including the mortgage bubble, the Greek anti-austerity protests, and Occupy Wall Street, filtered them through the artist’s distinctive lens of surrealism, satire, and symbolic animals and, for eight of nine paintings, informed by travel to the settings, including Spain, Greece, and the United Kingdom, during which she interviewed activists for her reported illustrated journalism pieces and participated in demonstrations. For Tunisia, she interviewed members of Nawaat, the dissident blogger collective, via Skype.

“It was the year when everyone sat down in the main squares of their cities and said the old machine is broken, 2011 freed me to do the best work of my career, and it was amazing to see my protest art wheat-pasted on walls and carried by activists around the world.” -Molly Crabapple

The paintings were exhibited in April 2013.