CL named Seminole Heights’ Quaid our Best Artists Collective for 2014. In their debut year, the nine adventurous young founding members were, to paraphrase Dizzee Rascal, the dopest, flyest, OG, pimp hustler, gangster player, hardcore motherfuckers living in Tampa today, and to be honest, we were totally and completely on their dick.
Yeah, but what have you done for me LATELY?
In a bid for continued relevance as the ravages of time inevitably erode their synapses and creative instincts (I mean, my god, some of these supposed "young artists" are in their 30s!), QUAID has assimilated three new members. They’ll debut at the group show QUAIDIDGAF.
Officially, this changing of the guard came about because several of the founders have entered new, extra-Tampanian stages in their lives: Ericka Richardson and Tim McMillan are now in Chicago; Ville Mehtonen and Monica Perez — clearly inspired by Kicking and Screaming (no, the other one) — are just days from jetting off to Prague (Oh, I’ve been to Prague).
Unofficially, though (by which I mean I am completely fabricating this, Fox News-style), it seems obvious that the four ex-Quaids have simply outlived their usefulness in the secretive back-room medical procedures which, through to a combination of blood transfusions and oxygen tents, help the older members maintain their youthful vigor. And so they will be replaced by new Quaids, whose impressionable minds and supple young flesh will fuel the monstrous secret blood-cult that is Tampa’s Best Artists Collective.
QUAID's new members are (drum roll please):
Chase Sherman: Piloting the Black Lion and controlling the Obscene Thunder Tornado Engine, Chase brings a rough-edged style influenced by his tattoo addiction and collection of head wounds from various hardcore shows. (Instagram: These Things Take Time.)
Sam K. Newton: After being bitten by a radioactive gecko in her high school science lab, Sam Newton’s strangely altered hands and feet give her the power to scale nearly any vertical surface unaided. Newton may now be the most realist Quaid, though that’s not saying much — her portrait-centric paintings confront pop culture and celebrity, for instance in a series depicting her breasts as the expressive heads of her favorite rappers. (Samknewton.com)
Georgia Hourdas: Wielding the Sword of Crystal Tears and crisscrossing the universe accompanied by the intelligent (and possibly untrustworthy) cat-like being known as Semulon, Hourdas makes art that aggressively deconstructs her fascination with Japanese traditional and popular culture. Her contributions to QUAIDIDGAF are tight compositions of brightly colored textiles and fragmented symbols. (Tumblr: Sad Girls Looking at Things)
QUAIDIDGAF will also feature plenty of weird, off-putting work from existing QUAID members, including Anthony Record’s new foray into collage. And definitely NO sacrificial rituals.
This article appears in Jan 15-21, 2015.