Tuesday, July 6, 2010

The Museum of Bad Art, Somerville Theatre, July 5th (Permanent)


The Museum of Bad Art (MOBA) located in the basement of Davis Square's Somerville Theatre features selected works that are a little off, a little bizarre, and a little bit, well, bad. I'd just like to bring attention to this underrepresented branch of the art world with a quick analysis.

-Loneliness in a Blue Lagoon - a bacon-skinned nude sits dramatically on the titular lagoon (which looks like a beach) with no expression on her face to match her horribly sunburnt skin or lack of skin.

-A Latin version of the King of Rock n Roll called Pablo Presley, featuring a shitty Mexi-stache.

Overall, there were a lot of topless women at the MOBA who didn't need to be topless and a good chunk of those were in front of volcanoes for no reason.

-There was a piece simply called Too Fat People.

-An outline of a pink elephant with disproportionate legs over some "bad-ass" graffiti.

-Perhaps the worst piece in the entire Museum was a shitty expressionist representation of an effete man with a mustache smoking a cigarette against a fucking ugly mustard-colored wall.

-Naked man and folding chair. No explanation.

-The most horrifyingly colorful sex scene ever:


-Middle-aged woman with no face melting in a bathtub.

-Gremlin-looking multi-cultural kid reaching for a peaceful, weather-less globe.

-A shapeless woman in a dress that looks like wallpaper.

A barely visible woman with huge fake-looking breasts formed by the outlines of clouds (which are thicker than the clouds themselves?) dubbed "Silicone Clouds"

-There were these that are just beyond words:


-A tree with eyes as leaves, and guess what? They're crying.

Another MOBA trend: A lot of eyes where they didn't need to be and a lack of eyes where they probably should be.

-The final, and largest, piece in the Somerville Theatre collection is a giant oil painting feature the face of Robert Redford from The Great Gatsby wearing the disco hat that Dan Ackroyd and Steve Martin wore in the "Two wild and crazy guys!!" sketch. The weird thing is: those two came out around the same time.

Some come to the MOBA, adjacent the men's room in the basement, if you want a good chuckle and a good "WTF?"

You have to buy a ticket for a movie to gain access, so I'd recommend the art-related culture commentary "Exit Through the Gift Shop" featuring Shepard Fairey and Banksy. Very good. And it'll get you in the mood for some art.

Also, check out the original MOBA, also located in a theatre basement, the Dedham Community Theatre. They have a gift shop, which I'm sure is extremely entertaining.

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