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Conrad Bakker
Untitled Project:
RECORD SHOP [45s]

Conrad Bakker
Untitled Project - RECORD SHOP [Donna Summer, I Feel Love], 2012
oil on carved wood
7-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches

Conrad Bakker
Untitled Project - RECORD SHOP [Run DMC, Walk This Way], 2012
oil on carved wood
7-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches

Conrad Bakker
Untitled Project - RECORD SHOP [Elvis, Blue Suede Shoes], 2012
oil on carved wood
7-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches

Conrad Bakker
Untitled Project - RECORD SHOP [Elton John, Nobody Wins], 2012
oil on carved wood
7-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches

Conrad Bakker
Untitled Project - RECORD SHOP [Pee Wee Herman, Surfin Bird], 2012
oil on carved wood
7-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches

Conrad Bakker
Untitled Project - RECORD SHOP [Nirvana, Love Buzz], 2012
oil on carved wood
7-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches

Conrad Bakker
Untitled Project - RECORD SHOP [Johnny Cash, The Big Battle], 2012
oil on carved wood
7-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches

Conrad Bakker
Untitled Project - RECORD SHOP [The Beatles, HELP!], 2012
oil on carved wood
7-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches

Conrad Bakker
Untitled Project - RECORD SHOP [Dead Kennedys, Kill the Poor], 2012
oil on carved wood
7-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches

Conrad Bakker
Untitled Project - RECORD SHOP [REM, Its the end of the world as we know it], 2012
oil on carved wood
7-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches

Conrad Bakker
Untitled Project - RECORD SHOP [Marvin Gaye, What's Going On], 2012
oil on carved wood
7-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches

Conrad Bakker
Untitled Project - RECORD SHOP [Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five, The Message], 2012
oil on carved wood
7-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches

Conrad Bakker
Untitled Project - RECORD SHOP [Heart, Barracuda], 2012
oil on carved wood
7-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches

Conrad Bakker
Untitled Project - RECORD SHOP [David Bowie, Space Oddity], 2012
oil on carved wood
7-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches

Conrad Bakker
Untitled Project - RECORD SHOP [Rolling Stones, Street Fighting Man], 2012
oil on carved wood
7-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches

Conrad Bakker
Untitled Project - RECORD SHOP [Carpenters, Close to You], 2012
oil on carved wood
7-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches

Conrad Bakker
Untitled Project - RECORD SHOP [Bruce Springsteen, Born in the USA], 2012
oil on carved wood
7-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches

Conrad Bakker
Untitled Project - RECORD SHOP [James Brown, Say it loud I'm Black and I'm Proud], 2012
oil on carved wood
7-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches

Conrad Bakker
Untitled Project - RECORD SHOP [The Clash, I Fought the Law], 2012
oil on carved wood
7-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches

Conrad Bakker
Untitled Project - RECORD SHOP [James Brown, Hey America], 2012
oil on carved wood
7-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches

Conrad Bakker
Untitled Project - RECORD SHOP [Survivor, Burning Heart], 2012
oil on carved wood
7-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches

Conrad Bakker
Untitled Project - RECORD SHOP [Michael Jackson, PYT], 2012
oil on carved wood
7-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches

Conrad Bakker
Untitled Project - RECORD SHOP [Phil Collins, Sussudio], 2012
oil on carved wood
7-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches

Conrad Bakker
Untitled Project - RECORD SHOP [Depeche Mode, Enjoy the Silence], 2012
oil on carved wood
7-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches

Conrad Bakker
Untitled Project - RECORD SHOP [Joni Mitchell, Big Yellow Taxi], 2012
oil on carved wood
7-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches

Conrad Bakker
Untitled Project - RECORD SHOP [Bob Marley, Redemption Song], 2012
oil on carved wood
7-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches

Conrad Bakker
Untitled Project - RECORD SHOP [U2, Sunday Bloody Sunday], 2012
oil on carved wood
7-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches

Conrad Bakker
Untitled Project - RECORD SHOP [NENA, 99 Red Balloons], 2012
oil on carved wood
7-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches

Conrad Bakker
Untitled Project - RECORD SHOP [Nina Simone, Mississippi Goddam], 2012
oil on carved wood
7-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches

Conrad Bakker 
Untitled Project - RECORD SHOP [Pulp, Common People], 2012
oil on carved wood
7-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches

Conrad Bakker
Untitled Project - RECORD SHOP [Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Two Tribes], 2012
oil on carved wood
7-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches

Conrad Bakker
Untitled Project - RECORD SHOP [Tracy Chapman, Talkin bout a Revolution], 2012
oil on carved wood
7-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches

Conrad Bakker
Untitled Project - RECORD SHOP [Creedence Clearwater Revival, Fortunate Son], 2012
oil on carved wood
7-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches

Conrad Bakker
Untitled Project - RECORD SHOP [The Clash, The Cost of Living] [I Fought the Law], 2012
oil on carved wood
7-1/4 x 7-1/4 inches

March 24 – May 12, 2012

Lora Reynolds Gallery is pleased to present Untitled Project: RECORD SHOP [45s], Conrad Bakker's newest body of work.

Bakker will turn our project room into an ersatz record store by displaying more than 30 LP covers—all shaped from wood and painted with oils. The sculptures are rough and painterly, but just realistic enough to trick the casual observer into believing he or she is looking at actual LPs.

This project is part of a larger ongoing series in which Bakker creates nonfunctional replicas of banal salable objects and re-inserts them into commercial environments. He had a garage sale on his front lawn and sold painted wooden sculptures posing as tchotchkes. He filled subscriptions to his own mail-order Book-of-the-Month Club, although none of the books were readable. In convenience stores, Bakker sometimes hides his sculptures among their functional counterparts to be found by unwitting customers.

Bakker's lighthearted exercises in re-contextualization bring up questions about the role of the artist in the marketplace. An artist's practice often blurs the line between traditional ideas of work and leisure. Cultivating inspiration, developing ideas, and making objects with little utilitarian value may, from a parochial perspective, look like mere indolence.

By reproducing LP covers, Bakker points to the difference in popularly perceived value between the musical and visual arts. Records, CDs, and MP3s have always enjoyed mass-market appeal. The products of visual artists, however, are sometimes vilified as inconsequential or playthings of the über-rich. RECORD SHOP presents an alternative of pluralistic value, relevance, and appreciation.

Conrad Bakker lives and works in Urbana, Illinois. His work has been shown internationally at venues including the New Museum of Contemporary Art (New York); the Tate Modern (London); the Färgfabriken Center for Contemporary Art and Architecture (Stockholm); and his front lawn. Bakker's work has been reviewed in publications including the New York Times and Sculpture. Bakker was recently included in the exhibition New Image Sculpture at the McNay Art Museum (San Antonio).

Untitled Project: RECORD SHOP [45s] will be on view through May 5, 2012.