P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center presents a long-term site-specific installation, Tylenol Island, by artist collective Dearraindrop (formed Virginia Beach, Virginia in 1995), in the basement bathroom. Dearraindrop has transformed the bathroom into an all-out sensory experience which integrates animation, painting, and collage. This complete environment, a profusion of acidic color, is a complex conflation of the adolescent and the adult.
Dearraindrop's three founding members Joe Grillo, Laura Grant, and Billy Grant (who have often collaborated with other artists on past projects) work together to make paintings, clothing, animation, installations, and video. Though they work together, each member has developed his or her own very personal style.
Joe Grillo attributed the group's references to Henry Darger, Andy Warhol, Hieronymous Bosch, Ray Johnson, Michael Jackson, Nintendo, Adolf Wolfi, the Rolling Stones, William Burroughs, totemic art, abstract animation, Charles Crumb, Forcefield, Gaudi, Atari, and science fiction, among many others. The name of the group is also a reference—Dearraindrop was generated when two of the artists discovered the word/s scribbled on a discarded scrap of paper.
Dearraindrop has had solo exhibitions at Deitch Projects, New York (2004); John Connelly Presents (JCP), New York (2003); and Hannah Fushihara in Tokyo, Japan (2003).
This exhibition is curated by Assistant Curator Amy Smith-Stewart.