Steve Lambert, “Advertisement,” latex paint on found posters, 50’ x 8’, 2000-01

Project Title: The Anti Advertising Agency
Recipient Organization: San Francisco Print Collective
Lead Artist: Steve Lambert
Genre and Date Awarded: Visual Arts, June 2004
To be Presented: September 2004-September 2005

Artist Steve Lambert and the San Francisco Print Collective will collaborate to create the “Anti-Advertising Agency,” an interdisciplinary public art project that examines the role of advertising and public art in the Bay Area. Through constructive parody and gentle humor, the artists ask passersby to critically consider the role and strategies of today’s marketing media and alternatives for the public arena. Among other topics, it will examine ways political candidates are groomed, packaged, and sold to the public.

The collaborators write, “Residents of urban areas are subjected to an unavoidable daily invasion by the outdoor advertising industry.” Their Anti-Advertising Agency plans to denormalize “out of home” advertising, and to increase awareness of the public’s power to contribute to a more democratically-based outdoor environment.

The collaborators’ approach is to co-opt tools and structures of the advertising and public relations industries. They will create a facetious corporate structure with lead artist Steve Lambert as the CEO, San Francisco Print Collective members serving as the board of directors, and fiscal sponsor Pond, as the CFO. Their Agency will develop a corporate identity and image—logo, promotional materials, and web site—and will “hire” collaborating artists on a four-week rotating schedule to develop ideas and complete projects. The projects may result in traditional advertising methods—such as signs, posters, postcards, stickers—or more conventional artistic formats—performance and installation, artists books—or some combination of the two. In addition, the Agency will create a thorough PR campaign to reach local media.

Steve Lambert has a background in a variety of art media. He also has worked collaboratively, worked in small businesses and corporations, and served as an educator. Through 2004 he chaired the San Francisco Art Institute Artists’ Committee. Among other projects, he created the Budget Gallery, an idealistic venture that presents low-cost gallery style exhibitions in high traffic public areas—generally on vacant walls, chain link fences, and sides of abandoned buildings.

The San Francisco Print Collective’s aim is to increase public awareness and dialogue about local, national, and international concerns by printing and pasting posters and large format banners and billboards throughout San Francisco that are informative, memorable, and thought-provoking. The Collective is sustained by a core group of 10 members who meet regularly to print and hang posters for such community causes as the Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition, the Coalition on Homelessness, and the anti-war movement. Among other projects, they developed the banners that hang over City Lights Bookstore in North Beach.

San Francisco Print Collective, “Raise Your Hand,” silkscreen on paper, 20” x 30”, 1999

LEAD ARTIST

Steve Lambert

RESUME HIGHLIGHTS

Grants, Awards, and Residencies

• Individual Grant, Belle Foundation for Cultural Development (2004)
• First Prize, First Annual Adbusters TV contest (2003)
• Finalist, Potrero Nuevo Fund Prize (2003)
• Artist-in-Residence, California Arts Council (2002-03)

Selected Public Art Works/Interventions

• “I JUST WOKE UP FROM THE MOST BEAUTIFUL DREAM,” collaboration with Tucker Nichols, Downtown San Jose Vacant Woolworth’s, San Jose, California (2003)
• Stencil Mural with Scott Williams and the San Francisco Print Collective, San Francisco, California (2003)
• “Three Birds,” Congress Hotel, Tucson, Arizona (2002)
• “TRASH,” vacant billboard, San Francisco, California (2002)
• “I CAN’T RELAX,” Alabama Street, San Francisco, California (2002)
• “I’M AFRAID,” Van Ness Street and Market Street, San Francisco, California (2001)
• “Puppet Street Renaming Project,” Bush Street, San Francisco, California (2001)
• “HOMES FOR THE RICH,” Alabama Street, San Francisco, California (2000)
• “ADVERTISEMENT,” Mission Street, San Francisco, California (2000)
• “Rev Ray Ho Action Hour,” radio show, KZSU 90.1 FM Radio, Stanford, California (1998)

Selected Group Exhibitions

• “Spoonful of Sugar,” at the Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco, California (2004)
• “Budget Gallery Allstars,” Mission 17 Gallery, San Francisco, California (2004)
• “Breaking News,” stART at Judson Church, New York, New York (2003)
• “Propaganda,” Start Soma Gallery, San Francisco, California (2003)
• “Ground Zero,” Freyberger Gallery, Reading, Pennsylvania (2003)
• “NO WAR,” Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco, California (2002)
• “Ground Zero,” Detroit Museum of New Art, Detroit, Michigan (2002)
• “Counting Coup, Theater for the New City, New York, New York (2001)
• “Undo,” Scott Pfaffman Gallery, New York, New York (2001)
• “Paladar,” Concurrent with Havana Biennale, Havana, Cuba (2000)

Curatorial Projects

• “Why Wait? Expatriate!” Salon, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California (2004)
• Budget Gallery (2004, 2003, 2002 seasons)
• “Gail Wight: The Evolution of Disarticulation,” San Francisco Art Institute Adeline Kent Award, Walter McBean Gallery, San Francisco, California (2003)
• “Stencils: The Art of Negative Spaces,” with StencilArchive.Org (2003)
• Juror, San Francisco Art Institute Annual Spring Show (2003)
• Assignment #5, “Learning to Love You More with Aragon High School,” San Mateo City Hall (2003)
• “Prime Time” Lecture Series, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California (2001)

Teaching and Lectures

• Guest Lecturer, Stanford University (2004)
• Community Youth Programs, CELL Space, San Francisco, California (2004)
• Classroom Instructor, 3D Art, Aragon High School, San Mateo, California (2003)
• Panelist, 2003 Make Art Your Business, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (2003)
• Guest Speaker, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California (2003)
• Artist-in-Residence, Aragon High School, San Mateo, California (2002-03)
• Chief Announcer, Music Director, Production Director, KZSU Stanford Radio, Stanford, California (1995-98)

Affiliations

• Chair, San Francisco Art Institute Artists’ Committee (2003; member since 1999)
• Founder, Co-director, Budget Gallery, San Francisco, California (1999- )

Collections

• Medea Benjamin
• Anthony Petr Gorny

San Francisco Print Collective, “Untitled,” ongoing banner project,
latex on canvas, five pieces at 5’ x 15’, 2003

www.antiadvertisingagency.com

www.budgetgallery.org/slambert

www.sfprintcollective