Flash

Flash serves as an opportunity for audiences to reexamine tattooing as an art form worthy of closer inspection and appreciation on and off the body. The show’s title nods to the complex nature of tattoos in terms of temporality and references the use of flash sheets, “lookbook” pages filled with artist designs that are ready to be tattooed immediately. While typically considered permanent, a tattoo as a work of art exists only as long as its canvas, the human body, is alive. Just like a flash, tattoos are bold while present, but ultimately lost to time. Presenting these designs in a gallery documents and immortalizes the work of these artists in a way that the practice itself cannot. Flash seeks to further legitimize tattooing as an art form and explore its status as a subset of “outsider art.”