The Others

Gregg Deal: The Others

east window 

4949 Broadway, Unit 102-B, Boulder, CO 80304

April 1-May 27, 2021

Admission: Free

Review by Renée Marino

A generous, east-facing window at the edge of North Boulder displays a single, mighty print of an acrylic painting from Gregg Deal’s ongoing series The Others. The work will be up until May 27th. Visitors be advised, this gallery is purely one window—so when you’re hungry for more of the works in the series, view them on the artist’s website.

Deal’s Indigenous, Pyramid Lake Paiute identity is central to his work and informs his de-colonial perspective as a muralist and painter, as well as a performance artist. Based on east window’s previous exhibitions and statements condemning colonialism and racism, it is clear that Deal’s work is offered here as a continuation of solidarity. In Deal’s own punk way, The Others points to an ongoing struggle for liberation from white settler-colonialism and violence.

For The Others series, Deal appropriates individual panels of comic book illustrations from the 1940’s and 1950’s, changing out the dialogue of each speech balloon with lyrics from late 20th century punk rock music—bands such as Dead Kennedys, Misfits, Marginal Man, and Operation Ivy (I’d recommend exploring some of the musical inspiration on your way to, or while viewing the work). Grit is apparent in Deal’s delivery. Stencils, aerosol, and hand-painted words appeal to a non-conformist sensibility, enhancing the overall subversive message.

Gregg Deal, Nervous Breakdown (Black Flag), 2021, print photograph of acrylic on canvas, 8 x 5 feet, on view at east window in Boulder. Image courtesy of east window.

Nervous Breakdown (Black Flag) is the one work of the current exhibition. It is courageously provocative, an unrelenting reflection of The Others series as a whole. Highly saturated and taking up the entire window, the piece floats purposefully with its theatrical imagery in an industrial landscape, reading much like a mural. The bright red “Indian” and white settler—recurring characters in The Others—face each other head-to-head. With an unfazed expression, the Indigenous character exclaims the Black Flag lyrics, “I won’t apologize for acting outta line. You see the way I am, you can leave any time!”

This statement packs even more of a punch considering its placement. East window is located at the edge of town, just adjacent to the highway, so the suggestion to “leave any time” is a realistic option. But make no mistake, Deal’s work will have you questioning who The Others really are. This role-reversal for historically marginalized bodies is a means of visceral empowerment, or perhaps visceral paranoia depending on your cultural position.

Gregg Deal, That’s Progress (DOA), 2019, acrylic, paper, and ink on canvas, 38 x 48 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.

Deal’s choice of blunt punk lyrics paired with the dramatized illustration from a bygone era is both personally and culturally significant. Not only is Deal breaking taboos within a hyper-accessible, pop culture medium—the comic—but he is providing the viewer with a unique personal lens, one which is both Indigenous and Punk Rock. The work represents a complex Indigenous-born narrative, standing in radical opposition to the illustrations themselves which purposefully recall racist, Indigenous stereotypes in pop culture. Deal’s work goes beyond stylistic representation. It speaks for itself, as an act of de-colonial liberation. 

The Others provides no peaceful resolution to settler-colonialism, but does serve as an outlet for righteous anger. As Deal builds on the series liberated from a white colonial gaze, a conversation has emerged in the public. The work has elicited a definitive “Fuck yeah!” from many viewers who feel that the work speaks directly to them and their cultural experiences. There have also been other reactionary responses from street viewers, particularly of Deal’s 2019 mural for Crush Walls, which was tagged in black marker “RACIST as fuck.” A critic on Instagram also wrote of an unfair “double standard,” imagining that the work actually promotes violence against white people.

However, these critics miss the mark. Deal has certainly never advocated for violence, in fact quite the contrary. What his work does is point to the violent truth of colonization, genocide, and gentrification. Deal’s art rips off the mask of white supremacy, and those who don’t wish to be revealed may find distaste as an excuse to avoid a painful experience of the truth.

Gregg Deal, Rise Above (Black Flag), 2019, acrylic on canvas, 36 x 60 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.

Deal has also spoken publicly about how many Indigenous artists often make art for a white audience, simply by virtue of necessity because most wealthy art buyers tend to be white. Deal’s work as a whole, including The Others, does not aim to serve a white audience, and for that he is unapologetic. 

In The Others, Deal brings each illustrated panel forward in time, disconnecting them from the original comic book’s narrative. There is no full picture, no resolve, but rather pieces of a story. As Deal said in a 2019 interview for Crush Walls:

“Art is about disrupting spaces. It is about taking people to task. It is about raising questions.” 

Gregg Deal, Nervous Breakdown (Black Flag), 2021, print photograph of acrylic on canvas, 8 x 5 feet, on view during a snowstorm. Image courtesy of east window.

In many ways his ongoing series mirrors the work of artists, activists, and leaders who must continuously bring attention to the erasure, violence, and oppression that Indigenous people still face. In the art of protest there is hardly ever a resounding resolution, but rather always more statements to be made and stories to be told. 

Deal’s film The Last American Indian on Earth will be shown following the closing of The Others exhibition on May 28th at east window. There is a clear commitment from the gallery owner, Todd Edward Herman, to dig into the history and continued story of the place the gallery rests upon— he says, “Gregg keeps that dialogue alive.”

Renée Marino (she/they) is a writer and multi-disciplinary artist residing on land stewarded for thousands of years by the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Ute people as well as at least 48 other Indigenous tribal nations. They are a board member of Street Wise Arts, a non-profit with a mural festival based in Boulder. They are an advocate for the arts, for social awareness, and communal healing. Their work was recently featured as a part of Shame Radiant in RedLine’s THREE ACTS: A Survey of Shame, Emotion, and Oblivion.