LIE CHEAT STEAL (and Shred): Arton Erthnif at Storage Contemporary

Caitlin Karolczak just wants to make art. Over the years, she’s bartended, taken odd jobs, and co-run a vintage design shop, and now she’s opening up her studio space in the California Building. It’s all in service of giving her the time she needs to paint. 

“It’s a personal goal of mine to get to a point where I don’t have to be so worried about bills,” Karolczak said. “I want to get caught up and concentrate on art.” 

That’s the idea with Storage Contemporary, which gets its name from the space’s use as storage for Karolczak’s artwork. “Literally I’m using the space for storage,” she said. “The whole point of this is to start utilizing the space when I’m not having a show or an opening—  someone else can utilize the space.” 

The white box gallery space is separate from where Karolczak paints. Her large studio has two different rooms, so she sees the gallery space as being separate. “I’m managing and utilizing this space that happens to be attached to my work space,” she said. “My plan is to host things like art exhibitions and also maybe workshops, readings and performances.” 

On November 10th the space was used for the opening of an exhibition featuring the anonymous art collective Arton Erthnif. Since there’s no buzzer system for the building, visitors were encouraged to simply bang on the back door so the elevator operator could let them in. 

Arton Erthnif is an anonymous collective of artists. 

The show had an underground feel (despite being on the 5th floor.). “I sort of think of it more like a New York-style gallery,” Karolczak said. “Where it’s art happenings you hear about and you find yourself in some weird building, and then you’re in this show. I’ve seen some of the best stuff in that style of gallery shows.” 

LIE CHEAT STEAL, Arton Erthnif’s exhibition, was mainly advertised on social media, but they had a bit of a problem because the publicity images featured Adolph Hitler with Donald Trump’s blond hair, and apparently Facebook and Instagram don’t allow such imagery on their platforms. (This author tried posting the image on Instagram twice, and both times it was taken down.) 

The show featured multiple copies of this image around the gallery, including a framed print in which a bullet hole is clearly visible in Adolph’s blond toupee. There were small, thick books that featured the image as the cover, with all of Trump’s lies printed on each of the pages, and opportunities for visitors to destroy the image in a paper shredder. 

While comparisons to Banksy’s recent art-shredding stunt are obvious, an Arton Erthnif collective member present at the LIE CHEAT STEAL opening noted that the concept was developed before Banksy shred his own artworks after it was auctioned off at Sotheby's in October. Still, there’s definitely a Banksy/Shepard Fairey vibe to the whole show, what with its anonymous authorship and broad-stroked political messaging. 

Is comparing Trump to Hitler too easy? It’s a conceit that has been used to deride all sorts of politicians in the past, but we are at a point in history when the current president calls himself a nationalist. “I’m proud of this country and I call that nationalism,” he said at a press conference recently. “I call it being a nationalist, and I don’t see any other connotation than that.” Trump also chided “both sides” of the white supremacy debate, as if both racists and non-racists were equally at fault for the white pride riots in Charlottesville. His rise to power has coincided with a rise in hate crime, with hate groups becoming not only more visible but more accepted, as well as daily federal actions that are easily comparable to a fascistic leader (the Muslim ban, separating immigrant children from their parents, calling the free press "the enemy of the people," etc.) 

In other words, the Hitler comparison actually does kind of fit. Sorry Trump! Sorry Facebook protocols! And you know what? There’s something quite satisfying about taking a Hitler/Trump poster and shredding it to little pieces. Is it a healthy thing to do? Maybe not, but we are at a point in history where we do what we need to survive. 

You can try it yourself, in addition to a few other participatory cathartic experiences, through the end of the month, with a closing party on Friday, November 30. Then on December 8th, Karolczak mentions she’s planning a workshop along with Kate Iverson of Alice Riot. Watch the gallery’s social media pages for details.

Sweet, sweet catharsis.

Storage Contemporary is located in Studio 514 of the California Building at 2205 California St NE in Minneapolis. LIE CHEAT STEAL's closing reception is Friday, November 30th from 5 - 9pm.

All images courtesy the gallery.