Beverly Fresh: Really Somethin Else

An experimental “expanded catalog” chronicling the recent work and 2018 solo exhibition of artist Beverly Fresh, Really Somethin Else not only documents and contextualizes the work in the exhibition, but also includes research, sketches, production stills, inspirations, and other works not on view in the exhibition. In these works, artist, musician, and back-road drifter Beverly Fresh takes on the incongruities, social rituals, and archetypes of the rural Midwest. Drawing from age-old performance traditions, juvenile graffiti, backyard debauchery, adult social clubs, amateur living room theater, and pig wrestling, the exhibition is a keyed-up regurgitation of rural Midwestern symbols, behaviors, and vernacular. Plentiful color images are accompanied by essays from Julie Rodrigues Widholm, H. Peter Steeves, and Greg Scott. The catalog, designed by Beverly Fresh himself, carries the distinct personality and aesthetic sensibility of the exhibition.