FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 2002

Joey Skaggs, American Artist, Social Political Satirist, and Media "Terrorist"

to Visit Castellón, Spain for Museum Exhibition

Internationally renowned artist Joey Skaggs will be in Castellón, Spain for the October 4, 2002 exhibition opening of his new work of art entitled "Art Attack" at the Espai d'Art Contemporani de Castelló (EACC). The exhibition is "In the Side of Television."

Skaggs, whose work uses the mass media as a vehicle to examine significant social issues, has "created" newspaper and television news stories for over 30 years. His work has been featured on CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, Associated Press, Reuters, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post to name a few media outlets. Most recently, he was featured on an ABC TV 20/20 documentary about "Media Hype."

Skaggs is best known for his socio-political satires which include "Cathouse for Dogs" where clients could get their dogs sexually serviced; "Portofess", a portable confessional booth on the back of a tricycle providing religion on the move for people on the go; "The Fat Squad," a business through which clients could take out a contract on themselves to stamp out fat; and "The Solomon Project," an organization which claimed to have revamped the American Judicial system using artificial intelligence and a network of computers.

The concept of the EACC exhibition "In the Side of Television" is to explore some of the mirroring paradoxes, contradictions, and shifts running between art production and mass-media. Camouflage, deconstruction and irony are the conveying elements.

Skaggs’ "Art Attack" installation will be an interactive, experiential, multi-media exhibit with an anti-violence message involving arcade game technology and surveillance cameras. Skaggs says, "It is intended to be provocative and to cause outrage and dismay. But I hope it will simultaneously stir a visceral understanding of the personal effects of terrorism and war."

This will be an evocative exhibition with important implications for the public and the media. The news media is invited to cover the work and examine the controversial psychological and sociological issues it evokes.

Skaggs will be available for interviews in the weeks before the exhibition by phone or email. While in Spain, he will also be available for lecture presentations and seminars for news organizations, universities and museums.

For more information about Joey Skaggs’ work and his lecture presentations, visit:

http://www.joeyskaggs.com/html/home.html — home page of his extensive Web site

http://www.joeyskaggs.com/html/retsub.html — for more than 3 decades of work

http://www.joeyskaggs.com/html/lectsub.html — for information on his lectures

Joey Skaggs is available for comment at: <skaggs@joeyskaggs.com>

For information about the EACC and the "In the Side of Television" exhibition, contact: Juan de Nieves, Exhibition Coordinator, Espai d'Art Contemporani de Castelló, 12003 Castelló, Spain, Tel ++ 34 964 72 35 40 / fax ++ 34 964 26 07 71, <exposiciones@eacc.info>