Anyone in Atlanta frequenting Little Five, Cabbagetown, East Atlanta, Ponce/Highlands area in the past five years should be fairly familiar with the name Gutterpop. You see the stickers and posters everywhere. It's guerilla marketing as art, and Gutterpop doesn't mind offending people as you can see in his numerous vinyl stickers "Take Your Shit Back to Buckhead." Stephen Curran, AKA Gutterpop, is obsessed with branding and loves to explore, and even exploit popular imagery in his art, as you'll see in his new logo that resembles all too much the most famous local company in the world, Coca Cola.

But perhaps Curran is best known for his art series "John Oates Will Fucking Kill You," a series of work that depicted the singer in several ways, though the most popular was Oates as the messiah holding a PBR can with an saintly angelic aura, often reserved for The Mother Mary. But, almost surprisingly, the depiction was well-received by Oates, who asked to meet Curran after seeing some of the images.
 
Now up at Atlanta's Picaflor Studios, Gutterpop new works explore other '80s icons in a solo exhibit. Read the interview below to learn more about the show, and some of the artist's influences, and then head over to Kirkwood to see it for yourself.


Justin Sias/Pine Magazine: Tell us about the show coming up at Picaflor.

Stephen Curran: This will be my first solo show since “John Oates Will Fucking Kill You – The Art Show” back in 2007. I’ve been wanting to work on an arcade series for awhile now. I’ve always loved the graphics and colors of retro arcade cabinets. I wanted to pay homage to these wonderful designs. I’m very pleased that Grand Prize Winners From Last Year and The Falcon Lords are playing this show. These bands blew me (away) during The Other Sound show that was held at the Star Bar a few months back. This is going to be a really fun show.


JS: What inspired you to create art based on '80s video games?

SC: First off, I’m a huge fan of Retro Arcade Games. While I was working on the show, I kept thinking about a trip I took with my family to San Francisco when I was a kid circa 1982. I was blown away when I walked into the largest arcade I had ever seen, located on the Fisherman’s Wharf. To my amazement this arcade had the brand new release, Millipede. We didn’t have this game on the East Coast yet -- we were still kickin’ it Centipede style, still a favorite of mine.

Another vivid memory that inspired this show was time I spent with my family on the East Coast. Lynn Massachusetts to be exact, at restaurant called the Porthole Pub. When my family would visit my grandparents, we would always go to the Porthole Pub. My sister and I would play Galaga all night while dumping quarters into the jukebox to hear the wonderful sounds of Def Leppard, "Pyromania" that is, none of that "Hysteria" shit.


JS: What are your favorite arcade video games? Atari or Intellivision?

SC: Adventure, hands down. I still play this game on my Atari 2600 to this day. It was the first game to have an Easter egg in it. My uncle stayed up for days playing this game to crack it. I took this knowledge and passed it on to my friends. Oh, I’m a huge fan of Missile Command too.