Niagara

Webb's in association with RedBull proudly hosted the lovely and dangerous Niagara in May 2008 with a selection from her ‘Destroy All Monsters’ show, originally held at Hysteric Glamour in Tokyo, held in conjunction with Stephan Jay Rayon's Imaginary Film Stills.

Named after a cult-favourite Japanese monster movie, Destroy All Monsters was formed in 1973 by art students Niagara, Jim Shaw, Mike Kelley and Cary Loren; influenced by everything from underground comix to film noir to psychedelia, the highly visual group was experimental and abrasive, with Niagara's Betty Boop-vocals and squealing violin cresting atop waves of trance-like sonic dementia. Essentially an anti-rock band founded in direct reaction to the pretensions and complacency of 1970s, the Detroit-based noise deconstructionists Destroy All Monsters earned their greatest notoriety at the peak of the punk era, thanks to a line-up which included alumni of the MC5 and the Stooges. more ...

As Rolling Stone has since described, Niagara resembled," a cocktail of Valium, Tuinal and Nervine" a true bundle of energy. As a painter, Niagara's artworks feature iconic-looking femmes fatales in vampish poses, brandishing guns, cigarettes and pills. Dark lips, high eyebrows and fierce expressions often resembling the pop art language of the now infamous Andy Warhol or Roy Lichtenstein, her utilisation of cartoon, bold colour and speech bubbles takes the formerly meek and victimised female character seen in the latter and imbues her with a vicious seductive power. As she has stated, "It's the men who cry in my paintings" and her women are not afraid to hurt - others.