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Arts & Entertainment

Who is WACSO?

The artist brings new life to Minneapolis with his first gallery show

Southwest’s own Robb Burnham celebrates his first gallery show, shedding new light and legitimacy on what is, in some ways, already familiar artwork around town. 

Known as WACSO, which stands for Walkin’ Around Checkin’ Stuff Out, and is pronounced by Burnham like walk-so rather than wack-so, Burnham’s alias is essentially his artist statement. He first started using the name four or five years ago. It was a shy artist’s attempt at anonymity–something that proved to be virtually impossible with the internet.  

So while plenty of people know that Robb Burnham is WACSO (he seems comfortable with that today), and the name’s no longer a disguise, it is, however, a pretty accurate description of his artistic process and purpose.

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Taking a documentary style approach to everyday life, WACSO said, “I think you have to look at the regular things ...There’s cool stuff everywhere, you just have to see it.”

WACSO’s first ever gallery show is currently on display at . The show, titled, “WACSO (Walkin’ Around Checkin’ Stuff Out): An Illustrative View of Minneapolis” was gallery owner Merry Beck’s idea. WACSO was hesitant to do a gallery show at first, as he has trouble even referring to himself as an artist. 

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Others have less trouble with that distinction. 

Joanie Bernstein represents WACSO. 

“When I approached WACSO to rep him commercially, I was so taken by his simplicity of line and sparse color,” Bernstein said. “So original and inventive. He’s one unconventional artist, that’s for sure.”

Calling the show at Gallery 360 “validating,” Merry Beck said that with the pieces up on display, it’s clear they “absolutely belong in a gallery.” 

But if you’re thinking you’ve seen his work before, chances are you have. The majority of the pieces in the Gallery 360 show originally appeared in The Journal and Southwest Journal. His designs have also appeared on Dunn Bros coffee cups, online at The Heavy Table and Sidewalk Dog, even in an American Express ad. 

An artist who fully embraces technology, pointing out that it’s what “put lead in a pencil, put paint in a tube,” WACSO’s drawings are created using a computer (he works on a tablet) from pictures taken with his iPhone.

In fact, he’s not just taking pictures with his iPhone, he’s making art with it too. His website boasts a gallery of drawings done on the phone, which WACSO casually refers to as finger paintings, though they look decidedly more grown up than that. 

The WACSO website also features a page about dog drawings. Have a dog you’d like immortalized? Donate money (as much as you feel comfortable with) to the pet rescue of your choice, and WACSO, who has both a French and English bulldog at home, will do a drawing of your dog and send you a hi-res image of it–for free. It’s a way, he said, to do something good.

To pay the bills, WACSO–or Robb Burnham to the working world–spends his days as creative director at the mouthful of an ad agency, Kruskopf Coontz. Explaining that he approaches his professional work very differently from his art (another reason he came up with the pseudonym), WACSO said the distinction is simple: advertising is an applied art with money as the goal; his drawings keep him sane.  

“You have to be able to look at normal, everyday things and see the beauty.”  

And that, WACSO said, is as deep as he’s going to get. 

In terms of practical advice, WACSO had this to offer aspiring artists: “Work like hell. You can’t wait around for inspiration. Creatives make the mistake of waiting around for inspiration. Go make it.”

The WACSO show at Gallery 360 runs through May 29.  

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