Morning Breath & Cycle, Nathan Lee Pickett, Bonnie Durham at Ad Hoc

November 22, 2008 Artists, Brooklyn, Gallery, Opening

Morning Breath & Cycle – “Oddities”

Front Gallery

Morning Breath and Cycle

MORNING BREATH

Morning Breath is Doug Cunningham and Jason Noto. In 1996, the two worked together on skateboard designs at Think Skateboards in San Francisco. There, they discovered they had similar tastes and influences, many of which were associated with the late 70s and early 80s. These included everything from sniffing glue and punk rock to racking paint and hip hop. Over the years, their collaborations have grown beyond skateboard graphics to include graffiti art, music packaging and more. And in 2002, Cunningham and Noto formalized their partnership with the creation of Morning Breath, a creative studio located in Brooklyn. Today, Doug and Jason split their creative energies and time between commercial and personal work. In 2006, their first book was published: The Early Bird – The Art and Design of Morning Breath.

CYCLE

For nearly 20 years the name CYCLE has been a fixture in graffiti in the United States. Although plenty difficult to make a substantial impact in New York City’s saturated graffiti scene, Cycle has managed to do so while even pulling off the same feat in both DC and San Francisco, as well as a gang of freight trains in between. Somegraffiti writers have followers who paint in their style. But CYCLE isn’t one of these. Rather, he sets a quiet example for younger graffiti writers with his consistency, woring equally in tags, throwups and pieces, all the while creating riveting work. The end result – despite such diverse style skills – is work that immediately announces CYCLE. CYCLE received his BFA from George Washington University in Washington DC and then his Masters from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Currently, he produces Fine Art, Illustration and Graphic Design for collectors, clients and companies all around the world.

Nathan Lee Pickett – “Breath Like You Mean It”

Project Room

Nathan Lee Pickett was born in Portsmouth, Virginia. He lives and works in Brooklyn. Inspired by graffiti, classical painting and calligraphy, he fuses cut paper with paint to create an eclectic mix of stoic and ethereal figures within celestial voids. Nathan seeks to synthesize a lifetime experience worth of exposure to visual overload, mythology, and chaos. The improvisational nature of his work uncovers at once his fears, desires and dreams. Evident in its labor intensiveness, his display of dedication to craft provides us with a sophisticated color palette and textural richness that is the embodiment of his work. His warm and vivid imagination weaves together compelling stories that are both graphically visionary and poetically expressive.

Bonnie Durham

Alcove

Bonnie Durham’s work is about tuning in to her surroundings and never wasting time. Painting with gouache, acrylic, ink and watercolor and using calligraphy brushes, she slowly thins out the color in backgrounds of her work before creating the surface ‘spraypainted’ effects (without the use of spraypaint) which have become a trademark in Durham’s paintings. Recently, collage elements from used books containing old illustrations have found their way into her works. Her surfaces range from the traditional canvas, wood and panel, to the quite non-traditional cutting boards, clipboards, dresser drawers and wooden trays, which she find at flea markets, second hand stores and discarded on the streets. She has shown in New York, Los Angeles and Canada.

Opening Reception: Friday, February 27th, 7-10pm

Feb 27th – Mar 22nd 2009

Ad Hoc Art