The sixth installment of Project M at the Urban Nation (UN) comes from a clever collection of painters, illustrators, and urban interventionists. Curated by gallerist Jonathan Levine, whose gallery consistently stages quality shows in Manhattan’s Chelsea art district, the street level windows, façade, and pop-up show feature deep, dark, and richly storied works that resonate.

DAL East at work on the facade. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Entitled “Greetings From New York City,” the show features artists who have intersected with the street primarily from outside of Gotham such as China/South Africa’s Dal East, Austria’s Nychos, Mexico’s Saner, and the Californian Jeff Soto. Two exceptions like Brooklyn’s Dan Witz and Olek are both currently active on the New York street art scene and in the case of Witz, dating back to his student days in the East Village in the late 1970s.

Consistent with his street pieces hidden in plain sight for street watchers, Mr. Witz drilled his hooded and gated prisoners to the installation board display and Olek crocheted a provocative slogan in her blaringly neon tableau, brightening and possibly flummoxing the grey Schöneberg streets.

DAL East at work on the facade. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Saner’s magically real folk references are meaty and disturbing – evoking the monstrous events currently happening back home, while Nychos’ cartoonish dissection of animals and people in 3-D trace directly to his family’s traditions of  hunting and Jeff Soto straddles the street and the dark pop fantasy world that frequents the pages of magazines like Juxtapoz and Hi-Fructose. For his exterior façade mural Dal East gathers the life force energy of an eagle to rise above and preside above the street in stark relief.

On the whole Mr. Levine’s stable communicates through layers both humorous and heavy, myriad meanings touched by a sardonic gloss of advertising finesse; sometimes slyly laughing, sometimes deadpan, always musing. Project M/6 smartly invites this view into the frame of modern contemporary as art in the streets continues to conflate.

DAL East with a detail of the facade on the background. (photo © Henrik Haven)

DAL East to the right. The center piece by mixed media collage artist Handiedan is not  part of ProjectM/6 (photo © Henrik Haven)

SANER at work on his panels. (photo © Henrik Haven)

SANER at work on his panels. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Jeff Soto at work on his panels. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Jeff Soto at work on his panels. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Nychos at work on his panels. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Nychos. Sketch book. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Olek and assistant at work on her panels. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Dan Witz at work on his panels. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Jeff Soto on the left. Dan Witz on the right. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Dan Witz (photo © Henrik Haven)

Jeff Soto . Dan Witz . Olek (photo © Henrik Haven)

Olek (photo © Henrik Haven)

Nychos (photo © Henrik Haven)

Nychos (photo © Henrik Haven)

SANER (photo © Henrik Haven)

SANER. Detail. (photo © Henrik Haven)

SANER (photo © Henrik Haven)

Jeff Soto (photo © Henrik Haven)

To learn more about Urban Nation and ProjectM click HERE

We wish to thank photographer Henrik Haven for sharing his work with BSA readers, and to UN Director Yasha Young.

URBAN NATION PRESENTS PROJECT M/6

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