Gallery

Judith Supine is “Too Much for One Man”

Judith Supine is “Too Much for One Man”

September 5, 2012 , , , , , , , , ,

Bloated heads, severed limbs, plump and luscious lips; these are the fruits harvested from art, fashion, and porno magazines, carefully cut from their previous contexts and precisely reconfigured to reveal new ones that mock, shame, and cavort in glorious dayglow blasphemy out here in public. It’s probably more than most men can handle but Judith Supine keeps slashing  forward with a sideways smile.

Judith Supine. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Thoughtfully arranged and stained fluorescent hues, the pretty collage chaos that is Judith Supine pops monstrously from these new canvasses. As he preps in studio for his solo at Jonathan Levine Gallery in Manhattan this week, the somewhat anti-social and highly admired Street Artist whose funhouse wheat-pastes twisted the sensibility of street art in the mid-2000s is now pouring a thick toxic gloss on what’s happening these days. “It’s really fucking boring. It just looks like shitty graphic design a lot of the time,” he says with a flippant derision that he almost pulls off.

The new huge gallery slabs here piled in the messy former living room facing the street are covered in an inch of drying clear resin, ensconcing the portraits, freezing them in place for decades, if not centuries. Despite the lickable and alluring effect of this material when finished, these fumes could kill him before he’s finished embalming the painted lips and bobbing heads. The last time he poured a batch of pieces like this he was preparing for a huge show in LA and the experience left him bleeding through his pores.

Judith Supine. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I got really sick from it. It triggered an autoimmune disease and I was in and out of the hospital for three or four months. I got really sick from it…it made all my blood vessels explode but I kept using it and I was still doing drugs,” he remembers aloud as we sit on folding chairs atop a silver coated Brooklyn roof in the sun. The rotten experience left him weak and feeling like a punched out headlight but he hasn’t completely found a production solution and says it’s slightly stressful as we talk in the open air on the roof while his studio is a cloud of fumes below us.

Brooklyn Street Art: So when you describe it, it sounds self-destructive.
Judith Supine: Yeah. I would pass out and fall asleep in the room with the windows closed ’cause I didn’t want dust to get in. It would be a bad idea to sleep in resin.
Brooklyn Street Art: It’s bad to sleep in a resin-plume in an enclosed environment?
Judith Supine: Yeah, it was probably.
Brooklyn Street Art: And to do drugs that make you pass out?
Judith Supine: Yeah, probably people should be aware of that.
Brooklyn Street Art: “This is a public service message…”
Judith Supine: “..To all the kids out there; if you are going to huff resin, open a window.”

Judith Supine. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

So it’s good to see new Judith, even if he’s not on the streets, and it’s brilliant to witness the sharp mind and hear the articulate and sometimes lacerating banter that has not been dulled by the addictive behaviors that he’s been working on.

BSA: Did it improve your art?
JS: Getting sick? No.
BSA: How about getting high?
JS: No. It just made me lazy and dysfunctional.
BSA: Yeah sometimes it makes you lethargic and apathetic. You don’t care.
JS: I mean drugs are, I don’t know, sometimes they are – there’s like a certain point where they could be inspiring, kind of help you relax.
BSA: Yeah
JS: Get in kind of a childlike state, right?
BSA: Loosen up your inhibitions
JS: Yeah, but I wasn’t good at doing that though, in a moderate way. So it’s not effective. It’s like you are just constantly fucked up all waking hours.
BSA: Well moderation is not a word I would normally associate with your work.
JS: Yeah, well I’m not into it so much, I’m not very good at that.
BSA: I mean it’s extreme, it’s pungent.
JS: But now I’m at the other end of the spectrum.
BSA: And how do you feel about that?
JS: I feel healthier, physically and psychologically.
BSA: That sounds good.
JS: Yes, so I’m gonna stick with it.

Judith Supine. Detail of a piece in progress. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

In fact Judith Supine has pulled off a pretty strong collection that he’ll be showing this week, and he credits the new sense of depth to the techniques he’s been teaching himself to build up his work. One piece even brought him back to his lino carving days that pre-date his collage work, but he’s unsure of showing that one.

BSA: What inspired you to do these pieces for the show?
JS: Money. Actually it is getting more exciting – especially making these pieces I’ve been getting more excited about the idea of working back into something?
BSA: When you say “working back into” the painting…?
JS: Like I probably repainted each painting three or four times. I pull the image out and repaint the same image.
BSA: Put it back in, draw out certain aspects of it..
JS: Yeah,
BSA: So how much time would lapse between iterations?
JS: A few hours. It’s pretty immediate the way I’m using multiples and xerox machines and shit. I can have lots of stuff painted to draw from.

BSA: Do you get the room ready first and then begin, or do you discover en route that you needed more stuff?
JS: It’s all pretty haphazard. I’m not like … I make a small-scale collage. That’s what I enjoy making – the actual collage – those tiny collages from books and magazines. To me that’s the most enjoyable part and creative part. And that’s become a kind of compulsive behavior. It’s something I do every day and I’ve done every day for the last 10 years. And then, from those I’ll edit out and I’ll pick one out of 20 of them or 30 of them to make into a painting. And then half the time I don’t like it when I start painting and I just abandon it.

BSA: So it’s like the thrill of that initial creative process …
JS: Yeah it’s like sifting through all these images and kind of finding these other hidden images – that part is really interesting and exciting to me. I’m trying to figure out ways to make the other end of the process, the actual painting part, more interesting to me where I’m like building up more layers of the resin and doing more like hand-painted shit so it’s not like “paint by numbers” – it’s boring.

Judith Supine. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

So that’s it. No more work in the public sphere from Judith Supine, right? Not quite.

If he’s not into the Street Art scene that flourishes, at least in part, in his wake these days, it doesn’t look like he is completely out of it either, at least not just yet. While the thought of wheat pasting seems boring and uninspired and he has harsh words to describe the current scene, and the rise of organized “Street Art” events in cities around the world leave him feeling cold, he might just conjure up a new idea for sculpture one of these days.

BSA: So, you wouldn’t want to associate yourself with shitty graphic design and a bunch of derivative stuff?
JS: (laughing) What I like about Street Art is the feeling of the transgressive part of it and the illegal nature of it. That’s what’s exciting to me about it. You know, what qualifies as street art now is like legal murals and that shit just seems kind of boring to me. It’s kind of just like in the style of… it just kind of loses its power.

BSA: Well, that’s because it’s art whose installation has been approved. There’s no risk involved, it isn’t transgressive. You’re not breaking any rules.
JS: Not that there’s really a lot of risk involved anyway. It’s like fucking jaywalking, or something. You know, or maybe more. I mean on a daily basis, especially while using drugs, I was breaking more laws doing other shit that I could get in a lot more trouble for. It’s really not a big deal. It’s fucking slap on the wrist.

BSA: Some people have said that they’ve had really bad experiences when they’ve been arrested.
JS: Yeah, I don’t know. I’m still interested in doing things out doors. I guess it still needs to be illegal for me, for it to be fun.
BSA: To get you hard.
JS: Yeah, and I don’t have very much interest in putting up wheat pastes and posters – so maybe more site-specific sculptures – it’s kind of more interesting to me, more exciting. I’m more like excited about how to like plan something and get away with it than, a lot of times, the actual final result.
BSA: So it’s like the process of the heist. Planning the logistics, executing the plan..
JS: Yeah, that part is intriguing to me. It’s not anything really exciting about walking around fucking gluing some Xerox to the wall. It’s pretty simple to do it and not get caught.
BSA: I wonder if there is an age element involved with the “fun-ness” of this?
JS: Probably. I don’t know what I want to do. I’d probably like to stay home and fucking read a book.

Judith Supine. Detail of a piece in progress. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Judith Supine. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Judith Supine. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Judith Supine. Studio shot with a detail of a piece in progress. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Judith Supine. A sketch/study for a piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Judith Supine’s solo exhibition “Too Much For One Man” opens this Saturday, Sept 08 at the Jonathan Levine Gallery. Click here for more details on this show.

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

Read more

Hugh Leeman, Eddie Colla and D Young V prepare for “Epilogue”

September 4, 2012 , , , ,

Street Artists Push Past Comfort Levels to Create New Show and Video

As the post- “Citizens United” restructuring of civil society gets into full swing and democracy is effectively hollowed out before our eyes, Street Artists Hugh Leeman, Eddie Colla, and D Young V are contemplating an eventual collapse of society and what it might look like – and have created an art show about it.

“Epilogue is an immersive installation based art show,” explains Leeman as he describes the almost cinematic way they are seeing their presentation and the promotional video we are debuting for them today. Not explicitly horrifying, the implications of a lawless violent society that no longer feels “futuristic” makes this trailer uncomfortable and a breath of fresh air.

Still from promotional video for “Epilogue” (© Taylor Morgan)

“What we did with the video was a new feel for us in that we did not show the artwork nor do a traditional narrated artist interview but instead looked at the video as a piece of art itself,” says Leeman as he talks how the three Street Artists really pushed their work for the show to imagine what it would be like to start making art after we’ve burned everything down. Maybe they’re just sticking to the theme or testing their individual resourcefulness but it is interesting to see them skipping the oil paints and canvasses and instead choosing reclaimed billboards, fire stencils, even hand painted assault rifles for the varied display.

Hugh Leeman, Eddie Colla and D young V “Epilogue” (photo © Shaun Roberts)

Are these guys really rattling their Jungian subconsciousness with a death of Western society foretold or have they been spending a lot of time on NetFlix in the apocalypse section? If you hear Hugh describe the preparation they’ve undertaken at Hold Up Art, it all sounds pretty serious. “Its processes and concept have been inspired by America’s gun loving culture, the corporate behemoths considered “too big to fail”, and another pending financial meltdown. It has pushed the three of us as artists away from what we have come to identify as our own individual styles.” We give them credit for going there, and for challenging us in a new way to go with them. The murkier the answers, the more alive the imagination can be when triggered by these symbols and images.

Hugh Leeman, Eddie Colla and D young V “Epilogue” (photo © Shaun Roberts)

A death mask from Hugh Leeman, Eddie Colla and D young V in “Epilogue” (photo © Shaun Roberts)

Hugh Leeman, Eddie Colla and D young V “Epilogue” (photo © Shaun Roberts)

Hugh Leeman, Eddie Colla and D young V “Epilogue” (photo © Shaun Roberts)

“Epilogue” by Taylor Morgan  (VIDEO)

“Epilogue” opens this Saturday Sept 8.  Click here for more information regarding this show.

A print variant for the”Epilogue” show that will be released through Hold Up Art starting Sept. 8th

 

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

 

Read more

Festival Bien Urbain 2012 (Besançon, France)

August 30, 2012 , , , , , , ,

Bien Urbain

Pour cette deuxième édition, une douzaine d’artistes investissent l’es- pace public bisontin, plus particulièrement le quartier Battant et le cam- pus de la Bouloie. Peintures murales, installations et aussi parcours sous casque, vitrine interactive et performance, ces interventions ur- baines transversales proposent de nouveaux regards sur notre quoti- dien. BIEN URBAIN se crée sur un mois et demi et s’improvise par né- cessité : les rencontres, les anecdotes, les surprises (et la météo !) sont autant de moteurs pour les artistes et les bénévoles. Au fil des jours, des parcours artistiques se créent, et les visites ouvertes à tous sont prétextes à la discussion et au débat.

— CREATIONs INsITU

Peintures, installations, oeuvres multimédia dans le quartier battant, sur le campus de la bouloie

— vIsITEs ACCOMpAGNéEs

Visites encadrées par un(e) médiateur(trice); Basées sur l’interprétation des visiteurs

— ChEz URBAIN

Librairie spécialisée, lieu de rencontre

— CONFéRENCE

avec Javier Abarca artiste, enseignant à l’Université de Madrid

Mark jENKINs
et sandra FERNANDEz (USA), hYURO (Argentine), MOMO (USA),
ElTONO (France),
EsCIF (Espagne),
sAM3 (Espagne), Agostino IACURCI (Italie), Guillaume BERTRAND (France), pascal RUEFF (France), Graffiti Research lab (France), pascal RUEFF (France),
jIEM (France),
Caroline AMOROs & Co (France)

— OUvERTURE

☞Jeudi 6 septembre – 19h – Place Marulaz

Ouverture de Chez Urbain + Première mise à jour de la carte + Lancement de Pas de porte à céder + Mise en circulation des casques de la promenade son- ore Enfance #5 + Présentation des créations du Graffiti Research Lab France !

— vIsITEs

☞RDV Chez Urbain À pied (environ 1h – 1h30) : mer. et dim à 18h, sam. à 14h

— RENCONTREs AvEC lEs ARTIsTEs ☞RDV Chez Urbain pascal RUEFF,

autour de ses créations sonores 3D sous casques

En vélo (environ 2h) : Tous les mardis à 18h

jIEM,

autour de son projet Outside the Box

Guillaume BERTRAND,

☞Vendredi 7 septembre à 18h ☞Vendredi 14 septembre à 18h

autour de son installation interactive Pas de porte à céder

☞Vendredi 21 septembre à 18h

pRO- GRAMME

L’ensemble de Bien Urbain est en accès libre et gratuit.
Du 6 septembre au 6 octobre, ouverture de Chez Urbain, lieu de rendez-vous pour les visites des parcours.

— CRéATIONs IN sITU

Les artistes interviendront pendant un mois sur deux quartiers de Besançon : Battant et le campus de la Bouloie. Bâtiments du CROUS, passages ignorés, maisons individuelles, rues ou places publiques seront le théâtre des inter- ventions éphémères ou pérennes.

— ChEz URBAIN

☞À l’angle de la Place Marulaz et de la rue de l’École.  ☞Du lundi au samedi, de 14h à 20h

– prêt de casques pour découvrir la pièce Enfance #5 de Pascal RUEFF. – librairie spécialisée : une sélection d’ouvrages traitant

d’interventions urbaines – rencontres avec les artistes

– mise à jour de la carte les 6 et 22 sept. et le 6 oct. à partir de 18h – informations

http://bien-urbain.fr/

 

Read more

Citizens of Humanity Presents: FUZI UV TPK. Free Tattos at The Hole Shop (Manhattan, NYC)

August 30, 2012 , , , , ,

FUZI UV TPK


FRENCH GRAFFITI LEGEND FUZI UV TPK VISITS U.S. FOR THE FIRST TIME;
OFFERS FREE TATTOOS

Saturday, September 1, 2012
12 to 5 p.m.

The Hole Shop
312 Bowery
New York, NY 10012


On Saturday, September 1, French graffiti writer and tattoo artist FUZI UV TPK will make his first-ever trip to the United States, where he will tattoo at The Hole Shop in New York. The tattoos will be provided to the public for free, courtesy of Citizens of Humanity.

FUZI is a veteran graffiti writer, who dominated the trains and subways of Paris for more than a decade. He imposed his “ignorant style” on the masses, a style that is instantly recognizable for its ironic twist and self-confident assertion.

Passing with ease from one medium to another, FUZI taught himself how to tattoo and brought a freshness to his designs that were inspired by his brutal lifestyle: direct black lines with devastating punch lines. “I did my first tattoo on the arm of my friend and graffiti partner RAP,” says FUZI. “It’s maybe my favorite tattoo ever, and I have maintained that self-taught style throughout my practice because I want to be without influence and learn from my own errors.”

FUZI chooses to tattoo in unique locations, using streets, subway tunnels and art galleries as his ephemeral tattoo studios. “I want to develop my vision of tattooing outside of the traditional tattoo studio,” FUZI says. “Each of my tattoos is unique, never duplicated, and I execute them in unusual places, because it leaves a mark on the memory, not just on the skin.”

The Hole Shop is the perfect venue for FUZI’s first time in the United States. The Hole is an influential, avant-garde gallery and creative project space, and its shop is directed and managed by the New York Art Department, which curates, produces and promotes emerging, cutting-edge cultural content.

For the event, FUZI will create 50 unique tattoo flash designs, inspired by New York. “I created these drawings as I do each time. I use a strong theme, and the idea goes directly from my brain to the paper, without corrections,” FUZI explains. “This time, NYC influenced my ideas, but the city and its lifestyle has always been an enormous influence on me and is an integral part of the symbols I use in my flash. You’ll find violence, graffiti, women and money, but humor is present also.” People selected for appointments will choose from one of these flash designs, and FUZI will tattoo them free of charge.

In addition to the tattoos, FUZI and Citizens of Humanity will release a limited-edition Ignorant People T-shirt, and 100 shirts will be given away at the event on a first-come first-serve basis.

This event is part of Citizens of Humanity’s ongoing commitment to support arts from around the world, which also incudes sponsorship of Miss Van’s exhibition at Copro Gallery in Santa Monica, and Barry Mcgee’s retrospective at the Berkeley Art Museum.

“Coming to NYC for the first time is an important step for me,” FUZI says. “I left my train line in the suburbs of Paris so that I could present my art to the world, without compromise, and being able to do that in New York will be a powerful experience for me.”

The event will take place on Saturday, September 1, from 12 to 5 p.m., at The Hole Shop, 312 Bowery, New York, N.Y. 10002. FUZI’s books Ma Ligne and Flash Tattoo Collection N°1 will also be available to be purchased at the shop, and can be signed by FUZI.

Email explore@citizensofhumanity.com for a chance to win one of the appointment slots. People selected for appointments will be notified no later than August 24.

Read more

Get Up Gallery Presents: TRXTR “Lucked Up” (Las Vegas, Nevada)

August 30, 2012 , , ,

TRXTR

OPENING DATE WITH RECEPTION

September 7th, 2012 from 7:00pm-11:00pm

CONTACT

Derek Douglas : 702-529-3330 | info@getupgallery.com | http://www.getupgallery.com

DURATION

September 7th, 2012 through September 29th, 2012

LOCATION

Emergency Arts
c/o Get Up Gallery 520 Fremont Street Las Vegas, NV 89101

CURATOR

Derek Douglas

EXHIBITION TITLE

Lucked Up: New Works By TRXTR

BRIEF

UK based artist TRXTR’s work explores social and moral issues and his distinctive style using a wide variety of techniques fusing together the art of photography and painting. This is not an artist who is wedded to any particular medium, but for him a rather more Machiavellian ‘ends justifies the means’

approach while acknowledging the historical importance of traditional media.TRXTR’s images are thought provoking, poignant, current and seductively captivating showing us an eclectic mix of atmospheres and emotions, as are the techniques he uses to produce them. Their overall effect is disturbing and alluring in equal measure. Concerns about exploitation, globalization and corruption appear over and over again, but the tone is ambivalent. He is not preaching to us, but reproducing some of the sickly sweet images of commercialism in a way that it is genuinely hard to tell if he is celebrating them or railing against them. This interesting and unsettling approach has something of the effect of Jeff Koons and Warhol.
Read more

Gallery X AKA Elder Gallery Presents: Chor Boogie “The Divided State of America” (Charlotte, NC)

August 30, 2012 , , ,

Chor Boogie

“The Divided State of America” National Art Exhibition to Launch During Democratic National Convention

Featuring symposium to highlight solutions for an ideologically fractured America “The Divided State of America,” an innovative political art series, will make its national debut in a symposium for attendees of the Democratic National Convention at 12:00 PM ET on September 6, 2012, at Gallery X (aka Elder Gallery) in Charlotte, NC. The session will feature a roundtable discussion with prominent thinkers about the themes of the exhibition, asking them fundamental questions about why America is currently polarized and how to solve the crisis before the election.

The “Divided State of America” is a larger-than-life collection spray painted by world-renown artist Chor Boogie and commissioned by pharmaceutical and biotechnology entrepreneur Nirmal Mulye. The paintings depict universal issues that have affected Mulye’s life and the lives of many other Americans – policies affecting immigration, energy, the economy, class, and religion – to stimulate discussion and political discourse

The exhibition will be on show throughout the convention in the lounge of Gallery X, hosted by entrepreneur coalition StartUp RockOn, and later in a series of public events throughout the country in the run-up to the Presidential Election in November. More information is available at www.facebook.com/DividedUSA.

ABOUT NIRMAL MULYE:  Nirmal Mulye emigrated to the U.S. from India in 1987 – barely able to speak English, and without financial aid or assistance. After receiving his Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences from Temple University in 1992, Mulye went on to found seven innovative companies and employ over 400 people under the umbrella company, Nostrum Pharmaceuticals, LLC

ABOUT CHOR BOOGIE:  The work of artist Chor Boogie has been featured in numerous exhibitions worldwide, including a recent installation for the Smithsonian Institute on the National Mall in Washington D.C. His work has influenced and inspired a generation of young adults through his dynamic, positive message. Using the contemporary medium of spray paint, Chor Boogie’s soulful portraits and abstract elements combine in color therapy, inviting the viewer to see and think, internally and externally.

Elder Gallery

1520 South Tryon Street
Charlotte, NC 28203
704-370-6337

Read more

Hold Up Art Gallery Presents: Eddie Colla. Hugh Leeman and V Young D “Epilogue” (Los Angeles, CA)

August 30, 2012 , , , , , ,

Epilogue

The Bay Area’s most prolific vandals, Eddie Colla, D Young V, and Hugh Leeman create a fully immersive installation inspired by America’s gun loving culture, its corporate behemoths, and a financial meltdown. Reclaimed billboards, fire stencils, carbon soot emissions, and hand painted assault rifles take the place of canvas and oil paint at this timely Los Angeles exhibit. Know more, see here epiloguela.com “Epilogue” opens Saturday, September 8th at Hold Up Art Gallery in downtown Los Angeles, 2 blocks south of the Geffen Contemporary MOCA, 358 E. 2nd St.

Show opening Saturday September 8th, 7p.m. PST
Eddie Colla, D Young V, Hugh Leeman

Read more

Creative Alliance Presents: “Zim Zum” A Collaboration Exhibit with MOMO, Michael Owen and GAIA. (Baltimore, Maryland)

August 30, 2012 , , , ,

ZimZum

ZimZum Show Explodes Street Art World with Genre-­‐Defying Piece Created by Street Artists MOMO, Michael Owen, & Gaia Opens Sept 15, 2012, 7-­‐9pm

ZimZum turns street art on its head with a first-­‐time collaboration between renowned artists Michael Owen, Gaia, and MOMO, by merging the work of multiple street artists into one unified piece that subsumes the individual styles of the artists into a new, singular voice. Such an intertwined, profound collaboration is rarely done in the street art world, where maintaining one’s unique imprint is at the essence of the genre.

The colossal work will fill the Main Gallery and spill onto the street, thereby pushing street art and the artists in a second way. The work must resonate with two radically different audiences simultaneously: the gallery world and the pedestrian consumer of street art, the casual passer-­‐by. ZimZum is the kabbalistic idea that the creation of the universe was caused by God breathing in then out.

With large wheat paste line drawings of animals and historic figures referencing urban development, Gaia has burst into public view since 2009, exhibiting internationally from New York to Seoul, and Los Angeles to Amsterdam. Michael Owen is known as the artist behind the Baltimore Love Project, a planned series of 20 murals across Baltimore with silhouetted hands spelling the word “Love.” He’s also a Resident Artist at the Creative Alliance and has completed numerous public and private commissions, including one of the world’s longest murals in the underpass near the Baltimore neighborhood of Highlandtown. MOMO garnered early notice for “the world’s largest tag,” an innocuous, wobbly, 8-­‐mile line of orange paint, spelling his name across the streets of Manhattan. He has since emerged as a leading presence internationally, with beautiful, site-­‐sensitive, geometric-­‐abstract murals pushing both abstraction and street art in new directions.

Following the opening, stay for the Sweatboxx Dance Party, from the producers of the successful FUSION series, paying tribute to the Baltimore club scene. We dare you to dance ALL NIGHT LONG! Two DJs, Booman (B-­‐More) and Jav (Chocolate City), bring you the best of Baltimore Club and classic Hip Hop in one night. DJ Booman Is well known for his Doo Dew Kidz classics like “Watch Out For The Big Girl.” He’s engineered remixes for Usher, Katy Perry and Michael Jackson. DJ Jav (Javier Velasco) is a regular on WPFW’s “Decipher” Hip Hop Show.

Creative Alliance at The Patterson
3134 Eastern Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21224

http://www.creativealliance.org/

Read more

Jonathan Levine Gallery Presents: Jeff Soto “Decay and Overgrowth” (Manhattan, NYC)

August 30, 2012 , , , , ,

Jeff Soto

Jeff Soto
Decay and Overgrowth
Solo Exhibition

September 8—October 6, 2012
Opening Reception:
Saturday, September 8, 7—9pm
Jonathan LeVine Gallery is pleased to announce Decay and Overgrowth, a series of new works by Southern California-based artist Jeff Soto, in what will be his fourth solo exhibition at the gallery.

Expanding upon the themes explored previously in Lifecycle, Soto’s solo 2010 exhibition, works in Decay and Overgrowth deal with the passage of time, early man and life after death, as well as primitive myths and legends attempting to explain the unknown.

Two of Soto’s grandparents passed away within the last year, prompting the artist to research how different cultures explain life and death. Attempting to celebrate their lives rather than mourn their deaths, he has been working these ideas into his paintings. A connective thread of mortality runs throughout the work, conveying themes such as the transient nature of life, brevity of the average lifetime and inevitability of death.

Soto selected symbols of hope and growth to symbolize the cycle of life, death and rebirth. Organic shapes and elements such as mountains, plants, flowers, rocks and crystals are juxtaposed with manmade objects such as cell phone towers, weapons, polished gems and modern architecture. The resulting imagery combines a bit of magic, unanswered questions and a glimpse into the unknown.

In the words of the artist: “I’ve been thinking more than ever about how our lives are short, fleeting and unexpected. I’ve been researching man’s migration across the planet, our domestication of plants and animals and the slow evolution of different cultures. I find it interesting that each generation adds their own small part to our collective human experience. I’m continually fascinated by mankind’s relationship to nature and how humans have been bending the environment in good and bad ways for tens of thousands of years.”

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Jeff Soto was born and raised in Southern California, where he currently resides with his wife and daughters. In 2002, he graduated with Distinction from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Soto’s distinct color palette, subject matter and technique resonate with a growing audience: inspired by childhood toys, skateboarding, graffiti, hip-hop and popular culture. His bold, representational work is simultaneously accessible and stimulating. Soto has been featured in numerous publications and published two monographs: Potato Stamp Dreams in 2005 and Storm Clouds in 2008. In 2008, his work was the subject of an exhibition at Riverside Art Museum in Riverside, California. He has painted multiple large-scale public murals in addition to exhibiting his artwork in galleries and museums around the world.

Jonathan Levine Gallery is located at 529 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11am to 6pm. For further information, please visit: www.jonathanlevinegallery.com, call: 212.243.3822, or email: info@jonathanlevinegallery.com.

 

Read more

Jonathan Levine Gallery Presents: Judith Supine “Too Much for one Man” (Manhattan, NY)

August 30, 2012 , , , , ,

Judith Supine

Judith Supine
Too Much For One Man
Solo Exhibition

September 8—October 6, 2012
Opening Reception:
Saturday, September 8, 7—9pm
Jonathan LeVine Gallery is pleased to present Too Much For One Man, a series of new oil paintings on panel by acclaimed Brooklyn-based artist Judith Supine, in what will be his first solo exhibition at the gallery.

Using his mother’s maiden name as an alias to keep his identity anonymous, Judith Supine has become renowned in the street art scene for his distinct style, unique wheatpastes on building façades and impressive placement of public interventions in daring locations throughout New York City. In 2007, he hung a 50-foot figure off the side of the Manhattan Bridge, in 2008 he left a piece floating in the East River and then in 2009 he left one in a Central Park pond, one in a Queens sewer and another on the highest point of the Williamsburg Bridge.

In recent years, Supine has focused more on studio work and elaborate gallery installations. His process involves a pastiche of printed ephemera. Supine describes the collage technique as “combining seemingly disparate images to reveal something that wasn’t previously apparent.” Procuring visuals from found materials such as salvaged books and magazines to form his inventive assemblage, the artist uses a photocopier to create figures with odd proportions and dramatic scale in high-contrast black and white. He then applies vibrant washes of his signature color palette in psychedelic fluorescents (mainly neon greens, pinks and purples) before finishing with a seal of high-gloss resin.

There is a poignant quality to Supine’s surreal subject matter, likely the result of his effective skill in manipulating and combining image fragments—altering them so far beyond their original intention that they transform completely. These visual contrasts highlight class issues, twisted ideals and culture clashes. Supine turns airbrushed fashion and cosmetic beauties into monstrous creatures. Subverting sexy into scary, innocent into depraved and privileged into pornographic, children’s faces are superimposed onto adult nude bodies as luxury brand supermodels merge with the world’s impoverished. Supine’s work exposes the grotesque vulgarity of its advertising sources yet also manages to touch upon core truths of humanity, posing profound questions that resonate.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Judith Supine was born in Portsmouth, Virginia, in 1978. He did not speak until he was seventeen years of age, during which time he used drawing and collage as a form of communication. The artist spent years traveling throughout European cities including London and Amsterdam. In 2005, he moved to Brooklyn, New York, where he is currently based. Supine’s work has been featured in numerous publications, including books such as: DELUSIONAL: The Story of the Jonathan LeVine Gallery, published by Gingko Press in 2012, TRESSPASS: A History of Uncommissioned Urban Art, published by Taschen in 2010,  Beyond The Street: The 100 Leading Figures in Urban Art, published by Gestalten in 2010 and Street Art New York published by Prestel in 2010.

Jonathan Levine Gallery is located at 529 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 11am to 6pm. For further information, please visit: www.jonathanlevinegallery.com, call: 212.243.3822, or email: info@jonathanlevinegallery.com.

Read more

Gamma Proforma Presents: Futurism 2.0. Group Exhibition and Book Launch. (London, UK)

August 25, 2012 , , , , ,

Futurism 2.0

Futurism 2.0 is an exhibition, film and book examining parallels between 20th Century Futurism and 21st Century abstract urban art.  In the film and book we talk to historians, critics, cultural figures and the artists at work. Discussing creative revolutions, our world and today’s 24/7 creative society. Uncovering this truly international movement, which connects via silicon and copper across the globe, where each development is transmitted digitally and consumed organically.

The exhibition takes place in London from 27th September – 3rd October. The launch party/private viewing is on the 27th September 6pm – Late – RSVP events@gammaproforma.com

Artists include: Augustine Kofie, Phil Ashcroft, Boris Tellegen (Delta), James Choules (sheOne), Matt W. Moore, Mark Lyken, Sat One, Christopher Derek Bruno, Moneyless, Mr Jago, Nawer, O. Two, Morten Andersen, Keith Hopewell(Part2ism), Jaybo Monk, Poesia, Derm, Jerry Inscoe (Joker), Remi/Rough, Clemens Behr and more…

Find out more about the project and the artists at www.futurism2-0.com, you can pre-order the book here.

Read more

Featured Video | Martin Wong’s “Houston Street”

Recent Articles on BSA