All posts tagged: Spoonbill and Sugartown Booksellers

Book Signing Tomorrow Night of “Street Art New York”

July 21, 2010 , , , , , ,

Looking forward to meeting YOU tomorrow night at the Spoonbill and Sugartown bookstore in Williamsburg Brooklyn.  If you know anything about publishing you know that your local independently run bookstore has been on the endangered list for about a decade. That’s why it’s important to us to support our neighbors when possible and help keep independent and independently-minded bookstores alive and well.

Street-Art-New-York-Book-Cover-JUDITH-SUPINE-copyright-Jaime-Rojo-medium

Spoonbill and Sugartown, owned by Jonas Kyle and Miles Bellamy, arrived in Williamsburg the same year we did and since then they have steadily supported the artists and art lovers who live in Brooklyn offering rare, unusual titles, tomes, zines, magazines, handmade books, and even some gorgeous coffee table books. Also, inflateable mooseheads.  You can’t find many of these titles in the chain bookstores.  Even if you already have “Street Art New York” or even if you are broke, come on down tonight and lend your presence and your enthusiasm for the creative spirit – that will be a great way to help keep your local small bookseller encouraged and alive. We will be really happy to meet you.

Read more details here.

Spoonbill and Sugartown
218 Bedford Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11211
Tel. 718.387.7322
sugar@spoonbillbooks.com

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Dan Witz Tonight at Spoonbill and Sugartown

June 30, 2010 , ,

Street Artist Dan Witz Signs Copies of His New Book “In Plain View”

Dan Witz is a 30+ year veteran of New York City street life, beginning in the late 70’s as an art student in the bombed out East Village, inspired simultaneously by the punk rock explosion and an analogous expression of the discontent that graffiti contained.

Since then he has explored a great deal about how we relate to art on the street, bringing a skilled analyst mind to play with perception, feeling, and our peripheral intake of information. In recent years his studio work has finely combined new digital possibilities with the more traditional oil based tools, producing startling realism and an auric glow that calms and unsettles.

Dan Witz "True Love"
Dan Witz “True Love” (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Witz’s hyper-real street installations have become known for being missed by the busy passerby because of his uncanny and witty ability to integrate them into the urban environment below our perceptual radar. More recently his pieces have grown thematically darker and evermore perfect in their placement, daring you to overlook them.

With the release of this 30 year collection of work, Witz can clearly stake his claim as one of the forerunners of the current explosion of street art and it’s various discontents. Even in his controlled approach to study, practice, and implementation, the underlying punk rocker rips through the fabric of any bourgeois malaise you may be tempted to slip into.

Dan Witz (Photo© Jaime Rojo)
Dan Witz (Photo© Jaime Rojo)

Wednesday June 30th

Spoonbill And Sugartown
At 7:00 PM In Williamsburg

Spoonbill and Sugartown

218 Bedford Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11211
718/387-7322
www.spoonbillbooks.com

Dan Witz, born 1957, Chicago, IL, attended Cooper Union in New York City’s East Village. In 1982 he received a NEA grant and in 1992 and 2000 fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts. His first book, “The Birds of Manhattan” was published in 1983 by Skinny Books. Solo exhibitions include Semaphore Gallery NY (1985,1986), Clementine Gallery (1996), StolenSpace, London (2007); DFN Gallery NY (2003-5, 6, 7, 8, 10) and Carmichael Gallery, LA (2009). Group exhibitions include: Buying Time: Nourishing Excellence, Sotheby’s NY(2001); and Fifteen, NYFA Fellows at Deutsche Bank, NY (1999). Submission (curated by Juxtapoz) Fuse Gallery NY (2005); From The Streets of Brooklyn, Think space Art Gallery, LA (2009) and Beach Blanket Bingo, Jonathan Levine Gallery NY(2009). Dan lives and works in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

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Dan Witz Will be Signing Copies of His New Book “In Plain View” at Spoonbill and Sugartown in Williamsburg.

June 23, 2010 , , , ,

Dan Witz

Dan Witz "In Plain View"

Dan Witz "In Plain View"

Wednesday June 30th 7:00 pm

Spoonbill and Sugartown

218 Bedford Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11211
718/387-7322
www.spoonbillbooks.com


Dan Witz: “In Plain View” — 30 Years of Artworks Illegal
and Otherwise is the first and long overdue monograph
on the work of Dan Witz. A benefit of having one of the
most sustained careers in street art, if such a thing exists, is the degree of growth, freedom and experimentation that such an extended period allows. Another advantage would be the influence of the aesthetic environs within the changing cultural landscape, especially if you happen to work in New York City.
From the no-wave and DIY movements of New York’s Lower East Side of the 70’s, through the Reaganomics of the 80’s to the flourishing of graffiti art in the new millennium. Whether stickers or paste-up silk-screened posters, conceptual pranks and interventions, or beautiful tromp l’oeil paintings, the medium is inspired as much by the nature and subject of his art as by the mutating urban conditions in which the piece is executed.
– Hide quoted text –
Besides obvious craftsmanship, the artwork of Dan Witz evinces a rigorous conceptual framework. This framework not only opens up a dialogue with graffiti and street art which dominate the urban environment, but also allows for the retention of clear and open lines with the canon of art history.

Dan Witz, born 1957, Chicago, IL, attended Cooper Union in New York City’s East Village. In 1982 he received a NEA grant and in 1992 and 2000 fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts. His first book, “The Birds of Manhattan” was published in 1983 by Skinny Books. Solo exhibitions include Semaphore Gallery NY (1985,1986), Clementine Gallery (1996), StolenSpace, London (2007); DFN Gallery NY (2003-5, 6, 7, 8, 10) and Carmichael Gallery, LA (2009). Group exhibitions include: Buying Time: Nourishing Excellence, Sotheby’s NY(2001); and Fifteen, NYFA Fellows at Deutsche Bank, NY (1999). Submission (curated by Juxtapoz) Fuse Gallery NY (2005); From The Streets of Brooklyn, Think space Art Gallery, LA (2009) and Beach Blanket Bingo, Jonathan Levine Gallery NY(2009). Dan lives and works in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

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