The More “Things Change”, the More They Stay the Same

Opening last night at Since-Upian Gallery in Paris, “Things Change”, Specter’s solo show is a  collection of hand drawn, painted, carved, stenciled and collaged materials showing how the  Street Artist continues to broaden technically while focusing socially.

Specter “Things Change” (photo © courtesy of the artist)

In these images special to BSA readers, these individual paeans to the unflinching rugged personality of Brooklyn streets capture a moment and a bit of  humanity as a rapidly downshifting economy gusts and blows through the streets, catching more people off guard as Towncars with tinted windows glide by. It’s hard to feel romantic about a fraying social net through which more people are falling, which is where the care of Specter’s hand rendered scenes, unpatronizing, clear eyed, and possibly sarcastic, take us again.

Specter “Things Change” (photo © courtesy of the artist)

Similarly and with great determination, this Street Artist uses painting to capture and somehow give honor to the stickers and graffiti tags and stencils and commercial advertisements that appear on New York’s streets in some neighborhoods. Holding a mirror up, clearly with these paintings Specter appears to be glorifying graffiti and street art – a scathing charge leveled at certain museum exhibitions of late.

Specter “Things Change” (photo © courtesy of the artist)

As in his work over the past few years this show Specter continues to draw attention to the gentrification that speeds unabated throughout many neighborhoods of New York today, as local character is buffed and expunged for vertical glass big-screen sanitized living. The commentary is not so much the lost vibrance and character of a city that doesn’t return, but a focus on the people who are pushed further and further, but to where?

Specter “Things Change” (photo © courtesy of the artist)

Specter “Things Change” (photo © courtesy of the artist)

Specter “Things Change” (photo © courtesy of the artist)

Specter “Things Change” (photo © courtesy of the artist)

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Specter “Things Change”

Since-Upian Gallery
211 rue Saint-Maur 75010 Paris

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