Curated by Thibault Sandret of Glam Trash Pop and hosted by Virginie Sommet's Studio/Gallery 173 on Canel Street is the exhibition "Don't Call It Street Art," which will be on open to the public beginning this weekend on Dec 15th. The group show celebrates Street Art through photography, painting, collage, graphic design and live body painting. By taking the art out of its urban context and hanging in a gallery the work becomes legalized as well as institutionalized. Sandret hopes that by placing the work in the space of the gallery, people will allow themselves to slow down and take a look in a way that may otherwise not happen when quickly passed on the streets. Artists included in the show include Ogi, COL & Veng, Nathalie Hamelin, Iris Arnaud, Gary St Clare, Hugo Martin, Jake Dobkin and Alexandra Zsigmond.
On view at the Estel Gallery through Tag Art Gallery in Nashville is work by printmakers Valerie Lueth and Paul Roden, titled Assembling Utopia. Lueth and Roden are a husband and wife team who has started their own socially-responsible, image-based workshop called Tugboat Artist's Press; with a mission to foster progressive thinking in the arts. Lueth is employed as an educational videogame concept artist and interface designer. She received her BFA from the University of South Dakota. Roden who has moved into creating woodcuts received his BFA from Washington University and his MFA from University of South Dakota. The couple currently resides in Pittsburgh.
Opening today at Victoria Miro in London, in her first solo exhibition in the UK, Wangechi Mutu will be making a departure from her earlier collages and installations with their highly critical, dark and confrontational themes and stepping into a renewed optimism and positive energy inherent in this new body of work. The exhibition's title Yo.n.I is derived from yoni, the Sanskrit word for "divine passage" or sacred space rooted in the worship of female creativity and sexual organ. With layers of visual metaphor, Mutu likes to force her viewers to question assumptions about race, gender, geography, history and beauty. Mutu received her BFA from Cooper Union, New York and her MFA from Yale University School of Art. The artist was born in Nairobi, Kenya and currently lives and works in New York City.
On view now at John Connelly Presents is the solo exhibition "Too Much, Too Little, Too Late," by New York-based artist Scott Hug. For the show, Hug is presenting a new body of paintings, sculpture, video and text-based work that continues his interest in the media, pop culture and politics. The artist appropriates images from media sources like Time Magazine and The New York Post in order to highlight the public's obsession with celebrity news. One series contains headshots of celebrities taken from the New York Post's Page Six gossip columns, reduced to a two color screen print and coupled with self help phrases such as, "Get Well Soon" and "Too Much Stress." Hug received his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a Masters in communication design from Pratt Institute. The artist has exhibited with Deitch Projects, D'Amelio Terras, Elizabeth Dee Gallery, and The Kitchen in NYC. Hug appeared in a review in the New York Times which featured his collaborative exhibition with Michael Magnan at John Connelly Presents in 2004.
Blowing up on the rock-poster scene, Leia Bell is bringing a new show of posters and original paintings titled "The Business of Ferrets" to the Richard Goodall Gallery in London Sept. 29 - Oct. 25. After only seven years Bell has created 250 limited edition hand-printed silk-screened music posters for bands such as Echo and The Bunnymen, The Darkness, My Chemical Romance, and The Decemberists. Bell uses a camera to document people she knows at parties and shows. She later uses the photos as references simplifying the scene to something universal that anyone can relate to. The artist was recently featured in Print magazine's "20 Best Under 30" annual issue and Art of Modern Rock. Bell received her BFA in Print Making from University of Utah.
The paintings of Julie Heffernan are a constant dilemma of opposites between the gorgeous and the grotesque, attraction and repulsion, with a bounty of enormous amounts of wealth and waste of resources, energy and lives. Each one of Heffernan's figures are heavily draped with the carcasses of animals, strung with rose-webbing, bejeweled with medals and encircled by heads of state. As the artist's frantic imagery heightens to a climax, each woman gazes at the viewer with serene calm. Heffernan received her undergraduate degree in painting and printmaking from University of California and her graduate degree in painting from Yale University. She has received a Lila Acheson Wallace award, NY Foundation for the Arts award, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Fulbright-Hayes Grant. Heffernan will be showing at P.P.O.W. Sept. 20-Oct. 20 in New York City.
Currently on view at Jonathan LeVine Gallery in New York City is "E Pluribus Venom," a solo exhibition featuring new works by California-based artist Shepard Fairey. Fairey, who is a graduate of Rhode Island School of Art and Design, gained much notoriety even before attending school for his iconic renderings and street campaigns of former wrestler Andre the Giant. The title "E Pluribus Venom" translates as "out of many poisons" and is derived from "e pluribus unum," or "out of many, one," which was used as an early motto by the U.S. government on coins and dollar bills. Fairey's works investigate symbols that are associated with the ideologies of the American Dream. The artist organizes his imagery through a graphic language, employing the ideas of propaganda, advertising and anarchy. Fairey was born in Charleston, S.C., and currently lives and works in Los Angeles. Fairey has grown a design empire that reaches into the markets of clothing, skateboards, publications, corporate icons, stickers, stencils and posters. In 2005, the artist co-founded Swindle Magazine, and, in 2006, he released his latest book, "Supply and Demand: The Art of Shepard Fairey," and was a resident artist at the Honolulu Contemporary Art Museum. Fairey's works have been exhibited internationally in numerous museums, including the Baltic Center for Contemporary Art in New Castle, UK, and the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art.
New York City-based artist SWOON creates fantastical cityscapes that are delicately rendered through cut paper and often posted publicly on the streets of New York. In the above video, the artist presents her work as part of this year's "Conversations with Contemporary Artists" series at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. SWOON introduced herself to New York by covering the city's streets with her signature public works, including cut-outs, billboard alterations, poster campaigns and street parties. The artist creates life-sized installations, indoors and outdoors, that depict friends and families engaging in a variety of everyday activities that take place within the city. SWOON gained much notoriety from her outdoor works, especially her street peepholes that, once discovered, allow viewers a glimpse into a secret world. The artist has been traveling for several years, exhibiting works across the United States and Europe. SWOON has collaborated with such groups as the Barnstormers, Glowlab and Change Agent. She has exhibited in the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center's "Greater New York" show in 2005 and has exhibited a massive walk-through installation with the Deitch Projects in New York City.
Japanese artist and fashion designer Mihara Yasuhiro challenges the boundaries of fashion and sports in both design and execution. Yasuhiro, who is also known as Miharayasuhiro, recently released a collector's book in conjunction with PUMA that showcases four Japanese artists who have all been influenced by the PUMA Mihara footwear collection. PUMA by Mihara Yasuhiro began in 2000 with the launch of a sneaker collection, bringing together a wealth of culture and original design from Japanese influences. This new and promising partnership has resulted in a fresh and vibrant collection of sneakers. PUMA by Mihara Yasuhiro was one of the first PUMA designer collaborations and became an integral part in establishing PUMA's sport and fashion revolution. In 1998, Yasuhiro opened his first store, SOSU ("prime number") in Aoyama, Japan, followed by his second store in Fukuoka, Japan in 2000, and his third store in Osaka, Japan in 2002. After becoming successful in the footwear industry, Yasuhiro expanded his creativity in design apparel for men and women and made his worldwide debut with Pitti Uomo in Florence, Italy. He has also worked with Aprica, was featured in Sneaker Freaker Magazine. Yasuhiro graduated from Tama Art University in 1997.
While employing a vocabulary of graphic art, artist Mathew Brannon's work explores social ideals and personal emotions through reductive images. Brannon uses screen printing as his primary method of creation, offering commentary on mass production while also allowing the work to remain in an original format. The artist challenges modes of semiotics by juxtaposing certain graphic images with potent text to elicit a particular emotive response. The human condition and ideas of disappointment and illusion are investigated through cultural symbols and media-related forms. The design element of Brannon's work illustrates how product packaging and placement has an impact on our feelings of value, sense of self and emotional vulnerability. This year, the artist will present "Try and be grateful" at the Art Gallery of York University in Toronto. In 2006, Brannon exhibited with the Friedrich Petzel Gallery in New York, David Kordansky Gallery in Basel, Switzerland, and "HYENA" at Jan Winkelmann Gallery in Berlin. The artist attended the University of California and completed his MFA at Columbia University School of Art in New York.
