Wooden Walls Exhibition & Holiday Group Show
December 17, 2016 ~ February 12, 2017
Artists:
Rubin 415
Brooklyn based mural and studio artist Tony “Rubin” Sjöman has painted all over the world and his work has been shown in several galleries throughout the US and Europe. Rubin’s roots are in Finland, he draws inspiration from his Scandinavian heritage and is known for his complex abstract geometrical style – rooted in traditional wild style but with muted color palettes and Scandinavian~ly clean lines.
Rubin has become a staple of the art scene of New York City and beyond. Rubin’s murals can be seen in a wide variety of spots in and around the city: on churches in Brooklyn, high-end boutiques in Soho and on the 70th floor of one of the WTC buildings. Rubin’s studio work is based on canvases, prints and installations, and he is no stranger to painting on metal and wood. Rubin’s studio work has been on display at Scope New York, Scope Miami and in galleries throughout New York City, Miami and Los Angeles.
Danny Clinch loves music. He listens to it, plays it, photographs it, and films it. Through this passion, Danny has established himself as one of the premier photographers across the entire music scene. He has shot and filmed a wide range of artists, from Johnny Cash to Tupac Shakur, from Bjork to Bruce Springsteen. His work has appeared on hundreds of album covers and in publications like Vanity Fair, Spin, Rolling Stone, GQ, Esquire, and more. Clinch has presented his work in numerous galleries and published three books: Discovery Inn, When the Iron Bird Flies, and Still Moving. As a director, Clinch has received three Grammy Award nominations. He has also directed music videos for artists like Willie Nelson, Tom Waits, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters and Dave Mathews, among others.
Dylan Egon was born in 1966 in New York City and is currently based in Jersey City, NJ. He studied Anthropology and Archeology at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama and later studied Film at City Tech University in New York. Egon works in a variety of mediums (collage, assemblage, sculpture) and often uses objects from his vast personal collection as focal points in his work. In a review for The New York Times, Benjamin Genocchio referred to Egon’s work as “sites of cultural compression, fetishization and wonder.”
Ray Geary showed no interest in art at an early age, yet was drawn to it post college as a way to create the things he wanted to see. Comprised mostly of cast resin sculpture, Geary’s work deals with encapsulation and the unexpected elevation of commonplace items. A young New York talent, Geary’s work has already been exhibited at Scope NYC and Miami, Helium Cowboy in Hamburg and Shizaru Gallery in London.
RC Hagans
“I’ve been told I’m a contradiction, I like to think of it as embracing both sides of the same coin.
Inspired by current events, ancient symbols, pin-ups, religion, and dumb jokes; I use every and all medium in a process I liken to a Pentecostal believer being filled with The Spirit and “speaking in tongues.” I’m the vessel, but the message is kept pure by inviting the viewer to interpret. Is it unsettling or beautiful? Tasteful or crass? Reverent or blasphemy? Or, everything at once, all the time? “ ~ RC Hagans
Kevin Hebb is a designer, painter and word sayer. His newest body of works are carefully composed layers of meticulously painted words and patterns in bold and playful colors. Kevin currently lives and works in NYC
Michela Martello
Artist Michela Martello was born in Grosseto, Italy. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in illustration from Europe Institute of Design, after which she published works in over 30 books, primarily children’s book illustrations. In 1993 she shifted her focus to painting and had her first exhibition in Milano and New York. In 1998 she moved permanently to New York where she started her research as artist painter full time at Arturo di Modica’s studio. In 2006 she was selected by the American Association of University Women in the “Emerging Women Artists Juried Exhibition” held at the New York Design Centre. In 2007 and 2008 she was selected by Jim Kempner fine arts and Ok Harris gallery for the “NYU Small Work” group show at the Washington Square gallery. Her artwork has being collected and commissioned by both public and private clients; Soros collection, Serafina group, CityCinema group, Fulton collection. Michela has collaborated with: Bonelli arte contemporanea, Italy, Tria gallery, Azart gallery, Pen&Brush gallery, NYC, Parlor gallery, NJ, and Rarity gallery in Mikonos Greece. In 2014 she won the selection for the juried exhibition “Understanding Media, the Extension of Human Being” organized by Call for Bushwick, during Bushwick open studios, in Brooklyn, NYC, in the same year she exhibited at Tibet House Museum US, and she took part of ”Transcending Tibet” NYC curated by Davide Quadrio and Paola Vanzo. In 2015 she has being commissioned a triptique for the permanent collection of Metropoliz MAAM Museum of Rome by curators Giorgio de Finis and Stefania Giazzi, meanwhile she’s being selected by curator Rick Kinsel, director of Vilcek foundation to be part of ”Domesticity Revisited” at Pen&Brush NYC. In 2015 she takes part of AQUA Miami Art Fair, and in 2016 at Context NYC with Azart gallery, In 2016 she has being selected to be part of Woodenwallsproject a public art program curated by Parlor gallery, with a Mural installation in Asbury Park, NJ. and most recently she’s part of ”Overlap: life Tapestries” curated by Vida Sabbaghi at A.I.R. gallery BK
Bradley Hoffer is a multidisciplinary artist born and currently living in New Jersey. His work offers strong and clean images that are based on line and color. The final paintings are actualized and considered to be larger, completed drawings. Bradley’s line creates the image, which is unusual, as it is usually the image, which informs the line. This process allows for diverse characteristics of line, form and image. Some objects flow and curlicue, while others have a harder, straightedge quality. Both bold and muted colors are used to maximize their impact with carefully selected fabrics, both vintage and contemporary. These fabrics are either used as a complete background for the image, or cleverly employed in carefully chosen portions of each piece.
Bradley’s goal while creating his art is to establish his signature line-style as unmistakably his. The final product is both a witty and therefore comforting view of conflict and a way for the artist to accommodate and acknowledge a dichotomy or problem without really imposing his views or opinion.
Lauren Napolitano
My work is about celebrating the handmade and the imperfections that come along with it. I am incredibly influenced by my mother’s Mexican heritage and I lean heavily on these ancestors as I create and gather inspiration. Using symmetry and traditional Mexican craft (tile, textile, wood carving) as my starting point, each line is truly unique, and any flaw is simply showing the beauty of the human hand. I find it important to achieve depth with simple lines and dots, taking something so simple and creating a complex world within. As a woman I love to explore bold lines while adding a clearly feminine mark, inventing delicate pattern work to incorporate a sense of balance through it all.
Pau
PAU Quintanajornet doesn‘t paint pictures. Pau creates worlds – open invitations to a journey into the beauty of Latin American influences and into the spheres of an artist, who with paper, wood, and ink playfully turns her world inside out. The cleavage between cultures loosens up. From the friction between her Chilian roots and her German home she draws her own symbolism of strong women, who grow out of the ground like plants rising to the sky.
Birds also occupy a large space in Pau‘s World: symbols for wisdom and peace, spreading their wings and being free spirits, coping with highs and lows. Pau is a collector. Her atelier is home to countless keepsakes, ranging from plane tickets and stones to drawings and paintings from artist friends. Everything has its place in this world that tells the story of encounters through pieces of a mosaic. This place is her walk-in memory bank. All these little things eventually turn into her art. Pau‘s paintings are an expression of her inner world. She paints what she lives and feels.
Born in Chile and raised in the former DDR, Pau moved to Berlin at the age of 15 to broaden her horizons and find a creative outlet. She studied communication-design and illustration at the FHTW before taking off to South America. In Valparaiso, Chile, she recharged her batteries and set the course for her future. Falling in love with the Muralistas-Movement and Urban Art, Pau started to create her first wall pieces down South. Although she eventually returned to Germany, Pau would frequently revisit Latin America – her Motherland – her emotional home. During these returns, she might discover something new about her self or her art, socialize with other artists or improve her techniques. In the collective of the Muralistas and streetartists, Pau found birds of the same feather.
Over the last couple of years Pau has participated in numerous festivals and art events around the world. These travels and interactions with the people around helped her to find a deeper meaning in her work and get more sensitive for different global realties. Inspired by the words of Pablo Neruda, that “The murals are the books of the people “ she startet a long term art project called PROJECT WALLFLOWERS in 2013. Her work is found on walls in Egypt, Tunisia, Spain, France, The Netherlands, Germany, United States, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Chile … . While Pau‘s walls are on display in public spaces, they are created with the permission of the communities. Her interest lies in sharing her art with people, not creating notoriety for her self. „Painting walls is something which shapes the environment and makes it more colorful. It‘s a gift to community.“ ALIMENTO PARA EL ALMA …
Jill Ricci
“One of the most arresting visuals for me is an old wall layered with papers, graffiti and text- our modern hieroglyphics. I try to re-create this beauty in my work, the layers of time and decay are what interest me. I hope that the person viewing my work will linger, trying to discover hidden imagery and text and depending on their life experience, find their own meaning or interpretation.
Found images and objects function as signifiers of both individual and collective experience. By incorporating materials that are linked to the realities of daily life, I strive to establish an immediate identification between the viewer and the work of art. I am exploring the place between “high art” and popular culture, text and image, figuration and abstraction, past and present , and two and three-dimensional space.
I begin working without a final vision in mind: I use collected materials and allow pattern, texture, color and structure to emerge organically. In this current body of work, I want the pieces to evoke the walls of Morocco, a Renaissance Church, an old school NYC subway wall covered in advertisements, posters & graffiti, and a touch of Malibu Barbie, all simultaneously existing on one canvas.” -Jill Ricci
Porkchop is a multi-disciplinary artist living in Asbury Park, New Jersey. He has a MFA in Sculpture from VCU and has had a successful career designing and creating murals, mixed media art and sculpture. He creates intriguing scenarios by combining paint, illustration, and text. He has exhibited exclusively in the United States and Europe and is published in “The Greatest Erotic Art of Today/Volume 2”, “Eye Candy” and “I Want Your Skull”.
“I am intrigues by every aspect of the art making process; from finding and selecting the subject matter to making the frame and each step in between. Most inspiration for my work comes from retro photography of women. After the selection of the image, I then incorporate additional images and text to create the story. From piece to piece the story changes, but the female figure is often the main character.” -Porkchop
Jesse Shaw is a printmaker from Tennessee primarily working in relief prints carved from linoleum blocks. His work is based in the narrative, satirical, political, and social commentary tradition of the graphic print. Jesse is currently working on a series of fifty prints depicting the epic story of America. Prints from his “American Epic” series of linocut prints have been exhibited nationally in Nashville, New Orleans, New York, New Jersey, and North Carolina.
When I pulled my first print my artistic vision became tangible for the first time. After the second print I began to realize what the word infinite could mean to me. I gained personal meanings to many words through printmaking, including devotion, self-discipline, perseverance, and craftsmanship. I traveled to Dartmouth College in New Hampshire to study Jose Clemente Orozco’s mural “The Epic of American Civilization” in 2008. Upon seeing the mural in person I was struck by how powerful the work is and spent an afternoon admiring the imagery. This mural was the initial inspiration that motivated me to begin my interpretation of the American Story. This interest in Orozco’s work led me to Mexico to study Mexican printmaking and the works of other Mexican muralists including Diego Rivera, and David Alfaro Siqueiros. The intensity and sincerity in the murals, along with the history of the political and social purpose of printmaking in Mexico, brought me to working on prints in the style of muralism. I have been working on the American Epic series for seven years and have completed 27 prints. The narrative of the work expands as I continue to study topical events, history, art, printmaking in other cultures, and subjects relevant to what is happening in my work. Each piece is it’s own venture, and I find that a very exciting way to create. The work is shown while in progress as the series reaches the fifty prints that will make up the collection. In addition to the series, I have continued to explore other mediums, techniques, and collaborations as an extension of the American Epic prints.
James Vance is an artist and designer working and living in Asbury Park, NJ. His most recent series is an exploration in and of numbers in various media.
“My numbers pieces began as large-scale, interior wall drawings for Barneys New York on Madison Avenue and Beverly Hills in the early 1990’s. I’m drawn to the precision of numbers and the vast amounts of information their sequencing can convey. After a long break, I returned to the subject of numbers in 2015.
Using the paintbrush feels like knitting or weaving to me. I let the numbers flow out of my brain onto the surface like meditation or chanting. As the numbers float through, I see what comes up. Sometimes there are good dates or bad dates that represent times in my life or even phone numbers or passcodes – all kinds of data. Some of it means something to me and sometimes it means something to someone else I know. The numbers could have to do with anything… or nothing. There is also meaning in the numbers that are not there.
Hellbent is a New York based street artist. His work is known for his vibrant use of color and pattern in abstract paintings.
What is at the core of Hellbent’s art with its brightly color strips and contrasting patterns? You might be surprised to hear that the answer is music. Not only did he base his street name off of the punk musician, Richard Hell, but he names his works after songs that he listens to while creating them. His intense love for music spans a variety of genres that include punk, country, and indie rock.
esides his floral patterns and incredible stencil work, Hellbent’s work is sometimes distinguished by a jaw bone. He explained that the jaw bone idea came to him after reading a story about Freud’s battle with jaw cancer. The story goes that Freud was saved from a sudden hemorrhage by his hospital roommate – who happened to be a dwarf! Hellbent explains that the jaw also suggests the importance of basic human functions such as speaking and eating.