Curated by Virginia Villari

@CONTESTA ROCKHAIR
535 Hudson St., corner Charles St. (West Village), NY, NY 10014
Sept. 15th – Oct. 13th, 2010
OPENING RECEPTION: September 15th, from 6 to 9 PM

Welcome to Thursday City is the solo show dedicated to comic book artist and graphic designer Joshua Ray Stephens. The exhibition is a presentation of Joshua’s imaginary world: the city of Thursday City and its habitants. On display a series of drawings, black ink on paper, which unfold these personages to the viewer, who is thrown into an enigmatic universe, populated by heroic, mystical figures. Men, women, soldiers and philosophers, often hybrid creatures, half man half animal, move within surreal scenarios. In the end, they are modern characters: contradictory, ironic, provocative, always busy talking, speculating, wondering, fighting or doing some mysterious activities.
“I hail from the Deep South where people have the time to tell each other long stories.” Narrative is a crucial aspect of Joshua’s work. Whether within one picture or deployed through several, a meaning always informs his images. This visual writer has always been attracted by heroic narratives as well as by comedy. Comics is the visual medium that perfectly combines the two, as it can simultaneously be epic and silly, fantastic and absurd. Joshua’s influences range from Greek mythology to Japanese mangas, from Dostojevski to Moebius. His aesthetic is gothic and industrial, but always silly and humorous. Welcome to Thursday City shows us the heroism of the ordinary that we all experience every day, and invites us to not take ourselves too seriously.

Joshua Ray Stephens is a designer by training, a cartoonist by vocation, an educator by edict, an artist by accident, and a philosopher by autodidaction. He was born and raised in Georgia. He earned a BFA in Graphic Design from the University of Georgia. After undergrad he worked and studied at Fabrica, Benetton’s internationally acclaimed communications research center in Treviso, Italy. He then went to Cranbrook Academy of Art to earn his Master’s degree in 2D Design. He has been initiated into the arcane mysteries through spiritual powers beyond verbal comprehension. www.lostpropertyinformation.com/jrs/ThursdayCity/

ContestaRockHair® is a brand created in 1996 by a group of hairstylists who shared the passion for fashion. Contesta is characterized by a rock soul that links music and art with the creation of hair styles, fostering innovation and experimentation. Today Contesta Rockhair counts 11 salons in Rome, Florence, New York, Miami and Shangai.

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So yesterday I made my way to PS1, even though I was literally melting into the ground and there was no way any train got to Long Island City…after several trials, after taking queens bound trains that for unknown reasons were going to downtown Manhattan, I took a cab.

At the entrance I realized that I forgot my ID so no wrist band to get drinks for me (missing Europe…). Thank God my husband was with me so I could drink anyway.

But alcohol wasn’t the reason why I went to the Warm Up, nor was the Dj. This time the reason was one of my biggest passions: pole dancing.

Body and Pole is a pole dancing fitness studio, where I actually take classes myself. Kyra Johannesen is one of my teachers and she is also the choreographer of the performance I went to see. This year PS1’s courtyard hosts an installation designed by the architectural firm Solid Objectives – Idenburg Liu (SO – IL) titled “Pole Dance.”

This playground is made of white tall fiberglass poles are pointed into the ground, a little tilted; a white net, placed at the mid of the poles connects all of them. Over the net there are bouncing colored balloons that people can reach by hitting them from below, until they fall down through some holes in the net. And the poles, if you shake them, make an interesting sound, like a the vibration
of a cord, which comes from their waiving in the air. When there’s more than one moving it is really like a music.

One of the spaces in the courtyard has sand on the ground and this is where the performance took place.
About 10 performers, dressed up with a black and white stripes t-shirt and black shorts, with fancy tribal hairdos, make-up and accessories, enter the space and position themselves on the poles. In the beginning a sequence of static elegant shapes upside down and around the poles. Then the intensity of movements grows, together with the music, coming from the adjacent space, where the DJ starts pumping it up.
Dancers group together, one on top of the other, they climb the poles and jump down, they switch and do crazy inversions. When it’s difficult and it looks smooth and easy, that is when you see the skill. This is what I can state about this performance. It was beautiful, catching, fluid, exciting.

After the performers left the space all the people started trying to climb the poles, to invert and turn. Kids were making it right away, adults a little less. Everybody were playing and having fun. It was a wonderful afternoon.

www.ps1.org
www.bodyandpole.com

Opening: Wednesday, July 28  6:00 – 10:00 pm
Exhibition Dates: July 28– August 15

Lyons Wier Gallery
175 Seventh Avenue, New York

Mint&Serf SGU (Special Graffiti Unit) is an exhibition at Lyons Wier Gallery, curated by Derrick B. Harden, featuring new work by New York visual artists Mint&Serf.  By adapting the visual styling of “Law & Order” as a point of departure, the exhibition pays homage to the longest running television program filmed entirely in New York City. Mint&Serf SGU is a multi-disciplinary exhibition incorporating painting, photography and video that is an interpretation of the artists’ personal encounters with the law in New York City and within their community.

Mint&Serf SGU (Special Graffiti Unit) cleverly captures Mint&Serf and company in their habitat by placing them in their own adapted version of Law & Order. By appropriating this iconic television drama, Mint&Serf: SGU turns photographed moments of vandalism, street-art and nightlife into a series of silk-screened vignettes captured on canvas. In Mint&Serf: SGU, the two artists portray themselves as part of the “Special Graffiti Unit,” an elite graffiti squad.

Most recently, Mint&Serf created and curated original artwork for the Ace Hotel in New York City.  However, for the past ten years, Mint&Serf have been collaboratively producing artwork generating a vast range of large-scale murals, paintings, photographs, sculpture and street art throughout New York City and around the world. In 2005, as an extension to their art, they launched The Canal Chapter, a gallery platform for emerging artists, designers and musicians. In 2008, after the success of The Canal Chapter, they launched The Stanton Chapter, a street level art space in Lower East Side neighborhood of New York City. Mint&Serf have exhibited throughout the United States and abroad. They have created commissioned work for the Ace Hotel, Nike, Marc Jacobs, Red Bull, Ogilvy&Mathers, Adidas, Yahoo, Boost Mobile, PowerHouse Books among other clients.

“I am looking at women hiding in plain sight. This is a series of portraits where the subject is avoiding the viewer. These are very large paintings; they are aggressive advertisements, though the focus is unclear. The medium and the subject are in disagreement. Variations in flatness and depth, collaged form and over-stated pattern camouflage and hide these girls.”

Cait O’Connor is an illustrator, painter and costume designer who lives and works in New York City. She recently obtained her MFA from the Department of Design for Stage and Film at NYU. In addition to fine art, Cait works in opera, dance, theater and film. She has recently designed large-scale puppets and interactive costumes with Michael Curry for The Paris Opera. Cait has exhibited work in New York Galleries including the Monique Goldstrom gallery in Soho and has participated in the group exhibition Wildly Different Things: New York and Dublin organized by  BlueLeaf Gallery, Dublin, and Contaminate NYC. She was awarded a Graduate Assistant scholarship by New York University and was the recipient of the Island Fund Award in 2004.

Opening Reception:  July 23rd, 2010     7:00 – 10:00pm
Ongoing Exhibition:  July 23rd – Aug 20th, 2010

Kanibal Home
213 Montgomery Street
Jersey City, NJ
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Contaminate NYC is pleased to present Beyond the Brambles, the inaugural Jersey City Outbreak exhibition, featuring media artist, designer, illustrator and animator Jade Kuei. The show to be held at the lovely furnishings and lifestyle shop Kanibal Home will open on July 23rd, 2010 at 7pm and will run until August 23rd, 2010.

Jade has made a name for herself in Jersey City as an animator and imaginative multi-media artist. Her shows have taken her as far as DUMBO while her head still remains in the clouds, trees or brambles in this case. She draws upon nature, her dreams and her 5-year-old son’s super powers for inspiration.
With gools and mumbots already adorning Kanibal Home’s walls and  jewelry cases, Jade was a natural fit for this initiative kick off.

Please join us for our now monthly event where new a new artist or collective will be featured!

Jade Kuei (b. 1981) graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York City in 2003, focusing on fine art and two-dimensional animation. Kuei is best known for her whimsical yet haunted illustrations, which are a direct abstraction of her own dreams and experiences. Additional information can be found at http://www.jadekuei.com/

Kanibal Home is a home furnishings and lifestyle shop located in Jersey City, NJ. Dedicated to exemplifying beauty and budget, the store carries a range of refurbished vintage furniture, found objects, new home décor, apparel and gift items. Additional information can be found at www.kanibalhome.com.

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Much of her inspiration has come from contemporary Asian art, especially Japanese illustration and painting. She admires the work of painter Yoshitomo Nara and animated filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. Musical influences have also had an impact on her work, as Ms. Kuei was active in the skate/punk scene in Las Vegas during her youth, including performing as a vocalist with her own band.

“My artistic process expresses my fear of threats and dangers of the outside world upon my child, in contrast with my hopes for him – and all youth – to find within himself the power to overcome harsh circumstances, strength to cope with challenges and the courage to care. Illustrating inspirational young characters (referred to as “The Small Seekers”) emerge triumphant against – or flow in harmony with – intimidating, isolating and dangerous backgrounds, or “the unknown,” is essential to my work.” Jade Kuei

It’s so many of our stories. Move to New York from our relevant home towns and pursue our art. In theory a beautiful dream – in reality a bumpy road – full of service industry supplementary jobs, failed shows, interviews or auditions leading to new ideas but not necessarily new work and the rent check barely paid in time each month. The choice is brave, heroic and often difficult.

In the second installment of an interview with artist Peter Gerakaris, he talks a bit more about his art and gives some invaluable advise to those of us pursuing a career in art.

CvK – Can you talk a little about your murals? How does the space where they went up influence the mural you create?

PG – When I did the solo show / installation “Sprectrumorphosis” at Wave Hill, I created translucent site-specific paintings on glass that filtered exterior light into the gallery. It generated an interplay between the plants, viewers, transmitted color and overall space. However, there was a 14-foot windowless wall which was very anti-climactic, so I had to transform it somehow. I had two or three days left during the install and decided with curators Jennifer McGregor and Erica Strongin do a giant “Helianthus Rorschach” mural. I think it did bring that half of the gallery to life and seemed fitting since they this particular was called the “Sun Room”.

I also have a detailed, “hypothetical” mural proposal on file that would cover the entire north wall of the National Academy Museum on 89th Street and 5th Ave. It was part of a mural fellowship (The Abbey Mural Fellowship) and show I recently took part in at the National Academy. The imagery strives to unite iconography from Central Park with Museum Mile in an attempt to reinvigorate interest in the National Academy by turning the large wall into a beacon. Although I am not holding my breath that it will ever happen, you never know.

CvK – When did you decide to be an artist professionally?

PG – I fantasized about being a Major League Baseball pitcher for years, but threw out my arm in high school so I naturally fell back on art.

I was then too naive to know any better when I moved to New York at age 21 to pursue art after graduating from Cornell. From day one out of undergraduate, I always managed to avoid a day job, despite sometimes wondering what it would be like to get a steady paycheck. But it was a simple deduction: I either spend all my time pouring creative energy into someone else’s project and unhappily wish I were painting, or put that energy into my own pursuits, so the latter is what I did. I also asked myself, “can I really call myself an artist if I am not making art”? Given my disposition, I had no choice, but I wouldn’t wish it on anyone else.

CvK – It’s phenomenal how your career has taken off. How have you found the transition from grad school into the professional art world in NY?

PG – Well, it feels great to be treated like a professional adult again, not a student. Of course if you had asked me two months ago when I was still trying to find a comfortable painting studio (which is not easy these days in NYC), I may have answered differently. New York is as challenging as ever for artists trying to eek out a life, but the opportunities can often outweigh the challenges.

As for grad school, it’s important to remember that an MFA is a terminal degree and that people go back to school at a variety of stages in life. I at least had a few years of “real world” experience between Cornell and Hunter, so I had professional momentum coming into the program. It probably would not have been appropriate to attend an MFA program had I been a lot younger or waited any longer, but luckily the timing turned out to be really perfect.

I will add that where I did my MFA (CUNY Hunter College) fortunately allows students to balance having one foot in the “real world” and the other in academics—it’s a tasty cocktail of “practice” and “theory”. Plus, it is in the middle of NYC and people are there to take advantage of the pluralistic art scene, so Hunter tends to be less afflicted by the “bubble” or “vacuum” syndromes than some of the other competitive MFA programs. By the end of grad school, you have become so hyper-conscious of yourself as an artist that it is only healthy to take a step back. So all good things must come to an end, including student days. When you come to the realization that you no longer need anyone to orchestrate your learning process and that being labeled a “student artist” by the outside world imposes a ceiling, it means it is time to graduate

CvK – What advise would you give to an artist at the start of their career?

PG – Well, when I first moved to NYC I met an elderly Russian painter who gave me his business card, which read: “if you meet an artist, kill him.”

Aside from that advice, I would say make the best possible work you can and stay true to your own personal vision—be genuine. If you let other people or trends dictate what you should or should not make, you will not be making your own work, you won’t have fun making it, and it will probably not be very good.

No one every said being an artist is easy. It is a tough job because you must be very sensitive to feedback and aware of external stimuli. Simultaneously, you also need a thick skin because you cannot take all the advice or criticism you receive to heart. To paraphrase Herbie Hancock, who was recently asked in an interview if he is “…making music for any particular audience or critic”, he responded by saying “no”—basically, that his biggest responsibility is making music with which he is happy. In a sense, I think that is far more genuine and challenging than pretending to make art under the misguided premise of pleasing others. It is like Kenny G versus Herbie Hancock. But I think Herbie’s response incidentally touches upon the great notion of how specificity can lead to universality: that when you successfully hone in on the specific in art—ie you and your completely unique perspective of the world—you paradoxically arrive at something more universal.

Please visit the artist’s website at www.petergerakaris.com

Opening: Tuesday July 6th, 2020 – 6pm-9pm
Through August 03

O’Barone
360 Van Brunt Street,
Red Hook, Brooklyn

Contaminate NYC is pleased to present Information (apparently) by Andrew Coates. The exhibition, to be held at O’Barone restaurant in Red Hook will open on July 6th, 2010 and will run until August 3rd, 2010.

Information (apparently)is a new way to see reality. Andrew’s innate dadaist instinct allows him to break down and then reconstruct the ordinary to manifest the multiple shapes it can morph in.  The core theme of the show focuses on his long-time study on the BEARS ATTACK BOOKS. The artist dissects existing information and generates a new message with his particular arrangement of the pieces. It is still information, yet stronger, more definite and unusual. It is the triumph of human creativity and originality, the effort of put an innovative and unique stamp on the routines of every day life.

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Since then, based in Red Hook, Brooklyn, Andrew’s disparate, often derivative work primarily explores the paradoxical nature of meaning. He currently divides his time between the graphic and the fine arts, creating witty, stand-alone multiples (snow globes that put an ironic twist on Milton Glaser’s I [HEART] NY logo; “tree-log” coasters made of cork), as well as thoughtful-yet-whimsical drawings, altered photographs, and found-object-inspired installations.

Andrew Coates