~CHRIS UPHUES & DAVID SENA !!
NOTE: extensive BRUCENNIAL 2014 opening nite – pix . . will start posting – this THURS !!
but first . . .
SENASPACE GALLERY PRESENTS:
A SOLO EXHIBITION BY . . CHRIS UPHUES – ‘NITE LITE’
curated by MELISSA McCAIG-WELLES.
the show opened MARCH 6, 2014
and runs thru . . APRIL 6, 2014
so, no – it was NOT just a one night stand, for the ART FAIR WEEKEND !!
you can STILL head downtown . .
to see what a true ‘alternative’ ‘underground’ storefront space looks like, today.
circa 2014.
SENA SPACE – 229 CENTRE ST – JUST NORTH of GRAND.
GALLERY HRS: TUES-WED, FRI-SUN: 12-8 PM
the minute I caught sight of the storefront window . . I KNEW, I was in the RIGHT place.
so ‘pop’, and c-h-e-e-r-y !!
so, on-the-other-side-of-the-street . . from what everybody else is shoving down your throat.
LORDY !!
f-o-r-e-v-e-r keep me FAR, FAR from the MADDENING . . ART FAIR MASSES !!
so, off-the-wall, re: all the so-called & predictable ‘cutting edge’ art they are non-stop . . shilling right now.
so simple, and yet so . . flat-out one-of-a kind.
so playful. and, so .. well, POP !!
FUNNY. and way, way VULNERABLE. like being ‘artistically’ . . naked.
border-line autistic.
YOU, did get . . that, that when I referenced HANNAH HORVATH aka LENA DUNHAM – it was a GOOD THING !!
that was the over-all deal breaker . . with all the art fairs. and the WHITNEY.
rooms and rooms of too many MARNIES !! and not . . . enough LENAS !!
too much ‘packaged’ goods, and not enough, CRAZY LIKE HELL . . LIVE WIRES !!
A GOOFY LIVE WIRE – but I like that.
like playing stupid, when you are really really smart.
LENA !!
kind of goofy, but WATCH OUT.
GOOFY . . got it all over YOU !!
also speaking about . . 80s art !!
funny, how all everybody talks about now is, JEAN MICHEL BASQUIAT.
what happened to his twin from another planet . . KEITH HARING ?!!
back in the day, HARING over-shadowed Jean Michel.
what happened, why the big turn-around eclipse ?
HARING too played out, commercially ?
I’m thinking this work brings . . KIETH HARING, and his brand of pop art – back to the table.
CHRIS UPHUES . . ‘SWAN’.
note the table corner at the left, I put this in just so you could get a sense of the scale.
note how the colors – very rainbow-like, very Spanish ices on the hot summer city street corner, echo the colors in that storefront ‘a flower grows’ . . assemblage.
have you ever scratched a ‘black’ waxy pad, and made the colors underneath . . come to light.
I have. have you ever seen ‘black’ light paintings on velvet.
have you ever wondered about . . the human condition ?
have you ever wondered about walking the earth. your path, and trying to make sense of it all. especially, if you veer towards the peaceful. and gentle. and are . . a bit of an outsider.
okay. a little competitiveness, like nudity – can be a good thing.
it’s all about finding the right ‘scale’. balance. measurement.
it’s a painting that tries to ‘signify’ . . more depth, than at first appears to be on the surface, just like LENA.
LENA is so hot right now.
NEW YORK is like the center of the world. and it’s not even a crime show.
that being said.
prepare yourselves for this . . flight of the imagination:
I look at this painting today, and I see a message.
a map . . from another planet.
a ‘construct’, a diagram with no words, no text – universal language / pure image ‘fonts’ . . from a faraway, and more highly evolved cosmos !!
a map on how to locate . . missing AIRPLANES THAT DISAPPEAR OVER . . WATER.
specifically, MALAYSIA FLIGHT MH370.
yeah, forget about a map on the human condition, and how maybe, maybe to fit in.
this is a map on the strange geometry of trying to locate, ‘finding’ a huge airplane lost at sea, and how all our hi-tech tracking fails us. so we got to fall back on . . gut-feeling and instinct, and trying to connect the dots.
yeah, play dominoes.
seeking conclusion, seeking answers, seeking . . humans so need ‘closure’.
step after step, the info seeps into the ‘tabloid’ consciousness.
~ bearers of stolen passports . . who look like BLACK EUROPEAN SOCCER STARS with double diamond studs in their ears, NOT !!
~ 2 bearers of stolen passports, one of whom is an IRANIAN teen seeking asylum in Germany, bye way of China ?!! made me think of that massacred Brooklyn band ‘THE YELLOW DOGS’ – the very vocal Iranian ex-pat band that fled to Bushwick, only to be gunned down here. ‘cool cats’ – who were driven by oppression, to become fugitive yellow dogs. got a feeling something very wrong, is going on down, here. but you sure as hell know – we are not going to know the whole truth. covert is covert is covert.
~ 20 hi-tech ‘invisibility cloak’ engineers and super communications defense contractors out of TEXAS on their way to . . China / were on that plane ?!! who’s afraid of China getting their hands on future-world hi-end weaponry, anybody ? everybody !!
~ so, if someone told you: ‘Flight MH370 was lost in an aeronautical black hole’ – seriously, would you believe that ?
~ likewise, it’s wrapped ‘in a future-world hi-tech cloak of invisibility’ . .
~ and last, but not least, so far: 2 chicks come forward with the pix to prove .. they sat in the cockpit on a past Malaysia flight – with the party-boy co-pilot of this . . doomed flight.
damn, what a glorious range of options.
it’s like . . a riddle. a game of sidewalk hop scotch. throw your stone, see where it lands.
where the rainbow . . begins, and ends.
is there a master-mind behind this universe, the walkway between ‘real’ and ‘non-real’ is getting really Tibetan.
CHRIS UPHUES . . ‘SKULL’. 2013. paint on canvas. approx 2 ft x 2 ft.
hi-tech devices . . have only made ‘reality’ seem that much more,
. . ‘tantric’.
yeah, maybe ‘tantric’ . . is the right word.
CHRIS UPHUES, ‘POP’ . . to ‘TANTRIC’ !!
funny how a little ‘happy’ faced flower springing it’s many petaled bobble head . . out of a friendly child-like computer can grow so . . w-o-n-d-e-r-o-u-s.
a reality check ?
not quite sinister, more like: everyday life or cosmic truth. take your pick.
life is stranger than . . fiction.
and no – they will cover it up, if they can.
so stick a ‘smiley’ face on it, and go back to watching . . LENA !!
back to earth, ground control . . calling.
DAVID SENA, the gallery’s founder, a fine artist and a tattoo artist himself, stands beside a CHRIS UPHUES painting in his shop, the back of which is a tattoo parlor. I would go so far as to say, an artist-run . . tattoo parlor.
DAVID SENA showed me a wall-sized series of pieces he had recently made – and exhibited in his gallery space, on his computer screen. Born and raised in TEXAS, he came to NYC to study at COOPER UNION, and after graduating, he stayed, “cultivating his fine art while simultaneously working as a tattoo artist, in NYC and abroad.”
he has a wonderful artist statement on his gallery website.
YOU should: read it for yourself !!
DAVID SENA.
apparently those large scale cut-out, and burnt (!!) wall pieces get stacked up on top of each other – and become a kind of 3-D ‘tantric’ portrait !!
could that be a . . self portrait.
dare I ask.
so, WHO . . would guess seeing how self-involved the maniac art world is, but last weekend was also a big TATTOO COMPETITION / CONVENTION.
this 1st place trophy was just brought home by DAVID SENA – it was won, I think he said by a girl wearing one of his tattoos. it says:
NEW YORK CITY TATTOO CONVENTION 2014
BEST COLOR TATTOO – 1st PLACE
downstairs is a kind of artist hang-out, think tank, work space.
COLLECTIVE HARDWARE, anybody remember them – eat your hearts out, this is the real deal.
DAVID SENA snake drawing . . there are also full scale tattoo sketches, on thin transparent papers, fluttering on the walls. like banners.
yes, those are . . burn holes.
a multi-media piece by DAVID BUTTON, I think from Britain ?
and, the next artist who will show in the space . .
art mirrors . . life.
art is a mirror that catches life, by the random glance ?
ever changing, depending on your perspective ?
and, from whence you . . stand ?
don’t get me started . . art is ‘the’ only real eyeball on the world.
I’VE GOT MY EYE ON YOU.
just keep me far, far from the maddening crowds.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
continues . . .