on the other hand,
if you are looking to figure out the best ticket, among the absolute ‘horde’ of
’emerging’ artists . . clamboring on top of each other, to get your attention this weekend,
ANTONE KONST . . . would be a best bet.
ANTONE KONST, in . . . ‘Hi Friends’
a 3 person group show / opened MARCH 27
& runs thru . . . APRIL 24, 2019
DTN / DISTURB THE NEIGHBORS 339 E. 90th St, Suite D, Uptown, NYC 10128
note: with extended hours this weekend
ANTONE KONST, ‘Juggler’, 2019.
epoxy clay, glitter, acrylic, oil, canvas.
78 x 48 in.
(>$10,000)
image via Instagram @annntone
ANTONE KONST, ‘Juggler’, with a peek . . at a STEPHEN BENENSON canvas, at right.
image via Instagram story @annntone @jpirello
ps: the top/first image . . has the truer hue of blue,
but, the this image – is great for scale & general context of the show.
check the show out, for sure.
this small apt art gallery, albeit with big ambitions (!!), and a most dedicated following, will provide a much welcome respite – from the vast & chaotic art fairs.
~ANTONE KONST . . DISTURB THE NEIGHBORS |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | March 9th, 2019, 10:06am
HEADS UP: IT’S A BRIT INVASION !!!
BIG !! PARTY !! TO-NITE AS WELL !! / SAT MARCH 9 / STARTS at 6 PM
DRINKS, MUSIC, GREAT ART & GOOD COMPANY !!!
DISTASSI ART X CONTRA GALLERIES !!!
LONDON X NEW YORK !!!
A LDN X NYC COLLAB / SHOWCASING . . . THE GREAT SCHOONY !!!
at CONTRA GALLERIES
122 W. 26th St, Floor 5, NYC 10001
HRS: FRI til 6 PM / SAT & SUN: 12 – 6 PM
RUNS THRU . . . SUNDAY MARCH 10
PIX FROM THE WILD, OPENING PARTY . . LAST NIGHT / MARCH 7, 2019:
great to finally see them up, up close & personal.
capturing the maybe / could very well be . . future in a heartbeat.
beautifully rendered.
Schoony, ‘Boots’ graphite Edition, 1/10
Fiberglass, 2019
($19,500)
Schoony, ‘Boy Soldier Panel’
Fiberglass, 2019
($13,000)
detail, ‘Boy Soldier’
unbelievable . . what a statement.
a promise.
a dare.
classical modelling – with a determination,
that seems . . ingrained into the very DNA.
just you – dare me !!
KA-BOOM.
get it together, world / or . . this I promise you.
street fashion . . meet up.
I see your true colors . . .
from left:
Schoony, ‘Branded Off White’, 1/10
Fiberglass, 2019
($19,500)
Schoony, ‘Branded Louis Vuitton’, 1/10
Fiberglass, 2019
($19,500)
Schoony, ‘Branded Supreme’, 1/10
Fiberglass, 2019
($19,500)
that is, so !!! so !!!
in-your-face / in your arm.
Schoony, ‘Branded Louis Vuitton’, 2019.
‘XL’
in-your-face.
in-your-arm.
The Love Child kills the . . DJ station.
the party temp goes way way up, when this ‘artist/dude’ gets behind the audio.
as JOSHUA will attest to.
the show attracted . . a supremo, gritty / edgy crowd.
CHRIS MARTINE of . . Contra.
DISTASSI X CONTRA !!! . . . . . LONDON X NYC !!!
KA-BOOM !!!!!
MICHAEL HOWES/LONDON, MATT McGLYNN of CONTRA, ED SANDERS/LONDON, BOE/DISTASSI/LONDON.
see: DISTASSI ART
also noted, Delta2 got the color up and running, on the custom subway car.
Delta2, Aluminum subway train, 2019.
($3,000)
they . . moved the RICHARD HAMBLETON down lower . . all the better to see.
the large, horizon-focused, gloriously metallic ‘landscape’, had been hung high up previously.
now it was eye-level, an eye-poppin’ eye-level at that.
it’s outrageously . . gorgeous.
if he hadn’t been so street bitter, Hambleton could have been a modern-day . . Turner.
RICHARD HAMBLETON, ‘Beautiful Painting’, acrylic on wood panel, 1994.
signed & dated. incredible condition.
(price upon request)
you could feel Hambleton’s tightly wound, aggressive energy . . in the way the surface was obsessively . . incised.
even his signature – was like a knife wound.
a branding, not unlike the Schoony arm-branding . . above (!!)
ALFREDO MARTINEZ, Gun Drawing.
I’m always going to be a die-hard fan.
ALFREDO MARTINEZ, gun drawing. 2017.
on hand-made collage paper, with colored marker.
at $1,000 / an outright . . steal.
wake-up . . my peeps, run & jump. & put your $$$ down.
just as we were about to say good-bye . . .
AL DIAZ (SAMO) shows up . . .
to make his mark !!
SCHOONY X AL DIAZ
LDN X NYC
DISTASSI X CONTRA
I always thought, or imagined, that ‘Schoony’ . . stood for: schooled by NY ???
LDN X NYC
DISTASSI X CONTRA
HERE’S YOUR – TICKET !!!
THIS WEEKEND ONLY / DON’T MISS THE . . . JOY-RIDE !!!
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~SCHOONY . . DISTASSI X CONTRA / POPPIN’ MAD . . GREAT !! / & BIG PARTY TO-NITE SAT MARCH 9 |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | March 8th, 2019, 2:14pm
‘NYC X LDN’ !!!!!!
‘DISTASSI X CONTRA’ !!!!!!
CONTRA GALLERIES & WHITEHOT MAGAZINE . . .
present . . ‘NEW YORK via LONDON’
a ‘transatlantic’ collaborative exhibition during Armory Week which will feature works . .
from the esteemed collections of London’s Distassi Art and New York’s own . . Contra Galleries.
Original pieces by such legends as: RICHARD HAMBLETON, SCHOONY, and Delta2 will be on show . .
“giving contemporary art fans a unique opportunity to see them all in the same room.”
see: ‘NEW YORK VIA LONDON’ / CONTRA
OPENING – THUR MARCH 7 / 6 – 9 PM
and running thru . . . SAT MARCH 9, 2019
CONTRA GALLERIES, 122 W. 26th St, Floor 5, NYC 10001
@mistermatttoyou: The Kids Are Alright . . . Come see our special collaborative exhibition ‘New York via London’ . . . featuring works from the esteemed collections of London’s @distassiart (Distassi Art) / thanks to my guys across the pond @howzi888 and @boe_distassi (Boe Distassi). The show will include never before seen works by British sculptor . . @schoony_art . . aka SCHOONY (!!),
and NYC street legend . . Richard Hambleton.
image via Instagram @mistermatttoyou
@mistermatttoyou: From London with Love.
ps: in the background . . work by @_smetsky / Art of Smetsky
image via instagram @mistermatttoyou
~SCHOONY !! . . at CONTRA / OPENS TO-NITE / THURS MARCH 7 |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | March 7th, 2019, 10:52am
NANCY SMITH – INTERVIEWED ON . . ‘SURVIVING – THE 80s ART SCENE’ !!!
EDITED BY NOAH BECKER, who chose . . the BEST PHOTOS, btw !!
thank you, Noah !!
so sweet.
**
**
**
check it out: INTERVIEW WITH NANCY SMITH – BY NOAH BECKER / WM / WHITEHOT MAGAZINE
ps: loving some of the feedback, all the way from: go girl, to “omg you ROASTED Walter Robinson”,
to . . “you were such a natural beauty”. (!!)
pss: Oh Walter, hush up, that’s the way it was !!
I don’t know why people are driven, to kill the very things – they love ?
he gave me my first break, and then he gave me . . the pink slip !!
keep the pink slips, in the paintings – darling !!
back in the early naughts, (lol)
at artnet, we used to have a saying: ‘what Walter giveth, Walter can taketh away’,
because he was quite fickle in building somebody up, art critic-wise, and then – giving them cold shoulder, next time.
little did I know, how true that was.
of course, the elephant in the room – is MARY BOONE.
she just got a little more time in the Big House, 2-1/2 years / 6 months more than Alfredo got – for his Basquiat scam.
I remember going to her openings, and being just dumbstruck, speechless.
everybody was there, it was electric, and that’s not even the half of it.
she was so cute and chic, a gamin, and she had everybody . . around her little finger.
now, she’s going to jail, for fraud, and I’m . . an indie cult star.
it’s . . def hard to grow old, esp coming up through the rough & tumble / stab-you-in-the-back art world,
but, there’s also something ‘irresistible’ about hanging around long enough,
to see how it all – shakes out.
Thank you again . . Noah !!
and, a big, big shout-out to my friends at ESSEX FLOWERS, who blew the interview up so big – on Insta !!
I’m really grateful, it’s been a hard-knock / hard-core life.
hey, but at least I ain’t . . ‘art blind’.
life is good.
~MY . . INTERVIEW / on WHITEHOT MAGAZINE – BY NOAH BECKER |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | March 6th, 2019, 9:12am
MADAME ROSA’S 80s ART PARTY
CONTRA GALLERIES
THURS FEB 28, 2019
note: the exhibition – is still up, and running.
things were really – starting to come together.
a great series of clips, focusing on goth street legend, RAMMELLZEE,
screening at the entrance.
looks like the ‘subway car’ was taken over by Delta2 !!
in clean black script.
Delta2, aluminum subway train, 2019.
($3,000)
left: street legend COSE TDS, with the show’s curator: LINUS CORAGGIO.
COSE shows me his work, on his iPhone !!
in the back room, custom ‘motorcycle’ by LINUS CORAGGIO, in the foreground.
in fact, all the metal work sculpture was by the show’s curator, LINUS CORAGGIO.
the first painting on the left, looking very Mondrian, with the big Keith Haring influence is by LA II.
and, yes !!
that is an early KEITH HARING on cardboard – at center, 1983.
a much smaller, metal ‘bike’ sculpture, by LINUS CORAGGIO.
great display table, btw / Restoration hardware !! Airplane series.
yes, that’s my famous Keith Haring, ‘chalk Angel’- on cardboard, from 1983.
Keith drew this white chalk angel, on a large discarded refrigerator box he had picked up off the street, outside the Red Bar, in the East Village . . one night – drew the chalk angel, and then handed it over to me, as thanks for returning his sketchbook, which he had passed on to me, for safe keeping – at his super chaotic, wild, & scarily over-crowded opening, at Fun Gallery, a few months back.
when we got it back home to our storefront on Rivington St, my hubby, East Village gallerist, collector, and artist . . SIMON CERIGO, painted the background white / thinking to add it to his appropriation work (!!). a few days later, Haring had sky-rocketed to international fame, and we framed it. so, it’s in pristine condition, Simon’s ‘signature’, and all.
KEITH HARING, chalk Angel on cardboard. 1983
60 x 23 in. (unframed)
the area of the actual drawing, approx. 19 x 23 in.
collection: NANCY SMITH, KATE & THEO CERIGO.
ANTHONY HADEN-GUEST.
my KEITH HARING 1983 chalk angel, behind him.
RICHARD HAMBLETON’s art works at Contra, they command a pretty hefty price, the larger ones – in the hundred thousand $$$ range.
ALFREDO MARTINEZ gun drawing. colored marker on DIY collaged paper.
I guess Alfredo is pretty much, 80s – in spirit.
($1,000)
Delta2 at Rosa’s Art Party, a peep of his new work to the side.
Delta2’s new work looked supremo – in the all-white ‘film shoot’ room.
RAMMELLZEE, mixed media , 1988.
I had never seen these before. very cool. very nice.
a newer work by Fab 5 Freddy. 2018.
M. HENRY JONES, with one of his signature lenticular portraits.
fun fact: his (bouncing-off-the-walls) studio on Ave A, was the original site of Simon’s early East Village gallery,
SIMON CERIGO GALLERY on AVE A.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~MADAME ROSA’S 80s ART PARTY / CONTRA / PARTY PIX !! |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | March 4th, 2019, 12:25pm
HEADS UP:
if you are too hardcore to score $25 tix to the event, tell the doorman: Alfredo sent you.
that should get you in, no prob.
BIG ART PAR-TAY !!!!
THURS NIGHT / FEB 28, 2019 / 6 – 10 PM !!!!
BE THERE !!!!
MADAME ROSA’S . . . ‘SPIRIT’ . . . is in the house !!!!
CONTRA . . . where the BIGGEST BUZZ in the art scene – is happening, RIGHT NOW.
122 W 26th St, FL 5 / just west of 7th AVE / so, is that . . . ‘midtown’ CHELSEA ?!!!!
because it sure is . . gritty !!
hit: their website for VIP TIX – $25 !! and party like a KING.
@alfredomartinezartist . . “the subway car I had made in aluminum for a graffiti project at CONTRA.”
image via Instagram @alfredomartinezartist
@delta2nyc . . “Style from N.Y.C. the realist” (!!)
image via Instagram @delta2nyc
YEAH !! YEAH !! THAT’S RIGHT – FOLKS !!!!
DELTA2 . . is gonna paint up Alfredo’s subway car !!!!
that’s a WIN / WIN !!! if I ever did see one.
and, I’ve seen some, trust me.
~ALFREDO MARTINEZ x DELTA2 / BIG ART PAR-TAY !! MADAME ROSA’S at CONTRA / THURS FEB 28 |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | February 27th, 2019, 6:39pm
CONTRA GALLERIES PRESENTS: MADAME ROSA’S 80s ART PARTY
THURS FEB 28, 2019 / 6 – 10 PM
CONTRA GALLERIES, 122 W 26th ST, Floor 5, NYC
go to the gallery website: & hit: ‘TAKE ME To THE 80s’. . . for VIP TIX $25 / INCLUDES LIMITED EDITION DELTA 2 PRINT
~MADAME ROSA’S 80s ART PARTY at CONTRA / THURS FEB 28 / 6- 10 PM |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | February 23rd, 2019, 11:51am
‘THE ART OF NEW YORK: 1980s’ – CURATED by LINUS CORAGGIO
OPENED FEB 13 & RUNS THRU . . FEB 28, 2019
CONTRA GALLERIES, 122 W 26th St, Fl 5, Chelsea / Midtown Manhattan
read more: ‘THE ART of THE 1980s’ – CONTRA
PIX FROM THE OPENING – FEB 13, 2019 / PART II
the show’s curator . . LINUS CORAGGIO stands beside his own work.
Linus founded the notorious ‘Rivington School’, and ‘Gas Station’, alternative spaces that played a dynamic role,
in the 80/90s Lower East Side underground art scene.
LINUS CORAGGIO, ‘Multi-Chop’, 2018.
the ‘WE LIVE IN PUBLIC’ lightbox by JOSH HARRIS – seems to have found its . . niche.
metal chairs by LINUS CORAGGIO.
left: painting by FA-Q / right: painting by FA_Q / LINUS CORRAGGIO.
watercolor on paper, 1985.
great piece by FA-Q aka KEVIN WENDALL !!
‘Untitled’, 1985.
mixed media collage. 48 x 36 in.
great piece by FA-Q / LINUS CORAGGIO
works by AL DIAZ aka SAMO and LINUS CORAGGIO, 2017.
AL DIAZ . . was at the opening.
left, NIK LESANTE, creative director and studio manager/production at Contra, with Contra founder STEVE MAZZ.
NOAH BECKER of Whitehot magazine, helps ALFREDO MARTINEZ tour the show.
they both contributed input to the event.
M. HENRY JONES . . ‘KEMBRA’.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~’THE ART of NEW YORK: 1980s’ . . CONTRA GALLERIES / OPENING PIX – PART II |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | February 23rd, 2019, 11:17am
think: raw !!
think: from the street up !!
don’t let . . ‘scruffy’ fool ya.
coz that’s ‘scruffy’ – as in . . GRITTY / NYC GRITTY.
there’s a lot of heart, soul, & big big ambitions . . in this here place.
a real, hardcore . . old school / ‘downtown’ vibe.
‘THE ART of NEW YORK: 1980s’ . . CONTRA GALLERIES
122 W 26th St. Fl 5, Chelsea / Midtown Manhattan
OPENED FEB 13 / & RUNS THRU . . . FEB 28, 2019
more on the exhibit: ‘The Art of New York: 1980s’ – CONTRA GALLERIES
PIX FROM THE OPENING FEB 13, 2019 / PART I: DELTA 2 & RICK PROL
Delta 2 . . . painting, 2019.
detail . .
detail . .
detail . .
bottom right-hand corner.
Delta 2, not really a ‘revival’ / not just history.
the painting is current, 2019 – raw, powerful. free flying. & attracting new fans, like a . . magnet.
I really like how this painting is presented on boxes / something real real street about that.
something improvised, of the moment.
‘scruffy’ – as opposed to, hmmm: staid / minimalist / staged.
there’s a real life force flowing – thru the show.
Delta 2.
yeah, that right-hand corner !!
Delta 2 . . .
some small RICK PROL paintings to the right.
RICK PROL.
RICK PROL.
RICK PROL / NYC RIP.
that’s so DARK. Mack the Knife.
maybe it’s a portrait of Richard Hambleton ?
one of my fav pieces in the show / sccruffffy.
skin off your teeth – raw. ragged. true.
what . . ?
‘WE LIVE IN PUBLIC’ – ?!! in an 80s show ?
you know what ? damn yes !! hardcore as hell.
JOSH HARRIS, ‘WE LIVE IN PUBLIC’ lightbox.
at the opening, ROBERT FERNANDEZ aka NOVA THE WRAITH.
most def: YES.
YiYi . . making the scene / she just re-located to New York – from Texas.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~’THE ART of NEW YORK: 1980s’ . . CONTRA GALLERIES / OPENING PIX – PART I: DELTA 2 & RICK PROL |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | February 20th, 2019, 2:46pm
‘The Art of New York: 1980s’ – CURATED by LINUS CORAGGIO
OPENS TODAY – WED FEB 13 / 6 – 9 PM
the show runs thru . . . FEB 28, 2019
CONTRA GALLERIES, 122 W 26th St, Floor 5, Midtown Manhattan
The work of both late and living legends of 1980s New York City street art, graffiti and other seminal styles of urban work has been assembled by curator LINUS CORAGGIO – sculptor, painter and instigator of the notorious Rivington School & Gas Station spaces in the 80s/90s Lower East Side underground art scene.
The creative luminaries featured include living pioneers such as Fab 5 Freddy, LA2 (Angel Ortiz), Al Diaz (SAMO), Delta 2 & Rick Prol: as well as departed masters like Richard Hambleton, Keith haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat & FA-Q, along with surprise notables.
~CONTRA GALLERIES PRESS RELEASE
~’THE ART of NEW YORK: 1980s’ . . CONTRA GALLERIES / OPENS WED FEB 13 |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | February 13th, 2019, 10:03am
