~STO LEN . . ‘MAPPING MESPEATCHES’ / ACE HOTEL / OPENING TODAY – THURS JULY 6
‘MAPPING MESPEATCHES’ – ‘A SOLO EXHIBITION of NEWTON CREEK PRINTS – by STO LEN’
OPENS THURS JULY 6, 2017 / 6 – 9 PM
the show runs thru JULY 31, 2017
ACE HOTEL, 20 W 29th St, Midtown NYC.
STO LEN . . .
PHOTO BY WALTER WLODARCZYK . . from the Mespeatches Performance, June 24, 2017 / on Newton Creek, Queens.
‘MAPPING MESPEATACHES’ . . .
an exhibition of site-specific work by artist STO LEN,
who you might also know . . as the co-founder of Brooklyn’s legendary CINDERS GALLERY & PROJECT SPACE
“highlights the relationship between aesthetic beauty and ugly truth by investigating urban sprawl and the illegal dumping of toxic waste in natural habitats through a series of prints pulled from the surface of NEWTON CREEK and Corona Park in QUEENS, NYC. Working en plein air from a rowboat, LEN uses an original process he calls ‘Tsunaminagashi’ – a mix of traditional suminagashi and his own techniques – to print directly off of the water. These works are arresting, psychedelic experiments in marbleized texture and design that reveal a dark, tactile truth of urban pollution in our city’s water.
The Mespeatches, one of 13 Native tribes of Long Island, took their name from mespeatches, ‘at the bad water place’, referencing the swamps which populated what is now Maspeth, Queens. Today, Greenpoint’s Newton Creek is one of the most polluted bodies of water in the U.S., a dumping ground for illegally disposed of toxic materials. Abused for decades, the region is currently a hotbed for real estate speculation with luxury buildings further contributing to conditions harmful to life. It is within this context that STO LEN exposes the physical consequences of this commodified urban landscape through land art, performance and printmaking as a site of discourse on environmentalism and gentrification.”
STO LEN . . a Brooklyn-based artist & musician, with familial roots in Vietnam, was the inaugural artist invited to participate in Ace Hotels New York’s Artist in Residence program.
UPCOMING: JULY 22, 2017 / STO LEN – Solo Exhibition at PARLOR / SAN FRANCISCO SF ART BOOK FAIR, JULY 21-23, 2017.
MOST DEF, check out: STO LEN – STOISHERE.COM / ARTIST WEBSITE
STO LEN – UNIQUE ‘TSUNAMINAGASHI’ PRINT / made directly from the surface water – of NEWTON CREEK.
STO LEN & friends, including R. NICHOLAS KUSZYK & WORKS ON WATER, on-site pop-up: the ‘NEWTON CREEK CENTER for VISUAL RESEARCH’. (!!!!)
ALL IMAGES & “DESCRIPTIVE” TEXT COURTESY: STO LEN, thank you !!