‘UNRAVELING REALITIES’ – CURATED BY HASH HALPER and AMY LI
OCT 17-31, 2013
166 MOTT ST – LOWER EAST SIDE, NYC
the show’s curators: HASH HALPER and AMY LI .. an awesome duo.
166 MOTT ST, an alternative art space is located right at the outermost intersection of . . Chinatown meets Little Italy.
ALFREDO MARTINEZ and AMY LI.
WC BEVAN checks out Alfredo’s new work . .
ALFREDO MARTINEZ, ‘Iulia Longam Posteritatem (Julia for remote posterity)’.
mixed media, incl coffee and Acrylic paint, paper collage on wood. 31 x 26 in.
($2,500)
I have never seen Alfredo paint a woman’s face, before.
I think it’s amazing. beautiful, radiant.
realistic, poetic, one-of-a-kind.
detail, ALFREDO MARTINEZ, ‘Iulia’.
he uses coffee ‘pigment’ to get those darker stains and deep red/brown hues.
the hair, eyes and red lips are – drop dead, great.
damn, the nose is good too. those flaring nostrils, stand off-ish .. and, passionate.
he also looks to have used plenty of gel medium, or maybe just ordinary household paper glue . . the work has an amazing shine to it.
an interesting contrast to the paper collage foundation.
I’ve seen Alfredo paint men, before. he liked that same .. close-up face format, then too.
notably in the ‘convict’ portraits he did when he was in the big house, here in NYC .. serving a two year sentence for art fraud. ca. 2002.
but I didn’t know he could paint, women . . like that.
guns, women. check.
detail, ALFREDO MARTINEZ, ‘Iulia’.
that’s where he perfected that hair .. ‘craft’, in prison.
it’s nice, I really like it . . very graphic, and very ‘picturesque’.
detail, ALFREDO MARTINEZ, ‘Iulia’.
trust a forger . to have a lock-down logo, and . . signature.
and one-of-a-kind paper . . he couldn’t get his hands on any art paper in prison. so he learnt to make his own ‘collaged’ paper – from scrap paper, from an old Russian inmate.
in the absence of any art supplies, he also learnt to make color ‘pigments’ from tipping little instant coffee packets into cups of water.
I guess paper glue was available. or did he use flour and water.
something, like that.
this is an interesting group of ‘private’ snips of his, or somebody’s .. life.
it feels a little scary. who has .. your info ?
you can see the edges of the work, which make for a very 3D presence, even in fact a kind of .. ‘shallow’ sculpture. it’s definitely more an ‘object’, than a piece of ‘paper’
from left: JOSHIE ARMSTEAD and MICK LEWIS.
MICK LEWIS is one of Hash’s many brothers, he is a musician, and he leads a band called, THE FINE PRINT.
see: MICK LEWIS & THE FINE PRINT/FACEBOOK
better yet, listen to: MICK LEWIS & THE FINE PRINT, ‘I Thought I heard Your Voice, New York’ – YouTube.
wow. so how, I’m feeling, or what.
JOSHIE ARMSTEAD is a composer, singer, and .. back-up singer.
RAY CHARLES sang her songs, and they co-wrote a few that went to become famous . .
she was also an original .. IKETTE, a back-up singer/dancer for Ike and Tina Turner.
see: JO ARMSTEAD .. WIKI
and listen to this: JO ARMSTEAD, ‘THIS AND THAT’ .. YouTube
RAY. aka The Love Child.
he had done a nice custom paint ‘tag’ . . on his jacket.
The Love Child . . colored chalk on sidewalk.
gorgeous evening light .. all NYC !!
Ray’s friend . . Sidi.
on the right, HASH HALPER . . with ANDREA MESSIER CUOMO.
the opening was over . . the art was good.
and . . all the players were slipping out, out into the early night.
and so, underground NEW YORK CITY . . ‘beats’ on.
R.I.P. LOU REED.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~ALFREDO MARTINEZ . . UNRAVELING REALITIES |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | November 6th, 2013, 8:39pm
‘UNRAVELING REALITIES’ – CURATED BY HASH HALPER and AMY LI
OCT 17-31, 2013
166 MOTT ST – LOWER EAST SIDE, NYC
M. HENRY JONES and RACHEL AMODEO at the opening.
besides this past weekend’s screening of her indie cult film, ‘WHAT ABOUT ME’, RACHEL had two pieces in the show, both very . . ‘early’ East Village.
M. HENRY JONES is a long time collaborator with RACHEL, and in fact they have a 15 year old son, together.
M. HENRY JONES is listed on the credits of ‘WHAT ABOUT ME’ . . as co-cinematographer, along with MARK BRADY.
RACHEL AMODEO, ‘Emerald Fairy’, mixed media, 21 x 21 in. (framed).
($2,000)
a touch magical, no ?
yes. yes. and yes. for all the grit . . it was a very magical time.
check out . . the uniqueness of the surfaces, and the ‘opalescence’. which is technically .. very magical, too.
mother-of-pearl-like. against a ‘metallic’ feel.
plus there’s a really nice bounce of ‘light’, and the detail design is awesome.
not something you get to see . . every day.
M. HENRY JONES is a talented artist in his own right, too, and in many fields.
he does mostly 3-D animation, as well as ‘Lenticular’ and . . ‘fly’s eye 3D’ Photography.
. . as well as putting out the occasional short doc/documentary.
he did take that wonderful portrait of WC BEVAN at Hash’s show on Peel St, A MAN OUT OF TIME.
in fact you can watch some of his stuff, and get an idea of his graphic sensibilities,
here on his:. . SNAKEMONKEY TV
where you will also find, his very touching ode to the late, great, and totally missed . .
master silkscreener and East Village war hippie . . MARK ENGER of EXPLODING SKY.
watch: MARK ENGER at work, in his studio in Newark, not too long before he departed for that great cowboy resting place . . in the sky.
also, check out: “On Ave A, a ‘Mad Scientist’ of 3-D animation” .. NEW YORK TIMES
ok. talkin’ bout . . UNRAVELING REALITIES !!
here’s a little time travel back to . . YEAR 2002.
M. HENRY JONES at the opening of his . . ‘THE DEPTHOGRAPHY SHOW’, NOV 15, 2002.
at THE PROPOSITION GALLERY. back when it was, and .. in Chelsea.
it was actually one of the very first shows I ever tried to deliberately photo-document, that wasn’t someone who was just . . a friend of mine, having an opening.
M. HENRY JONES, lenticular art work . . in ‘THE DEPTHOGRAPHY SHOW’, FALL 2002.
it was such a wild concept. as you walked by the images shape-shifted.
images, sch-images . . far-out cartoon art !!
one of my very fave shows . . ever.
for real.
totally off the wall.
still keep the pix .. in my best-of-ever top drawer hard copy album,
from back in the .. 35mm .. day.
ALL PHOTOS, INCL ARCHIVAL: NANCY SMITH
~RACHEL AMODEO / M HENRY JONES . . UNRAVELING REALITIES |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | November 4th, 2013, 10:02pm
RACHEL AMODEO had work in the 166 MOTT ST show, ‘UNRAVELING REALITIES’, and was at the opening.
PIX TO POST: MON NOV 4, 2013
IN THE MEANTIME, put your eyeballs on this:
see: THE MAKING OF RACHEL AMODEO’S . .
‘WHAT ABOUT ME’ – ‘HOME IS WHERE THE PARK IS’ by BRUCE BENNETT / WALL STREET JOURNAL, MAY 7, 2011
~RACHEL AMODEO . . HOME IS WHERE THE PARK IS |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | November 3rd, 2013, 11:56am
RACHEL AMODEO’s cult classic . . . ‘WHAT ABOUT ME’, 1993 . . screens to-nite.
SUN NOV 3, 2013 / 6 PM – OPEN ADMISSION
166 MOTT ST . . LOWER EAST SIDE, NYC.
RACHEL AMODEO WROTE, PRODUCED & DIRECTED THIS INDIE CLASSIC . . TERMED ‘GRITTY’ in EVERY REFERENCE, that pops up, it’s widely considered to be in the top ‘under-rated’ hits of the 90s.
with music by JOHNNY THUNDERS, and a host of cameos from colorful characters long gone, but not forgotten . . this IS the vibe .. that gave the East Village – it’s legendary status.
‘A young woman becomes homeless on the streets of NYC’ – is not the half of it . . as you can see in this clip . . featuring: DEE DEE RAMONE.
the referencing of the Vietnam debacle . . is particularly sad.
see: DEE DEE RAMONE . . in ‘WHAT ABOUT ME’.
that’s a classic DEE DEE on the left, RACHEL AMODEOS is in the center, & I don’t know the guy on the right, but he can stand in, represent the whole amazing scene . . in a blink.
note: this scene was actually filmed the day JOHNNY THUNDERS died, APRIL 23, 1991.
I’m sure RACHEL herself will make the screening, so you can ask a her . . in person, all the questions you want to . . it’s bound to be a blast . . of an event.
if you CAN’Tmake it, because like you are in Paris or London, Japan … or just New Haven, you can actually watch it for free, in it’s nitty gritty entirety . . online.
see: ‘WHAT ABOUT ME’ – A FILM WRITTEN, DIRECTED & PRODUCED BY RACHEL AMODEO.
MUSIC BY JOHNNY THUNDERS
~RACHEL AMODEO . . WHAT ABOUT ME |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | November 3rd, 2013, 11:24am
‘UNRAVELING REALITIES’ – CURATED BY HASH HALPER & AMY LI
OCT 17-31, 2013
166 MOTT ST – LOWER EAST SIDE, NYC
that would be: LOLA MONTES, NICOLE WITTENBERG, and JESSICA BAJOROS
another apparition . . caught my eye.
a strange contrast of sharp lemon yellow vs. a steely blue grey.
LOLA MONTES, ‘Karma Cleanse’, oil and canvas, 2 panels, 6.5′ w x 5′ h
($18,000)
whoosh. one can get, so into . . how the abstract pink ‘cloud’ on the right, morphs into the narrative world on the left.
the ethereal power of a light, and light-filled .. hand.
at the opening:
AMY LI, LOLA MONTES, and NICOLE WITTENBERG . . in front of Lola’s painting.
NICOLE WITTENBERG, ‘Interior 2 (Snail Song)’, oil on canvas, 25 x 42 in.
($5,000)
really nice 2 tonal study. very cubist. should be a study in stark contrast, but is .. not !!
super nice visual contrast between reality and fantasy. reality and fiction. darkness and light. the pureness of white.
I guess the ‘white’ is the subject, and the narrative is that strange miniature-scaled doorway, and the squiggle lines .. to the right.
NICOLE WITTENBERG, her small minimalist composition is above her.
on the right is a small watercolor figure study by JESSICA BAJORES.
part of the dynamic, and really .. the charm of the gallery, is catching a glimpse of the ‘life’ just beyond the gallery walls. the Chinatown storefront is home to a leather accessory finishing .. workshop.
JESSICA BAJOROS had two watercolor portraits in the show.
JESSICA BAJOROS, ‘Henry Hopper’, watercolor on paper, framed. 25 x 21 in.
($1,000)
Henry Hopper is the son of Dennis Hopper. he seems to be a really nice kid, I talked to him briefly at his dad’s retrospective a few years back at Tony Shafrazi, at which time he was studying art, painting .. in California.
JESSICA BAJOROS, ‘Zha Zha Vi’, watercolor on paper, framed, 20.5 x 17 in.
($1,000)
photographer of street art, really .. ‘down-deep-in-the-subways’ street art / photographer supremo .. SEAN VEGEZZI.
something about a fall off a cliff, into water .. where there was no water.
just do yourself a favor this Sat & check out: SEAN VEGEZZI – ONLINE
3 smart, strong chicks ..
and one totally awesome, street smart photog .. what more is there to say ?
from the power of the glyphs, to the power of .. chicks.
ok, how’s this . . SEAN is all of 22.
I’ve been following his work – since he was 16, when I first crossed paths with him at the original CANAL CHAPTER / MINT + SERF = MIRF.
SEAN VEGEZZI unravels . . reality, too.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~LOLA & NICOLE, JESSICA . . UNRAVELING REALITIES / SEAN VEGEZZI, does too .. |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | November 2nd, 2013, 11:12am
WC BEVAN, a man out of time, and really into . . glyphs !!
oh, yeah . .
HASH HALPER . . also curated a show of WC BEVAN’S work simultaneously, at his PELL ST. CHINATOWN venue.
up those steep stairs, remember ?
called: ‘WC BEVAN .. A MAN OUT OF TIME’, Hash posted the exhibit to FRANK, with the pix by WC, himself.
and where we find out . . the W stands for WILLIAM, but more importantly .. the ‘C’ stands for .. CODY.
yep, as in . . the famous BUFFALO BILL.
check out: WC BEVAN, THE MAN OUT OF TIME / FRANK151
WC BEVAN . . a man named after BUFFALO BILL – PHOTO BY: M. HENRY JONES
photo permission via FRANK: HASH HALPER PRODUCTIONS.
P.S.
M. HENRY JONES, damn . . that is one great, GREAT, GREAT .. PHOTO.
must have been . . the vodka !!
~WC BEVAN . . A MAN OUT OF TIME / HH |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | November 1st, 2013, 11:14am
the show closed yesterday, but a few larger pieces remain up & AMY LI always keeps some choice pieces . . in her backroom.
FILE UNDER: THE POWER OF THE ‘GLYPH’.
‘UNRAVELING REALITIES’ – curated by HASH HALPER & AMY LI
OCT 17 – 31, 2013
166 MOTT ST – ALTERNATIVE ART SPACE, LOWER EAST SIDE, NYC
curator & 166 Mott St founder .. AMY LI, with WC BEVAN .. and his large painting, of a dream.
a television dream.
a ghost in the machine .. television dream.
WC BEVAN, ‘Painting of a Television Dream by WILLIAM BEVAN’.
homemade carbon ink and acrylic on wood (tax files and East River water), 30 x 40 in.
($2,500)
detail, W.C. BEVAN, ‘Television Dream’.
damn, if today is not . . the DAY OF THE DEAD.
the sky is dark and stormy, the wind is howling, angry. and, I swear . . some otherly body just entered my partially open back porch door and knocked over the watering can. oh yes, indeed.
I wonder who that could be, as if . . I don’t know !!
Simon. see .. the wind died down, just like that.
detail, WC BEVAN, ‘Television Dream’.
walk, should say .. ‘detail’ – like an Egyptian.
my friend Reno tells me that the Egyptians believed in a RA and a Ba and a third entity more like a shadow. as in Shadowland, anybody ?!!
The Ra goes to the heavenly world and the Ba stays in this one. I mean how else does one reconcile, the 2 aspects. the ‘soul’ going to heaven, or hell / vs the ghostly bodies that still hang around, and cling to this sphere. pressing their heads against your window, and flitting by, sometimes even handing you .. messages, to deliver, if you happen to live in .. South America.
Apparently the Ba mostly stayed around the tomb or burial site, but because it had wings it could go elsewhere.
all the ancients across the board knew this. every proto-nation. every religion.
my fave is BOB MARLEY, who recounts in that great film bio .. that he learnt to sing so fearlessly, and so FIERCE .. by singing in the cemetery at night, to the ‘duppies’, the ghosts of the dead, and make that: the UNHAPPY ghosts of the dead.
‘Nuh Duppy come out, me fear nuh Duppy”.
interestingly, duppy . . has taken on some modern day twists. DUPPY, URban Dictionary.
DUPPY play a big role in island folklore, and came to America with the ‘commercially’ traded black folks. and thus entered our vernacular, and our culture.
don’t miss the reference to AVRAM DAVIDSON’s 1961 short story, ‘Where Do You Live, Queen Esther’, as told, in wiki . .
DUPPY- wiki.
well, I mean the show is called .. “Unraveling Realities’, just sayin’.
WC BEVAN also had some smaller drawings on paper . . in the gallery storefront window.
the last one, on the right is titled: ‘Call Me A Kettle Pot to Z Dream Spot, Yip’.
nice choice of words. very nice.
homemade, as in DIY .. carbon ink on paper (framed), 15 x 12 in.
($400)
it’s also interesting to see how small, pop-up galleries make use of all the space they can.
it’s also interesting to consider, what goes on in the mind . . of the ‘older’ bio / generation.
and just a step away from becoming .. you know what – themselves !!
dig that woman, on the right, for example.
let me tell ya, these people .. know a thing, or two.
I mean, just look at this woman . .
is she thinkin’ something, or what.
all black and white, and ‘red’ .. all over.
love the way her lace collar inset – echoes the glyph work.
hipster !!
hipster on the road .. to becoming a .. ghost.
ok. totally off the track: talking bout baby boomers.
did anybody else catch that KHLOE KARDASHIAN .. didn’t know what ‘baby boomer’ meant, haha.
how fast we expire. but she does presumably know what .. ‘crackhead’ means.
talkin’ bout: shelf life.
WC BEVAN, pen on paper drawings in the window. 15 x 12 in.
homemade carbon ink.
I mean .. glyph man ERIK PARKER, move over .. or at least share the ‘shade’.
. . the shelf.
speaking of the dude. must have a ‘fan’ out there in the web sphere.
or is that .. just an auto digital prompt ? aka the .. real ‘ghost in the machine’.
lordy, who knows .. reality, these days.
and I mean .. that. on all levels.
bio, digital, or as many as you can: ‘imagine’.
damn words – give me . . glyphs !!
but this, just came in .. over the wire.
ERIK PARKER opens his 3rd solo show with HONOR FRASER this weekend.
called: ‘New Magnetic Destiny’ .. it runs NOV 2 – DEC 21, 2013.
the opening is tomorrow: SAT NOV 2, 2013 / 6-8 PM
HONOR FRASER GALLERY – 2622 S. LA CIENGA BLVD, L.A> CALIFORNIA.
WC BEVAN, ‘Grape Television’, pen on paper (framed), 15 x 12 in.
homemade/DIY carbon ink.
($400)
IMAGE: DALTON GATA GARCIA, ‘Dia de los Muertos 1’, 2013
ink on paper, 8.5 x 11 in.
speaking of which, the Junior Committee of .. EL MUSEO del BARRIO invites you to their annual fundraising benefit tonight, FRI NOV 1, 2013 / 8 PM
the evening will feature a traditional altar, live music and DJ sets and ‘special’ holiday food and drink .. including .. Pan de Muertos.
more info: Dia de los Muertos gala / El Museo del Barrio
MORE PIX FROM THE 166 MOTT ST. OPENING – WILL POST SHORTLY.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~WC BEVAN . . UNRAVELING REALITIES / DAY OF THE DEAD / EL MUSEO del BARRIO |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | November 1st, 2013, 8:48am
EVERYBODY !!
detail, WC BEVAN . . ‘Painting of a Television Dream by William Bevan’.
homemade carbon ink and acrylic on wood (tax files and East River water), 30 x 40 in.
($2,500)
PHOTO: NANCY SMITH
in ‘UNRAVELING REALITIES’ . . CURATED BY HASH HALPER and AMY LI
OCT 17 – 31, 2013
166 MOTT ST – LOWER EAST SIDE, NYC
with works by:
LOLA MONTES, WC BEVAN, ALFREDO MARTINEZ, JESSICA BAJOROS, NICOLE WITTENBERG, and RACHEL AMODEO.
PIX FROM THE OPENING . . POST TOMORROW – FRI NOV 1.
NOTE: There will be a screening of RACHEL AMODEO’S .. 87 minute b+w cult film, ‘WHAT ABOUT ME’, 1993.
at the gallery this SUN NOV 3, 2013 – starting at 6 PM.
~HAPPY, GHOSTLY . . HALLOWEEN |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | October 31st, 2013, 9:22am
‘ADIEU SEPTEMBER’ . . has been extended thru .. FRI NOV 15, 2013
SPACE WOMB GALLERY . . 22-48 JACKSON AVE #1 – LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS
HRS: 12 NOON – 6PM / WED – OPEN BY APPOINTMENT ONLY
7, G, E & M TRAINS – COURT SQ. STOP/JACKSON AVE EXIT
see: SPACE WOMB
MIDORI OKUYAMA . . tell us that the show is very exciting, and that SPACE WOMB has just recently acquired a new location on the Lower East Side – more news on that, as it comes in.
Midori has 2 pieces in this big group show.
I first saw Midori’s work in the recent . . ‘NO CONSENT’ show, which was the first exhibit at AMY LI’S . . 166 MOTT STREET.
Good luck .. to all.
IMAGE: MIDORI OKUYAMA
see: MIDORI OKUYAMA
POSTER ILLUSTRATIONS:
TOP IMAGE: KIYOUNG KIM . . ‘TWIN’.
LOWER IMAGE: MARJORIE VAN CURA . . ‘UNTITLED’ 0912.
BOTH ARTWORKS ARE IN THE EXHIBIT.
~ADIEU SEPTEMBER . . SPACE WOMB |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | October 30th, 2013, 6:29am
ok. the last word on the KENT DORN show.
KENT DORN . . . ‘SHADOWLAND’
OCT 17 – NOV 16, 2013
FREIGHT+VOLUME – 530 WEST 24tH ST – CHELSEA, NYC
it’s strange to consider, or at least an indication of what’s on the table here . . to see what a dominant, and yet undefined, against-the-grain role .. the painterly orbs of the sun, and/or the moon .. play in these paintings. in a show titled: ‘Shadowland’, these light sources .. go, well .. pale. cold.
alert, warning. biosphere .. break-down.
society .. break-up. culture dead-end. the end of the ‘hippies’, and Woodstock is .. over.
way over.
although there is a ‘glow’ of light around these cosmic light sources, they don’t really heat up, or light up the paintings.
nor the activities within the narrative.
it’s not that the paintings are really that dark, as much as they are .. cause for pause. but there were also some very optimistic notes in the show, namely .. two candlelit paintings. where the glow of the tiny flicker that a candle burns with, a man-made radiance, extends much further than the cosmic-scaled rays of the suns of the larger .. landscape paintings.
something to think .. about.
these paintings are not just about compositional/plastic virtues, or narrative consequences. I’m thinking, with the inclusion of these 2 paintings .. it’s us, the one, the human .. against .. the universe.
bio singularity in a digital world, counts.
the individual contributing .. to the collective unconscious, counts.
with the emphasis being on .. the difference, the impact .. one passionate voice, one tweeting person can make – as our bio world degrades, the cosmos is unraveled, our sun is discovered to have a finite life span, and we are more machine, more ‘half computer’ .. everyday.
and apparently, performance enhancing drugs .. are up next.
TRINEE.
the opening was fun. the paintings were serious, but more in the sense of something .. to really get your mind around.
not ‘burn’ you out.
even Rebecca Goyette’s video, gross as it was .. was ridiculous, theatrical .. in your face .. clueless. you could walk away, and laugh it off.
candle in a glass jar.
KENT DORN, ‘Untitled (Seance)’, 2013.
mixed media on canvas, 45 x 35.
($5,000)
omg, are we really calling up the dead here, crossing over to the other side . . ?
no wonder the show .. spooked me.
it was like bookends. a candle in a glass jar / and a candle in a Chianti bottle. kind of like, jam meets wine ? and a little flame .. ignites ?
both titled: Seance.
somebody else can write on that .. I’m done talking. I’m just laying down the tarot cards, one by one.
KENT DORN, ‘Untitled (Seance)’, 2013
mixed media on canvas, 45 x 35 in.
($5,000)
ok, listen up .. up there.
if the sun don’t shine, and the moon don’t, either.
at least that little candlelight of mine .. can.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
~KENT DORN .. SHARE THE LIGHT |
Posted in The Bomb | By Nancy Smith | October 29th, 2013, 8:56am
