Out of Chaos by Paul Insect

Friday, November 30 - Friday, December 21, 2012

"I can't pretend I'm not in love with Paul Insect a little bit, but not in a gay way," Damien Hirst.

London-based artist Paul Insect is one of cult art's most recognizable and prominent artists. As one of street art's trailblazers, a movement marking a new era in art history, Insect's work can be spotted anywhere from the streets of London to Los Angeles, from Stockholm to Sydney.
Paul has worked alongside a host of today's most established artists and helped many with graphically developing their work, including Banksy and Jamie Hewlett. In 2007, Insect joined these and other POW artists painting the controversial separation wall in Palestine.
That same year, "Bullion," his first major show in London, was entirely bought-out by Damien Hirst before opening to the public. This galvanized Insect's position as a groundbreaking artist. "Bullion" is now featured as part of Hirst's "Murderme" collection of contemporary art.

"Out of Chaos" is Paul Insect's first show in New York City and features a series of striking new works projecting a world out of control with visions of both helplessness and hope. How do we emerge out of this chaos? Insect's work demonstrates the power of art as the solution.
"When you work on the streets as long as we all have, there are few artists who's work stands out as fresh and captivating. Since first seeing Paul's work in London some ten years ago, we've been struck by his raw and graphic iconography. He's got a masterful touch walking between the lewd and the ludicrous. Paul's work continues to evolve - proving he can push the boundaries of portraiture while still dancing with rats at night." Faile 2012, New York

The London Police "Who Cares Wins"

November 18 - December 2

Public opening November 17 from 8-11pm with special live musical guests

Free admission: 11:00 - 7:00 daily

Artist Bio:
    The London Police started when big English geezers headed to Amsterdam in 1998 to rejuvenate the visually disappointing streets of the drug capital of the world.
The motive was to combine traveling and making art to create an amazing way of life not seen since the days of King Soloman. Known for their iconic LADS characters and precision marking TLP have been together for over 13 years and their work has graced streets and galleries in 35 countries during this time. London policemen have come and gone but founding members are still known to walk the streets of every city in the world spreading love with pens and stickers.
    The current duo have managed to form a partnership more cohesive than Han Solo and Chewbacca in Star Wars and are consistently producing slick artwork that is tighter than a butlers cuff. Never be scared, don't be a hero and let the good times roll.
For more info check www.thelondonpolice.com

TRUSTOCORP 'LIFE CYCLE'

Trustocorp-October 2011

This month, guerilla art group TrustoCorp brings their brand of humorous and cutting street art to Soho for their solo exhibition titled 'Life Cycle'.

After a long summer of highly publicized, illegal street projects ranging from fake bus stop ads for 'The Real Housewives of Baghdad' to illegal billboards for 'Drive Thru Lipo Suction', the anonymous art collective brings their work in doors for a more in depth look at their perspective on the state of American culture. The exhibition examines the experience of growing up and dying American with four installations representing childhood, puberty, adulthood and death. With the American Life Cycle as a jump off point, TrustoCorp brandishes satire and criticism through a range of over 50 works including stained glass windows, giant board games, kiddie rides, fortune tellers and vintage arcade games.

While the work comments on the experience of growing up American, it also seeks to explore the life cycle of our nation as whole. In a time of economic disparity and record breaking wars, TrustoCorp subtly references the birth, rise and inevitable fall of the American Empire.

With larger than life art ranging from video to painting and kinetic, interactive sculpture, this is definitely TrustoCorp's most ambitious project to date.

TrustoCorp formed 3 years ago, shortly after the 2008 Presidential election. Inspired and disgusted by the national political and cultural discourse, TrustoCorp gained notoriety by making political and satirical street signs which popped up in 13 cities around America. TrustoCorp quickly gained a large group of volunteers who actively install and spread TrustoCorp art throughout the country, making them more like 'Fight Club' than an art collective. Since then, TrustoCorp has graduated into other mediums including fake products that get 'shop dropped' illegally into stores, fake tabloid magazines and illegal billboards. These antics got them noticed by media quite quickly, resulting in Television features on ABC World News, BBC and FOX News.

Abstractions

September 23 - October 16
Free admission: 11:00 - 7:00 daily

Eric Allouche and the Opera Gallery team are pleased to announce the upcoming show entitled Abstractions. This exhibition will put on display a retrospective of the abstract movement from the 1940s through present day. Twentieth Century Masters such as Soulages, Hartung, Fontana, Miro, Arman, and Matta will share the space with some of the most creative contemporary voices such as Rosstar, Bast, Ron English, Gibby Haynes, Saber, Yasmina Alaoui and many others.           

Abstractions aim is to explore the evolution of the movement over time and to showcase the artwork of the most influential and recognized artists of this style. The work of the master artists will be juxtaposed with the work of contemporary artists. Through the use of color and shapes, these artists are departing from the figurative and the depiction of imagery. The results are two types of abstraction, lyrical, as seen in Miro’s work, and geometric, as seen in Rosstar. Both types of abstraction are present within the 20th and 21st centuries. Geometric shapes and more organic strokes can both be seen in this exhibition, where one can experience first hand the ever-expanding concepts and ideas of abstraction.

Opera Gallery New York presents Logan Hicks' Pretty Ugly

June 2011
Logan Hicks' Pretty Ugly.
June 3rd - June 24th
Free admission: 10:30 - 7:00 daily
Email: nyc@operagallery.com
Website: operagallery.com/ny

Opera Gallery New York presents Logan Hicks' Pretty Ugly. Hicks is a New York-based stencil artist whose work explores the ever changing nature of the urban environment in which he lives. Through his imagery and masterful etching technique, Hicks' goal is to create a perfect dichotomy whereby the granular nature of the spray paint expresses the deterioration of the city. Using layers of laser-cut, hand-sprayed stencils on board, acrylic and anodized aluminum, Hicks creates works that capture the sometimes mundane cycle of city life in a haunting, yet controlled aesthetic manner. In the past year, Hicks has participated in several notable projects including creating a forty foot mural for Art Basel Miami 2010 Wynwood Walls as well as contributing new artwork to the Martha Cooper: Remix exhibition at Carmichael Gallery in California. Opera Gallery is proud to present over thirty new works by Logan Hicks.

Opera Gallery New York presents John John Jesse's American Dreamer.

April 2011
John John Jesse's American Dreamer
April 15th - May 2nd
Print release and public opening Saturday April 16th 3pm - 6pm
Free admission; 10:30 - 7:00 daily

Opera Gallery New York presents John John Jesse's American Dreamer. Images of a Punk Rock subculture are depicted through portraits and surreal landscapes of young rebellious girls and boys, where elaborate dream-like narratives of demons and angst are combined with experimentation and sexual discoveries. Jesse shows what innocence should be, and what it tragically often becomes, portraying a conviction that speaks to generations.

OPERA GALLERY ANNOUNCES NEW EXHIBIT: SAS + COLIN BY SAS + COLIN CHRISTIAN

New York, New York (February 7, 2011)

Opera Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of its latest exhibit, Sas + Colin, by artists Sas + Colin Christian on view 11 March – 4 April, 2011 at 115 Spring Street. In their first collaboration together, the couple has created an exhibition featuring seductive, vibrant and alluring paintings and sculptures with a visible affection for Retro-Future styling. The work is a collective visual blanket told in a language of 60’s liberation and childhood distortion and is a true fusion of ideas, a shared consciousness moving forward and outward finding inspirations in old sci-fi movies, anime, pinup girls, and supermodels.

In their joint exhibit, Sas + Colin created superheroes of an imagined landscape bordering art and design. Building on their fascination with advanced technology, ancient cultures and eroticism, Sas + Colin have created an optimistic dreamscape, introducing feminine portraits of femme fatales reminiscent of the big-eyed tradition that began with Margaret Keane. The paintings embody a rebellious and melancholic spirit, while the sculptures are infused with allusions to the erotic world. There is an heir of humor to the sculptures combining interests in pin-up girls with references to science fiction.

 “Vimana” is a sculpture depiction of a pilot during prayer based on ancient Sanskrit texts. The piece features an aircraft that would have been used in the journey to India and advanced ancient technology of thousands of years ago. Constructed of fiberglass and layered in 22K gold (the metal of space travel), the sculpture has translucent blue silicone skin surrounded by a frame of rocket ships, bullets and female genitalia. Other sculptures such as “Eclipsed” and painting “Blast Off” depict Nefertiti, a transcendental beauty who changed the standards of traditional beauty and enjoyed unprecedented power. In “Ready to Board,” Colin + Sas painted a multi-racial girl pilot with chromed “cornrows” covering the hair while dressed in a faux-fur coat.

Colin and Sas Christian are husband and wife artists with opposite personalities: Sas is timid and introverted and Colin is bold and gregarious. Both born in London in the 1960’s, the couple first met when Sas was studying graphic design in the UK and Colin was just breaking out as a DJ in the trendy nightclubs of London. In 1992, the couple moved to the United States and launched Hotbox Inc, a couture latex clothing manufacturing business. Initially, the bulk of their customers consisted of fetishists. The duo soon received commissions from various museums and stores as they started developing their artistic abilities. Their work began to focus on Japanese anime and the creative expression of the Harajuku kids in Tokyo filled with hope and excitement. Together, the couple continues to look for original ways to take the exaggerations and perfections of cartoons and turn them into realistic 3D forms while continually surrendering to the irresistible urge that is creative imagination.