Off The Clock: Opening Night At Like The Spice Gallery
Dates:
Fri Jul 17, 2009 00:00 - Wed Jun 17, 2009
Like the Spice is pleased to present Off the Clock, a group exhibition of works by artists who work or have worked as studio assistants to other artists, featuring works by Rachel Beach who has assisted Roxy Paine, Jason Bryant who assists Kehinde Wiley, Allison Edge who assists McDermott & McGough and has assisted Jeff Koons, Charlie Ledbetter who also has assisted Jeff Koons, Jenny Morgan and David Mramor who assist Marilyn Minter, Reuben Negron who assists Papa Colo, and Jeffrey Vreeland who assists Takashi Murakami. The seven artists in this show have each spent a considerable amount of time working in another artist’s studio. Here we present their personal artwork, giving viewers an introduction to the next generation of artists who may one day have assistants of their own as well as a chance to consider the studio assistant’s place in the art world more generally.
Artists have used assistants at least since the early days of the apprentice system in the middle ages. Since minimalism and Warhol (not to mention the boom in contemporary art prices) it has become increasingly acceptable for artists to have works made for them. Today, a studio assistant’s role can vary from office tasks and documenting work to stretching and preparing canvasses to creating art practically from scratch. Assistants’ roles in artistic production are still almost always under the radar, as having work made to order flies in the face of long held (some would say anachronistic) romantic ideals. We like to believe that artworks are a physical expression of the artist’s soul; that the artist toiled to get it just right. Artists do toil but those who can afford studio assistants have the luxury of delegating a little.
Artists using assistants can expand their repertoire to include media they are not experienced in using, they can also produce more work, and faster. Studio assistants whose main focus is physically making the work are very skilled, often more expert at their particular techniques than their bosses.
In addition to works by each of the artists, each of the artist’s employers has also been asked to provide a letter detailing their assistant’s role in the studio to be presented alongside the work. Some are forthright, others more protective, others did not respond. Each response, or lack thereof, is telling, as some artists are more open about this system than others. Takashi Murakami, whose assistant is included in this show, is known for crediting the work of his assistants, with comprehensive lists of each contributor accompanying each piece. He even represents several of his assistants’ work as an agent. Other artists are less open, often requiring new hires to sign strict confidentiality agreements and not publicly acknowledging using assistants at all.
Rachel Beach makes wooden sculptures with a tromp l'oeil kick, playing three-dimensional reality against two-dimensional illusion. Jason Bryant’s cropped, photorealistic paintings of models and celebrities bring mystery and humanity back to the age of overexposure. Allison Edge investigates tween psychology, innocence, and nostalgia in her highly detailed oils. Charlie Ledbetter finds ubiquitous materials, such as Aquafresh toothpaste, and animates them in such a way as to reveal their cross-purposes. A tool for cleaning becomes a tool for revelation.. Jenny Morgan’s portraits conflate the physicality of paint and person, psychology and physiology. Her collaborative works with David Mramor, investigate the tension and fluidity of portrait and landscape, abstraction and representation. In his sensuously painted watercolors, Reuben Negron explores the private lives of people in love and lust, exposing and elevating them at once. Jeffrey Vreeland uses strategies borrowed from graphic design, surrealism, and collage to create memento mori for a postmodern age.
Off the Clock
July 17th - September 6th, 2009
Opening Reception: Friday July 17th 6:30-10pm
Assisted Dining: July 24th 8pm - RSVP Required
Like The Spice Gallery
224 Roebling Street
Brooklyn, New York 11211
www.likethespice.com
718.388.5388
Wed-Mon 12-7:00
Artists have used assistants at least since the early days of the apprentice system in the middle ages. Since minimalism and Warhol (not to mention the boom in contemporary art prices) it has become increasingly acceptable for artists to have works made for them. Today, a studio assistant’s role can vary from office tasks and documenting work to stretching and preparing canvasses to creating art practically from scratch. Assistants’ roles in artistic production are still almost always under the radar, as having work made to order flies in the face of long held (some would say anachronistic) romantic ideals. We like to believe that artworks are a physical expression of the artist’s soul; that the artist toiled to get it just right. Artists do toil but those who can afford studio assistants have the luxury of delegating a little.
Artists using assistants can expand their repertoire to include media they are not experienced in using, they can also produce more work, and faster. Studio assistants whose main focus is physically making the work are very skilled, often more expert at their particular techniques than their bosses.
In addition to works by each of the artists, each of the artist’s employers has also been asked to provide a letter detailing their assistant’s role in the studio to be presented alongside the work. Some are forthright, others more protective, others did not respond. Each response, or lack thereof, is telling, as some artists are more open about this system than others. Takashi Murakami, whose assistant is included in this show, is known for crediting the work of his assistants, with comprehensive lists of each contributor accompanying each piece. He even represents several of his assistants’ work as an agent. Other artists are less open, often requiring new hires to sign strict confidentiality agreements and not publicly acknowledging using assistants at all.
Rachel Beach makes wooden sculptures with a tromp l'oeil kick, playing three-dimensional reality against two-dimensional illusion. Jason Bryant’s cropped, photorealistic paintings of models and celebrities bring mystery and humanity back to the age of overexposure. Allison Edge investigates tween psychology, innocence, and nostalgia in her highly detailed oils. Charlie Ledbetter finds ubiquitous materials, such as Aquafresh toothpaste, and animates them in such a way as to reveal their cross-purposes. A tool for cleaning becomes a tool for revelation.. Jenny Morgan’s portraits conflate the physicality of paint and person, psychology and physiology. Her collaborative works with David Mramor, investigate the tension and fluidity of portrait and landscape, abstraction and representation. In his sensuously painted watercolors, Reuben Negron explores the private lives of people in love and lust, exposing and elevating them at once. Jeffrey Vreeland uses strategies borrowed from graphic design, surrealism, and collage to create memento mori for a postmodern age.
Off the Clock
July 17th - September 6th, 2009
Opening Reception: Friday July 17th 6:30-10pm
Assisted Dining: July 24th 8pm - RSVP Required
Like The Spice Gallery
224 Roebling Street
Brooklyn, New York 11211
www.likethespice.com
718.388.5388
Wed-Mon 12-7:00
Reuben Negrón: Dirty Dirty Love
Dates:
Wed Dec 31, 1969 00:00 - Sun May 03, 2009
Location:
United States of America
Reuben Negrón: Dirty Dirty Love
May 22nd - June 21st, 2009
Opening Reception:Friday May 22nd
6:30-10pm
F**k Dinner:May 29th
8:00 pm - RSVP Required
Like the Spice is pleased to present Reuben Negrón: Dirty Dirty Love, an exhibition of the artist’s magically delicious watercolors. (Because who knows what magical realism is supposed to mean anymore?)
Photorealism is usually associated with cold, clinical cityscapes that reveal the ways photography orders reality. The watercolors of Reuben Negrón partake of the deep photo-visual honesty and technical mastery of the photorealists but are also imbued with a deep humanist emotional intelligence. Based on photographs the artist takes of real couples in domestic and intimate moments, Negrón's is the photorealism of Nan Goldin - only minus the eighties blank-generation angst.
Perhaps Negrón's greatest achievement is his ability to be searingly honest and achingly sweet in the same moment. His works depict private moments as they really are, fraught with insecurity; yet tender, joyous, and vulnerable. Never saccharine, Negrón gives us hot little slices of true romance.
Born in Orlando, Florida in 1979, Reuben Negrón holds a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts. He is the illustrator of the recently released Democracy for Beginners and the forthcoming Poetry for Beginners. As a comic book artist he was included in the Rabid Rabbit Comic Anthology in 2008 and New York Press' Underground Comics Spectacular, March 2006. This is his first solo exhibition at a commercial gallery in New York. Reuben Negrón lives and works in Connecticut.
May 22nd - June 21st, 2009
Opening Reception:Friday May 22nd
6:30-10pm
F**k Dinner:May 29th
8:00 pm - RSVP Required
Like the Spice is pleased to present Reuben Negrón: Dirty Dirty Love, an exhibition of the artist’s magically delicious watercolors. (Because who knows what magical realism is supposed to mean anymore?)
Photorealism is usually associated with cold, clinical cityscapes that reveal the ways photography orders reality. The watercolors of Reuben Negrón partake of the deep photo-visual honesty and technical mastery of the photorealists but are also imbued with a deep humanist emotional intelligence. Based on photographs the artist takes of real couples in domestic and intimate moments, Negrón's is the photorealism of Nan Goldin - only minus the eighties blank-generation angst.
Perhaps Negrón's greatest achievement is his ability to be searingly honest and achingly sweet in the same moment. His works depict private moments as they really are, fraught with insecurity; yet tender, joyous, and vulnerable. Never saccharine, Negrón gives us hot little slices of true romance.
Born in Orlando, Florida in 1979, Reuben Negrón holds a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts. He is the illustrator of the recently released Democracy for Beginners and the forthcoming Poetry for Beginners. As a comic book artist he was included in the Rabid Rabbit Comic Anthology in 2008 and New York Press' Underground Comics Spectacular, March 2006. This is his first solo exhibition at a commercial gallery in New York. Reuben Negrón lives and works in Connecticut.
Dubai Underground
Dates:
Fri Feb 13, 2009 00:00 - Sun Jan 18, 2009
Dubai Underground
Presented by Mezze in conjunction with Like the Spice Gallery
February 13th to March 1st, 2009
Artist Dinner- February 20th 2009 - RSVP Required
Hosted by Like the Spice Gallery
Mezze, in conjunction with Like the Spice Gallery, is proud to present Dubai Underground, an exhibition featuring seven artists from Dubai whose works reveal the hidden complexity of this glitzy Persian Gulf city. The artists featured in Dubai Underground are Hind Mezaina, Sheikha Bin Daher, Jalal Abu Thina, John Hollingsworth, Mohamed Somji, Khalid Mezaina and Reem Al Gaith.
Palm tree shaped islands, the world’s tallest building, opulent hotels and the extravagant lifestyles that go along with it- these are the first images that come to mind with the mere mention of Dubai. But beyond this superficial image is a city steeped in contradictions and paradoxes. Dubai Underground explores these contrasts as portrayed by this group of artists, some of which are Emirati (nationals of the United Arab Emirates), and others who represent the city’s international complexion, coming from Tanzania, Libya and the UK. Their works reflect the myriad realities coexisting in Dubai, from juxtaposition of the wealthy elite’s conspicuous consumption against the hidden plight of the laborers, who are quite literally building the city brick by brick, to the challenges young Emiratis face in defining and retaining their cultural identity when they have become a minority, making up just 15 percent of the city’s population.
Dubai is the city and Emirate that forms one of the seven members of the union of the United Arab Emirates, formed in 1972 on the tip of the Middle Eastern peninsula. The city has been grabbing headlines in recent years for its ambitious architectural projects, creation of world-class enterprises and also very recently as a new hub for the emergence of the visual arts in the Middle East. The recent arrival of all the major auction houses, art fairs, a growing number of galleries and intent of museums such as the Guggenheim and Louvre to establish themselves in the neighboring Emirate of Abu Dhabi, have signaled a new awareness and interest in the way art and culture influences the shaping of this city.
Like the Spice Gallery, 224 Roebling Street. Brooklyn, NY 11211, 718-388-5388, info@likethespice.com
Presented by Mezze in conjunction with Like the Spice Gallery
February 13th to March 1st, 2009
Artist Dinner- February 20th 2009 - RSVP Required
Hosted by Like the Spice Gallery
Mezze, in conjunction with Like the Spice Gallery, is proud to present Dubai Underground, an exhibition featuring seven artists from Dubai whose works reveal the hidden complexity of this glitzy Persian Gulf city. The artists featured in Dubai Underground are Hind Mezaina, Sheikha Bin Daher, Jalal Abu Thina, John Hollingsworth, Mohamed Somji, Khalid Mezaina and Reem Al Gaith.
Palm tree shaped islands, the world’s tallest building, opulent hotels and the extravagant lifestyles that go along with it- these are the first images that come to mind with the mere mention of Dubai. But beyond this superficial image is a city steeped in contradictions and paradoxes. Dubai Underground explores these contrasts as portrayed by this group of artists, some of which are Emirati (nationals of the United Arab Emirates), and others who represent the city’s international complexion, coming from Tanzania, Libya and the UK. Their works reflect the myriad realities coexisting in Dubai, from juxtaposition of the wealthy elite’s conspicuous consumption against the hidden plight of the laborers, who are quite literally building the city brick by brick, to the challenges young Emiratis face in defining and retaining their cultural identity when they have become a minority, making up just 15 percent of the city’s population.
Dubai is the city and Emirate that forms one of the seven members of the union of the United Arab Emirates, formed in 1972 on the tip of the Middle Eastern peninsula. The city has been grabbing headlines in recent years for its ambitious architectural projects, creation of world-class enterprises and also very recently as a new hub for the emergence of the visual arts in the Middle East. The recent arrival of all the major auction houses, art fairs, a growing number of galleries and intent of museums such as the Guggenheim and Louvre to establish themselves in the neighboring Emirate of Abu Dhabi, have signaled a new awareness and interest in the way art and culture influences the shaping of this city.
Like the Spice Gallery, 224 Roebling Street. Brooklyn, NY 11211, 718-388-5388, info@likethespice.com
Jenny Morgan: Abrasions
Dates:
Fri Jan 09, 2009 00:00 - Wed Dec 31, 2008
Jenny Morgan: Abrasions
January 9th - February 8th, 2009
Opening Reception: Friday January 9th 6:30-10pm
Artist’s Dinner: Friday January 16th 8pm - RSVP Required
224 Roebling Street
Brooklyn, New York 11211
www.likethespice.com
718.388.5388
Mon. Wed. - Sat. 12-8:00 Sun. 12-7:00
Like the Spice is pleased to present Jenny Morgan: Abrasions, a selection of the artist’s recent figurative oil paintings, the artist’s first solo show at Like the Spice and in New York.
In her tensely psychological portraits, all depicting people close to the artist, Jenny Morgan scrapes and sands away the top layers of paint creating wounds that are at once repellant, humanizing and technically masterful. Like drilling down to the molten core of the subjects’ anatomy, the areas that are worn away mark the paintings as more than portraits but also as bodily stand ins, as though if you disturb them, the wounds may open up and start bleeding. It is left to the viewer whether it will be blood or red paint that will flow.
Presented on stark monochromatic grounds, the figures’ presence confronts the viewer with a shocking dose of intimacy. From ten feet the figures seem powerful, statuesque and attractive. From five feet you begin noticing what seem like scrapes and rashes - compelling you to draw nearer. Up close you realize the full technical prowess of Morgan, who not only renders uncanny likenesses and emotionally complex portraits but lays the under-layers so that the “finished” painting can be sanded and carved revealing the blood and guts of both the subjects and the painting itself. Tiny pinpricks of gesso peek through where the wounds are deepest, creating a fascinating marriage of image and physical structure; the canvas’ texture becomes a pointillist itch you can’t scratch.
Jenny Morgan was born in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1982. In 2003 Morgan was Valedictorian of her graduating class at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design in Colorado were she attained a BFA. Jenny then went on to finish her MFA at the School of Visual Arts in New York in 2008. She has exhibited nationwide in solo shows at the Plus Gallery and the Pirate Gallery in Denver, Colorado and has participated in group shows at Columbia University, The LeRoy Neiman Gallery, Smithsonian Institute's National Portrait Gallery, and multiple galleries in Colorado, Florida and New York City. Morgan has been added to many public and private collections across the states including The Museum of Fine Arts Key West, Florida. Like the Spice has recently featured her work at Scope Art Fair, Miami and Bridge Art Fair, Miami Beach as well as in “It’s a Small World” a group show at the gallery. Morgan has appeared in numerous publications including The Denver Post, The Rocky Mountain News, New American Paintings and Westword. Jenny Morgan currently lives and works in NYC.
January 9th - February 8th, 2009
Opening Reception: Friday January 9th 6:30-10pm
Artist’s Dinner: Friday January 16th 8pm - RSVP Required
224 Roebling Street
Brooklyn, New York 11211
www.likethespice.com
718.388.5388
Mon. Wed. - Sat. 12-8:00 Sun. 12-7:00
Like the Spice is pleased to present Jenny Morgan: Abrasions, a selection of the artist’s recent figurative oil paintings, the artist’s first solo show at Like the Spice and in New York.
In her tensely psychological portraits, all depicting people close to the artist, Jenny Morgan scrapes and sands away the top layers of paint creating wounds that are at once repellant, humanizing and technically masterful. Like drilling down to the molten core of the subjects’ anatomy, the areas that are worn away mark the paintings as more than portraits but also as bodily stand ins, as though if you disturb them, the wounds may open up and start bleeding. It is left to the viewer whether it will be blood or red paint that will flow.
Presented on stark monochromatic grounds, the figures’ presence confronts the viewer with a shocking dose of intimacy. From ten feet the figures seem powerful, statuesque and attractive. From five feet you begin noticing what seem like scrapes and rashes - compelling you to draw nearer. Up close you realize the full technical prowess of Morgan, who not only renders uncanny likenesses and emotionally complex portraits but lays the under-layers so that the “finished” painting can be sanded and carved revealing the blood and guts of both the subjects and the painting itself. Tiny pinpricks of gesso peek through where the wounds are deepest, creating a fascinating marriage of image and physical structure; the canvas’ texture becomes a pointillist itch you can’t scratch.
Jenny Morgan was born in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1982. In 2003 Morgan was Valedictorian of her graduating class at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design in Colorado were she attained a BFA. Jenny then went on to finish her MFA at the School of Visual Arts in New York in 2008. She has exhibited nationwide in solo shows at the Plus Gallery and the Pirate Gallery in Denver, Colorado and has participated in group shows at Columbia University, The LeRoy Neiman Gallery, Smithsonian Institute's National Portrait Gallery, and multiple galleries in Colorado, Florida and New York City. Morgan has been added to many public and private collections across the states including The Museum of Fine Arts Key West, Florida. Like the Spice has recently featured her work at Scope Art Fair, Miami and Bridge Art Fair, Miami Beach as well as in “It’s a Small World” a group show at the gallery. Morgan has appeared in numerous publications including The Denver Post, The Rocky Mountain News, New American Paintings and Westword. Jenny Morgan currently lives and works in NYC.
LIZ BROWN OMGWTF
Dates:
Fri Nov 14, 2008 00:00 - Thu Oct 30, 2008
[IMG]http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c331/marisais/NotGuiltyweb.jpg[/IMG]
LIZ BROWN OMGWTF
November 14th - December 7th, 2008
Opening Reception:
Friday November 14th 6:30-10pm
Smooth Operator Dinner:
November 21st 8pm - RSVP Required
Like the Spice is pleased to present Liz Brown: OMGWTF, an exhibition of the artist’s retro-futuristic paintings and drawings.
Borrowing freely from the history, advertising, sarcasm, fantasy, banality and the technology of our shiny new post-cultural millennium, Brown conflates landscape, advertising layout, and film still, distilling late capitalist popular anxiety into a WTF exuberance. Like a post-apocalyptic shopping scene from a zombie movie, Brown’s works are at once menacing and celebratory.
With one foot firmly planted in our McMansion-by-Macy’s-Martha-Stewart-Collection reality, Brown imagines a world where corporate fantasies become detached from products and inhabit our collective unconscious. With no public place left to hide from corporate titillation, all that is left is to imagine our own adspace, where fantasies are as slick as Disney movies yet as personal as teenage diaries. This seemingly abandoned world is host to 70’s science fiction hallucinations, custom yachts with neon sails, taxidermied mountain goats in outdoor dioramas and blimps hawking “primal agendas” and “final frontiers”.
Liz Brown was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1977 and has lived across the country including rural Virginia, Baltimore, Maryland and San Francisco. She has shown her work nationwide and is included in the permanent collections of the New York Public Library Print Collection, the Connecticut Commission on the Arts and the Housatonic Museum of Art in Bridgeport, CT. Like the Spice has featured her work at the Fountain 2007 Art Fair in Miami, FL, Bridge Art Fair and the Affordable Art Fair in New York in 2008 and the upcoming Scope Miami fair in December, as well as five group shows and one previous solo show, Most Triumphant, at Like the Spice’s Williamsburg, Brooklyn gallery space. Brown earned her MFA from the Mount Royal College Graduate Program at the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2004. She has taught at the Montpelier Cultural Arts Center in Laurel, Maryland and at the Corcoran College of Art in Washington DC. In 2005 she was a Space Program recipient at the Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation. Liz Brown lives and works in the Clinton Hill neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY.[list][img][img][/img][/img][/list]
LIZ BROWN OMGWTF
November 14th - December 7th, 2008
Opening Reception:
Friday November 14th 6:30-10pm
Smooth Operator Dinner:
November 21st 8pm - RSVP Required
Like the Spice is pleased to present Liz Brown: OMGWTF, an exhibition of the artist’s retro-futuristic paintings and drawings.
Borrowing freely from the history, advertising, sarcasm, fantasy, banality and the technology of our shiny new post-cultural millennium, Brown conflates landscape, advertising layout, and film still, distilling late capitalist popular anxiety into a WTF exuberance. Like a post-apocalyptic shopping scene from a zombie movie, Brown’s works are at once menacing and celebratory.
With one foot firmly planted in our McMansion-by-Macy’s-Martha-Stewart-Collection reality, Brown imagines a world where corporate fantasies become detached from products and inhabit our collective unconscious. With no public place left to hide from corporate titillation, all that is left is to imagine our own adspace, where fantasies are as slick as Disney movies yet as personal as teenage diaries. This seemingly abandoned world is host to 70’s science fiction hallucinations, custom yachts with neon sails, taxidermied mountain goats in outdoor dioramas and blimps hawking “primal agendas” and “final frontiers”.
Liz Brown was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1977 and has lived across the country including rural Virginia, Baltimore, Maryland and San Francisco. She has shown her work nationwide and is included in the permanent collections of the New York Public Library Print Collection, the Connecticut Commission on the Arts and the Housatonic Museum of Art in Bridgeport, CT. Like the Spice has featured her work at the Fountain 2007 Art Fair in Miami, FL, Bridge Art Fair and the Affordable Art Fair in New York in 2008 and the upcoming Scope Miami fair in December, as well as five group shows and one previous solo show, Most Triumphant, at Like the Spice’s Williamsburg, Brooklyn gallery space. Brown earned her MFA from the Mount Royal College Graduate Program at the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2004. She has taught at the Montpelier Cultural Arts Center in Laurel, Maryland and at the Corcoran College of Art in Washington DC. In 2005 she was a Space Program recipient at the Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation. Liz Brown lives and works in the Clinton Hill neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY.[list][img][img][/img][/img][/list]