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Thursday, May 28, 2009 at 2:30PM Cant wait to see everyone at Private Viewing of Street Art Show including Banksy presented by Splashlight Studios and Helenbeck Gallery
from Eyegunk
WHOLE IN THE WALL
GALERIE HELENBECK PRESENTS WHOLE IN THE WALL: THE LARGEST AMERICAN & EUROPEAN STREET ART EXHIBITION IN NEW YORK - ARTISTS FROM THE 70’S TO NOW
ARTISTS: Victor Ash, Banksy, Blade, Blek le Rat, Crash, Daze, Ikon, Jonone, Nunca, Plateus, Quik, Lee Quinones, Rammellzee, Sharp, Sozyone, Henry Chalfant, Martha Cooper, Jamel Shabazz, Silvio Magaglio
Helenbeck Gallery presents the largest street art exhibition of American & European Street Art: Whole in the Wall 1970 – Now in New York. The exhibition will take place at the former Splashlight Studios at 529-535 West 35th Street located in the Chelsea-Clinton neighborhood of New York City from May 28 to June 27, 2009. Helenbeck Gallery has brought this exhibition back to where this art form began: New York.
Porsche Cars North America is proud to be patron of this exhibition. This show is also supported by Red Bull, Voss Water, Duggal Visual Solutions, and IFL Transport.
Gallerist Chantal Helenbeck says, “The street art movement was home grown in New York. It is real, it has meaning and it has credibility. It is America’s art history and personal story, which is why I decided to hold this exhibition in its home roots of New York. Since New York in the 1970’s, this movement has become a global phenomenon. These individuals may have started on the street but they have developed into great studio artists and it is important that their talent and recognition is seen and documented within the art world. ”
The Hudson Yards Development Corporation (HYDC) is pleased to lend this space to the Helenbeck Gallery for this exhibit. HYDC is dedicated to transforming this neighborhood from an underperforming industrial area into a thriving, 18-hour mixed-use community that will welcome artists, residents, workers and tourists. Later this year, the exhibition site will be incorporated into the new four acre Hudson Park.
ARTISTS IN THE EXHIBITION
This exhibition will explore the transition of street art from the New York underground subculture scene to the mainstream. The first generation of artists of the street scene in New York during the 70’s and 80’s, Blade, Crash, Daze, Jonone, Quik , Lee Quinones, Rammellzee and Sharp, will produce fresh works alongside their European contemporaries: Victor Ash, Banksy, Blek le Rat, Ikon, Sozy One and sculptor, Plateus who have since entered the pantheon. Important photographers who have documented rare scenes of the street art movement also will be represented in the show: Martha Cooper, Henry Chalfant, Jamel Shabazz and Silvio Magaglio.
Porsche Cars North America has donated six hoods of its iconic 911 sports cars, which will be painted by six artists and sold during a silent auction at the opening night on Thursday May 28. Proceeds will go to the CITYarts organization led by Tsipi Ben-Haim, who has, for 40 years, been empowering children and youth by bringing them together with professional artists to create public art that addresses civic and social issues, positively impacting their lives and transforming their communities.
These artists will exhibit their work in Manhattan’s Chelsea-Clinton neighborhood in a sprawling 25,000 square feet space covering two floors. The contemporary works will be juxtaposed with antique furniture & works of art representing the old and the new and reinforcing, ironically, the entrance of street art into one of the main areas of the art world. The antique furniture & works of art will be presented by prestigious antique dealer Jean Gismondi, whose Galerie Gismondi was established in the early 80’s. This exhibition is an extension of the successful show at Helenbeck Gallery in Paris earlier in the year: Whole in the Wall, American Graffiti Art 70’s-90’s where international interest was received throughout the exhibition. Helenbeck Gallery and Galerie Gismondi pushed the boundaries of curating and mixing the fine works by artists Blade, Crash, JonOne, Quik and Sharp with magnificent European antique furniture at their prestigious period gallery in Rue Royale, Paris. The public, collectors and dealers were excited by the mix of the two genres coming together, now being echoed and carried through in this innovative show in New York.
In the show, there are 15 outstanding painters, two sculptors and four photographers. The American ‘pioneers’ of street art during the 70’s include: Blade, Lee, and Rammellzee; the American 80’s generation include: Daze, Crash, Quik, Sharp and JonOne who was born in New York and settled in Paris in 1987. Street artists from Europe include: Sozyone from Spain; Victor Ash from Denmark; Ikon from France, and 80’s French pioneer, Blek le Rat. Presenting works from the UK is the satirical artist from the late 80’s, Banksy and young Brazilian artist, Nunca who recently exhibited a full-length work on the building of the Tate Modern as part of the Street Art Exhibition in London. Also in this show are four remarkable photographers, including Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant, who documented rare urban art scenes of the artists and New York City’s characters and atmosphere of the underground scenes during the early years. 80’s photographer Jamel Shabazz shot the fashion, the attitude and the culture of Black American New Yorkers of the street art scene revealing an insight into this movement and the changing times of New York. French photographer Silvio Magaglio documented the European movement as an omnipresent witness to young European taggers in his fascinating photographs.
BACKGROUND
In 1971 The New York Times featured a seventeen-year-old street artist who called himself “TAKI 183” – the handle standing for the street number of the building where he lived. A new genre of art was born – street art. Soon this street art evolved into signatures, gigantesque, revealing a thirst for recognition. The film, ‘”Style Wars” summed up the spirit. The works became progressively more adventurous and unconstrained, vehicles of an aesthetic intent through which their creators expressed themselves in individual ways. An art movement was born.
Although a quiet interest from the galleries of New York was evident during this time, it was not until 1980 that the first exciting exhibition took place representing a mix of street artists collectively, including Fab Five Freddy and Jean-Michel Basquiat. The show was called “Beyond Words” at The Mudclub, a renowned venue which was the hub of an important period in dance music in New York City. Young artists like Basquiat hung out with the kids of the club scene to experience groundbreaking performances experimenting with new ambient beats by now known legendary musicians like Brian Eno. The mix of fresh music and street art inspired by personal experiences, beliefs and ideas echoed through.
Gallerist during the 80’s, Patti Astor, had a keen eye on the talent of this group of street artists having already exhibited the work of Basquiat, Keith Haring and Dondi and reinforcing a shift from street to canvas.
One of the street artists of the early 80’s says, “This artwork started as an American art form without any other influences from any other country. As adolescents we didn’t go to museums, we really looked at what other people within our community were doing. Our influences were comic books which were designed and drawn by Americans - so comic book art and each other became our subculture. We were self taught and learnt from each other.
“Our ability to be taken seriously has always been a tenuous process. Many associate us with what they see in the street and find it difficult to look at the growth of a person. It usually stems from misinformation, education or even discrimination but now the timing is right as enough has happened in the world to be heard. Something on this scale, given the size of the space and the level of professionalism from each artist will be very exciting to see in this show.”
In the early 80’s, the New York scene had already started to make waves in Europe. In 1982, Holland presented their first street art exhibition. The vision to recognize the importance of allowing each artist to have an independent show reinforced each artist’s individual style. With the dialogue of Europe, these artists were seen in a different light and portrayed a new kind of reality. Outside influences also occurred with film and music such as Wild Style, Malcolm Mclaren - Buffalo Girls and Style Wars. In 1985, European artists experimented with New York’s influence and mediums including spray painting, stencil printing, and fly posting; later evolving into a global movement with street art exhibitions in countries such as France, UK, USA, Brazil, and Australia.
Today this odyssey has traveled from the streets to the canvas. The artists’ styles, from lettering to pictorial, have developed in precision and refinement reinforcing their creativity and integrating the origins of the streets. Inextricably entwined with music and fashion, street art continues to resonate with its original audience— global youth culture proclaiming its political and social stance and its exuberant independence.
Despite being co-opted by the establishment during the passage of time, these artists have since been recognized as some of the most exciting talent to emerge, creating a shift from the street to the fine art world. These artists’ works are some of the most edgy, fresh and relevant contemporary art that is available today. Today, the market attracts an assortment of international collectors along with celebrity collectors such as Angelina Jolie, Eric Clapton, Jude Law and Dennis Hopper.
