It is our pleasure to share with you the Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series Social Art Project.
This social media art project is an excellent way to share your favorite artists and art sightings. A great place to see art now is at Rush Arts Gallery and Corridor Gallery for our current exhibitions include Drawn Truly, Dreaming Reality, and I Kan Do Dat.
The directions are simple, upload your art image to INSTAGRAM and use the hash-tag #SapphireArt. While your on instagram make sure you follow RUSHandCORRIDORgallery to see our images of recent events.
By being involved with the Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series Social Art Project you also have the opportunity to win some amazing prizes ! Every month Bombay Sapphire will be giving away a Lemography Camera to 2 monthly winners that get the most likes on Instagram. The final grand prize will be 2 tickets to Russell Simmons' 15th Annual Art For Life Benefit Gala which supports Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation, which includes Rush Arts Gallery, Corridor Gallery, and our Rush Eduction programs that benefit our Rush Kids !
Visit this link to find out more information, including when the Bombay Sapphire Spring Gallery events are, more information is below.
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The same passion, quality and style used to create BOMBAY SAPPHIRE® Gin is what inspires us to continually celebrate the artisan spirit. Through the Artisan Series Social Art Project, we're inviting you to share & discover inspiring art from the world around us - paintings, landmarks, cityscapes and everything in between. Share with us the things that inspire you by submitting a photo on Instagram using #SapphireArt, the piece & name of the artist for a chance to win prizes as unique and extraordinary as the art itself.
I Kan Do Dat curated by Danny Simmons and Oshun Layne.
In the past week there have
been three art openings at three different galleries that are all part
of the same massive exhibition of contemporary abstraction "I Kan Do
Dat" curated by Danny Simmons and Oshun Layne. This exhibition ties in
87 artists of all cultural backgrounds and a huge spectrum of materials
and techniques in Contemporary Abstraction. The galleries involved
include Rush Arts Gallery in Chelsea, a Skylight Gallery at Restoration
Plaza in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn, and Selena Gallery in the LIU downtown
Brooklyn campus.
I am pleased to have an older
painting often in the exhibition "earth Filters" a mixed media piece on
canvas from 2009. While the piece might be a little older it was great
to bring it out for an exhibition. My work is on view at Selena Gallery
in Downtown Brooklyn.
This exhibition I Kan Do Dat
ties together the founding principles of Rush Arts Gallery Beautifully.
There is some very strong work in the exhibitions at all three
locations. It is excellent to see the work of 2012 Rush Artist in
Residence Cullen Washington Jr at Rush Arts Gallery along with the 90
year old minimalist painter Kendall Shaw. Rush Arts also has a wall
installation by the founder of Aljira Art Center Carl Hazlewood that
combines materials, geometry, and line into a one time experience
installation. Rush Arts recently brought the work if Selin Balci to
Select Art Fair in Miami and her bio art was featured in Signs of Life
at Corridor Gallery. It was excellent to see her abstract "paintings"
that are actually microorganisms grown in bio labs in the I Kan Do Dat
exhibition. Something I can definitely not do.
The sculptural installation of
Musa Hixson at Skylight Gallery is not to be missed. His blending of
organic form with wood and paper constructions reminds me of my
connection to the earth. Musa was recently featured in an exhibition at
Rush Arts Gallery titled physically practiced curated by myself,
Charlotte Mouquin. Also at Skylight Gallery is a stunning wall drawing
by Lissete Morel that uses her body and large gestural marks. Skylight
has classic masters of contemporary abstraction from Ed Clarke,
Ellsworth Ausby and Greg Coates to young artists inspired by them
including an installation by Amber Robles-Gordon and the heavy black 3
dimensional paintings of Gabriel J. Shuldiner.
Selena Gallery at LIU had it's
own unique mix of abstract painters including a large red abstraction by
Michael Mut, the founder of the Love Yourself Project and a large pen
drawing by Melissa Mathews. Of course Selena gallery also includes my
own painting so do stop by LIU campus to check out the work.
I Kan Do Dat will be on view at
all three galleries grouch Feb. 22nd 2014. I couldn't think of a more
beautiful way to kick of the 2014 art exhibition season than with this
expansive multi-venue gallery exhibition. Maybe you think you can do
that but can you? Or do you? Here are 87 artists that do.
Rush Arts Gallery
in collaboration with Skylight Gallery
of Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Plaza and Salena Gallery of Long Island University Downtown, present I Kan
Do Dat, an exhibition including 87 artists curated by Danny Simmons and
Oshun Layne.
I Kan Do Dat explores contemporary abstraction through drawing,
painting, collage, printmaking and sculpture. This exhibition showcases the range of visual
vocabulary within the language of abstraction. Using large-scale physical brush
strokes, intricate visual symbols, layering of mediums and alternative materials
the artists in I Kan Do Dat showcase universal truths. Drawing from numerous
cultural and spiritual backgrounds, lines, shapes, and forms all have meanings
that become truly personal to everyone.
Artists include:
Pamella Allen, Ellsworth Ausby, Selin Balci, Kennis Baptiste, Che Baraka,
Kimberly Becoat, Herb Bennett, Leonardo Benzant, Bob Blackburn, Frank Bowling,
Aleathia Brown, Willie Mae Brown, Ramona Candy, Daren Chambers, Mary Chang,
Lawrence Charity, Dudley Charles, Tafadzwa Chiriga, Ayn S. Choi, Ed
Clarke-Cobat, Greg Coates, Miriam Costanza, Cleaster Cotton, Adger Cowans, Cedric
Cox, Diane Davis, Paul Deo, Robin Feld, Glenn Fischer, Veronique Gambier, Donald
Giovany, Sheila Goloborotko, Garry Grant, Cheryl Green, Dick Griffin, Sarah
Hall, Whitney Harris, Kathleen Hayek, Carl Hazlewood, Linda Hiwot, Musa Hixson,
Tomas Hull, Gerald Jackson, Jamillah Jennings, Al Johnson, Anders Knutsson,
Norman Lewis, Julian Lorber, Miguel Martinez-Riddle, Barry Mason, Melissa Matthews, Julie Mchargue, Damali Miller, Al Miller, Louis
Mims, Lisette Morel, Tomo Mori, Charlotte Mouquin,Michael Mut, Adedola Olugebefola, Donovan
Nelson, Ba Djibril Ngawa, Tony Papa, Lawrence Philps, Amalia Piccinini,Sherry Rader, Mike Rader, Dennis Redmooon
Darkeem, Kristin Reed, Roderick
Richardson, Amber Robles-Gordon, Terry Rosenberg, Kendall Shaw, Linda Shere,
Gabriel J. Shuldiner, Diane Smith, Atanaska Tassart,Lawrence Terry, Thurston Randall, Sidney
Peter Turner, Shenna Vaughn, Cullen
Washington Jr., Arlington Weithers, Jack White, Frank Wimberly, Kennedy Yanko, and Art Zamora.
Corridor Gallery is very pleased to have recently worked with guest Curator Sabrina Y. Smith to create the exhibition Dreaming Reality on view at Corridor Gallery January 26th - March 15th 2014.
J Swofford Thoughts, 16" x 20" fiber based hand-printed photograph on oriental paper
Sabrina Y. Smith came to Rush Arts and Corridor Gallery through the curatorial submission process of 2013. She is a young up and coming curator currently living a bi-coastal lifestyle between NYC and LA. She is an incredible artist advocate and writer who has traveled through 20 countries by the age of 25. This gives her a beautiful global perspective and the power to bring together artists from several countries. In Dreaming Reality at Corridor Gallery we celebrate the art of Fabrice Cazenave, Ahmet Murat Karayilan, John Ransom Phillips' J Swofford, Sebastian Wahl. The exhibition ties together painting, collage, photography and resin constructions that take the viewer on a journey somewhere between dream and reality.
She has also created the blog Art Gypsy Tales which is a collection of artist interviews. She has posted over 90 artist interviews in the past year. Please check it out http://www.artgypsytales.com/
Find her curatorial statement about Dreaming Reality below for more information.
Sebastian Wahl, Aquatic Mandala, 48" x 48" collage on resin
DreamingReality
CuratedbySabrinaY.Smith
In search
for their most intimate selves, and the underlining truth that ties us all, the
following artists, through different outlets - meditation, psychedelic drugs,
dreams, hypnosis – attempt to access the subconscious mind, and reveal the
information it holds. Speaking an unknown language that we somehow understand,
they weave altogether a kaleidoscopic narrative of the mind.
J Swofford's Riddle of The Echo series translates the
dream-like scenes of the unconscious to the conscious. The exploration of
enigmatic symbols, which are
associated with memories and dreams,
spark a cascade of allusions and connections in the
mind of the viewer. The photographs, obtained with a Metol
formula mix made by the artist, are printed in the darkroom (none of these
compositions are digitally manipulated) on silver gelatin paper. The process
further underlines the unsettling immersion into an unpredictable world guided
by instinct and feeling.
Sebastian Wahl is a mind explorer who recreates its imagery
into intricate psychedelic landscapes. His resin collages reveal colorful and
familiar images, meticulously layered into three-dimensional narratives -
offering limitless depths and reflecting the multi- layered nature of the mind.
Some works contain 'glow-in-the-dark' shapes inspired by sacred geometry,
revealing secret messages when the lights turn off. One may find recurring
characters or symbols, acting like omens, telling a larger story together.
Ahmet Murat Karayilan 's work focuses on Heidegger's concept
of Dasein, which characterizes human existence as "Being" (versus
Cartesian "thinking"), where the subconscious - rather than the
conscious - is the defining trait. In these works, Karayilan's figures are
omnipresent by their absence: they are a part of the image, yet their
environment seems to be shaped by their own mind.
John
Ransom Phillips' Sleeping Presidents painting series is interested in
showing how one's dreams are ultimately one's true reality. Phillips imagines
the dreams of America's forty-three presidents, revealing an intimate and
unexplored side to these iconic figures, and ultimately humanizing them.
Echoing Walt Whitman, Phillips says of these works, “I am dreaming all the
dreams of Grant, Obama, Reagan, Washington, ... And then I
become
them.”
Fabrice Cazenave seeks inspiration in high awareness states
by drawing blind-folded, or even under hypnosis. His work is an experience of
reality throughout all the senses. In reaching a state of trance, Cazenave
relives a palette of sensations and emotions that he simultaneously draws.
Guided by his hearing, smell, taste, and touch - he lets the
sensations restore the most faithful
image. The experience calls for an extreme concentration and a complete
disconnect with time - strongly guided by his subconscious.
Dreaming Reality is
an invitation to enter the subconscious mind. One can map the recurring
symbols, situations and characters that thread each work. This exhibit not only
shows individual realities but reveals the bonding narrative – our common truth
- one that may impact the viewer's own subconscious, behavior and life.
Ahmet Murat Karayilan, The Queen Cassiopeia, 23" x 35" oil and collage on canvas
It is my great pleasure to be bringing this portrait
exhibition to Corridor Gallery. Drawn Truly came together over time and
solidified when I re-saw the work of Al Burts in Miami at Select Art
Fair exhibiting with International Visions Gallery. I also met the
artist Vernando Reuben while exhibiting the work of ruby onyinychi
amanze with Rush Arts Gallery in Miami and Select Art Fair. While
reviewing the Rush Arts Gallery artist submissions I was taken with the
work of Alphonso Dunn. Alphonso comes from a chemestry background but
recently aquired his MFA from the New York Academy, he is an incredible
art educator and artist. I hope to work with all of these artists again
soon. In the meantime join us at Corridor Gallery in Brooklyn to check
out this group exhibition, Drawn Truly.
____________________________________ Corridor Gallery 334 Grand Ave Brooklyn, NY 11238 718-230-5002
Drawn Truly Curated by Charlotte Mouquin
January 26th – March 15th 2014
Corridor Gallery Project Space is pleased to present Drawn Truly, an exhibition curated by Charlotte Mouquin, that includes ruby onyinyechi amanze, Al Burts, Alphonso Dunn, and Vernando Reuben.
January 26th-March 15th 2014. Located at 334 Grand Ave, Brooklyn, NY.
Drawn Truly brings together identities and tender artists’ thoughts
through figurative rendering, abstraction and the imagined reflecting
contemporary cultures.
Alphonso Dunn, Itty Bitty Black Box, charcoal, Crayon, pastel, pencil, acrylic, 25" x 37" 2013
Through drawing, Alphonso Dunn, Jamaican born with a recent MFA from the New York Academy, reflects the inner workings of people and their interactions. Paraphernalia of Perception examines the contrasts between abstraction and representation, reflecting adult themes with childlike drawing punctuating the compositions. These drawings become letters asking questions about the society we have created.
Vernando Reuben, untitled, mixed media on paper, 24"x 38"
The layered mixed media drawings of Vernando Reuben examine the multiple facets of identity through the creation and destruction of mask like-forms, collage, and mark making. His portraits are metaphors for post-millennium cultural integration that combine spiritual and altruistic sensibilities.
Al Burts, Nefertiti, The Beautiful One, Ballpoint Pen on Wood, 26" x 38" 2013
Two time Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series finalist in Washington, DC Al
Burts, explores identity through portraiture by combining realism and
symbolism. His portraits on unprimed canvas and raw wood panels depict
strong figures with intimate tribal tattoos covering their skin. The
detail and softness in the mark making is done using a ballpoint
pen.
ruby onyinyechi amanze, a Brooklyn based artist of Nigerian birth and British upbringing, is influenced by her own cultural hybridity. Her portrait of Ada, an afro-futurist alter ego born in the galaxy of black-eyed peas, has her partially seated above her birthplace with ghostly eyes. The portrait shows a statuesque figure with fully rendered forms and areas of openness using the whiteness of the page. Amanze was recently awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study in Nigeria 2012-2013.
Each of these drawings are Drawn Truly and speaking a societal truth about the artist and community. Though intimate rendering and explicit mark making each artist is bringing a new perspective to drawing, combining the personal with the world at large.
