“Making Faces” is as much about mix mastery as it is happenstance – kind of like walking on the street in New York. The boldly unmatching collection of portraits on view at Opera Gallery in Soho is sometimes thrilling, even challenging in it’s dismissal of category. There is this new crop of many of the Street Artists you’ve seen in the wild these last few years hanging with stars of the Chinese new wave, early 20th century European revolutionaries, an historic leader of impressionism, a surrealist – you know, a gamut. You could call it cleaning out the closets, or you could call it “Girl Talk curates the gallery”. Either way, it can be thrilling to see these pieces in this context; sparring, harmonizing, both.
The divine madness of Street Artist Judith Supine loses none of it’s wild energy here. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Street Art springs at you when you are in ratty decayed lots in Bed Stuy, and similarly here you have rely on your own intellectual strengths to process the work in it’s surroundings, analyzing and imagining the coupling, or tripling. Is this a master or a pretender? You’ll figure it out eventually but the stimulation lies in your ability to let go of hard classifications and surprise prejudices to re-assess the faces and appreciate an occasional revelation at this New York mixer.
b. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
b. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Yue Minjun (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Alexandros Vasmoulakis (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Lita Cabellut (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Shepard Fairey (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Paul Insect (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Kid Zoom (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Ron English (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Rostarr (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Artists include Yasmina Alaqui, Marco Guerra, Karel Appel, B., Jean-Michel Basquiat, BAST, Simon Birch, Bernard Buffet, Lita Cabellut, Marc Chagall, Sas Christian, Mauro Corda, Dinorah Delfin, Jean Dubuffet, Lori Earley, Ron English, Paul Insect, John John Jesse, Kid Zoom, Li Tianbing, Bengt Lindstrom, David Mach, Henri Matisse, Joan Miro, Phiippe Pasqua, Pablo Picasso, Gerard Rancinan, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Rostarr, Judith Supine, Alexandros Vasmoulakis, Tom Wesselman, Yan Pei Ming, Zhang Xiaogang.
Other Articles You May Like from BSA:
New Images from Brazil, The Gambia, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Rome We check in today with the ever evolving itinerary of the singularly nomadic Street Art urban naturalist named ROA. The well kn...
Jef Aerosol, the French master street stencilist for over 3 decades was in NYC this week. He took part in a couple of commercial events and to visit other Street Artists shows and events like Nick Wal...
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week! Nobody was out Friday night when we went to see "Stop Making Sense" on the screen; the streets of Manhattan and Brooklyn at 10 pm were rather lightly atten...
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities. Now screening : 1. Paulo Ito and a Neighborhood Mural in Brazil 2. Sesame Street X Hot Tea 3. Sten & Lex:...
From the wilds of Penang, where the psychotropic art duo Yok & Sheryo are living, comes this new print – which was also released as an animated NFT. “An ode to the beautiful tropical paradise lif...