“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:
Bear with us, it’s a new installation by Bordallo II Bordalo II. Nancy, France. February 2020. (photo courtesy of Mathgoth Gallery) "This is the first time I've made a polar bear,” says Street ...
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week. Hope you had a good Thanksgiving and are hopeful for the upcoming holiday season. There are Canadians selling Christmas pines in the neighborhood already - ther...
Art Meets Agrarian Activism: Pøbel's Monumental Mural Marks Stavanger's Skyline Internationally acclaimed Norwegian street artist Pøbel, has masterfully utilized one of Stavanger's grandest canvas...
“One paste up per month for the public health,” is the theme for this program called Le Mur, now on their 84th piece. In our time of self-imposed quarantines, invariably we feel our liberties are bei...
Giulio Vesprini is all over the Italian basketball court, so to speak, covering 5 of these playgrounds this spring and summer. His canvas is huge, and he’s using it to experiment stylistically, all t...