Launch of The Sm;)e Book Campaign

About 10 years ago I started spotting a dope sticker on the streets of Brooklyn that featured a perfect mash up of the faces of Michael Jackson, the Unabomber & the Nirvana smiley logo. I don't remember exactly how, but I tracked down the creator, Rich Browd, and managed to get the sticker to feature it in the Stickers: Vol 2 book.
Rich and I became friends, and we actually tried to start a T-shirt line together. The timing was not right, so it never got off the ground. But as they say, timing is everything, and about 5 years ago we both started sharing images on instagram of smiley appropriations. Then 3 years ago, we officially decided to make a book on the subject, and The Sm;)e Book project was born. Fast forward to this week, the book is finished and we've launched our Kickstarter!
Very happy to say that working with him, ZachChristi & Tim to bring this somewhat obsessive project to fruition has been hard work but also great fun! The book itself is fantastic, and we're all so proud it.

Its so amazing that all these incredible artists were happy to be included! Alex Da Corte, Alfie Steiner, Alicia McCarthy, Aurel Schmidt, BANKSY, BÄST, Carlos Valencia, Chapman Brothers, Cody Hudson, Curtis Kulig, Eric Elms, Erik Foss, Greg Bogin, INVADER, James Joyce, Jeremy Deller, KATSU, Mark Flood, Misaki Kawai, Norman Cook, Paul Insect, Paul Weston, Rob Pruitt, Ron English, Sadie Benning, Sayre Gomez, Skullphone, Tyrell Winston, 1UP CREW & a load more!

You can order a copy ahead of general release for just $15 by clicking the link HERE

Norman Cook/Mark Vessey

All by Rich Browd except Warhol's Marylyn lips by Paul Weston.

Derek Gardener

Assorted photos

Rich Browd (L) / Paul Insect + BAST (R)

Misaki Kawai

Rich's sticker that connected us..

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James Hyde Paintings at the Boiler Space

While size might not matter is some instances, it certainly has a lot of power when used by James Hyde. Examples are these paintings, which are on view at the ELM Foundation, Pierogi Gallery's former Boiler Space, where he is Artist in Residence. These are the largest works I’ve ever had the pleasure of being up close & personal with. I’m not going to attempt to describe them, or how James talked about using Alessandro Magnasco’s 18th century works as his muse. If you’re able to go check them out, do it!

Address of The Boiler is 191 N 14th St, Brooklyn, NY 11249. For a viewing, James kindly says email jh@jameshyde.com or people can DM him though his IG @hyde.james

I left Zach in the some of the shots, just so one can see the incredible scale. 








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WAYNE WHITE Exhibition : N.53 Gallery, East Hampton 9/26/20

It's been fun & exciting to work with Josh Liner, and curate a full Wayne White show.
A little challenging to hang this monster of a salon style wall, but I’m proud of the finished result!
Also grateful to David Weiss for giving me this curator position. We have some pretty interesting plans for the future. Watch this space! ;)

The show is up till Oct 16th, so please check it out if in the area.


Thanks to the wonderful gallery manager/artist, Summer Mandile for my portrait.



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STORM KING ARTS CENTER : Sept 21st 2020

Its somewhat embarrassing that I’d lived in New York for 20 odd years before I’d even heard of Storm King, and then it took another 10 years before I actually made it there! And that only happened because my friend Zach offered to drive us there in his new motor. 

Even these photos do not do the place justice. I don’t like phrases such as breathtaking but that kind of nails it. 

We walked for over 3 hours, and while trying to gather the names to credit the works in the photos here, I'm realizing we probably saw less than 40% of the collection!

Menashe Kadishman

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FUN DOWNTOWN ART DAY : Sat Sept 19th 2020

Much as I enjoy Instagram, it’s so easy etc, I’m going to try to blog more regularly again. The visual presentation here is so much better. Yesterday was a full on art day, and a perfect example why these images need a bigger canvas. If possible look at this stuff on a computer, rather than a phone.

First Zach & I went to Perrotin on Orchard, simply because we’d heard that it was not by appointment. Their book/gift shop while being be very expensive seems to always have some printed thing I don’t know about. Sure enough, I found a book about records & art! (see below) At first I was freaked out thinking it was a new publication and was going to steel some thunder from the release of my own book, ART SLEEVES (now scheduled for March 2021) but it was published in 2010 & must have had really shitty distribution & promotion, since I never saw it even written about. 

Most thrilling was the discovery on the 3rd floor of the 3 brand new Barry McGee paintings (not publicized on the site).

Also discovering some interesting artists, African American, Leslie Hewitt, Korean, GaHee Park & French born, Bushwick based artist Jean-Philippe Delhomme.

From there we went to the 2 KARMA galleries on 2nd St, in the hope of seeing the group show “(Nothing but) Flowers“, of course that had ended, but there was a solo show by Henni Alftan. Strange but engaging. A lot of the works seemed to be about the feel of things, fur, rain, hair etc. Then on to visit Matt at KARMA’s incredible book shop. I was lucky to get out of there without spending more than $100!

Then Erik Foss suggested meeting him at Leo Fitzpatrick’s not-yet-opened, not officially named “Public Access Gallery”. With a wall full of hand screened Mark Gonzales skate decks & a couple of Gonz drawings, the place has a nice chill vibe. Very interesting hearing Leo talk about what he hopes to do with the St Marks space & what it will mean for East Village & LES kids. We then headed to Deitch for the opening of a big group show but it was closed up by the time we got there.

Barry McGee

Klara Kristalova


Leslie Hewitt

GaHee Park 

Jean-Philippe Delhomme

Henni Alftan

Leo Fitzpatrick / Mark Gonzales


THE RECORD : Contemporary ART and VINYL book





MUSIC EPHEMERA STASH FOUND.

Hard to believe but when I was young, I was even more of a nerd than I am in my old age. I started collecting music ephemera as soon as I started going to shows. I recently discovered a stash of concert programs (booklets) ranging from the hippie era to the punk & new wave  80s. The strange and remarkable thing to me, is how much damage I inflicted on myself (and others around me) and yet these artifacts survived, in almost perfect condition! 





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ONLY TOOK 16 YEARS BUT FINALLY MADE IT TO THE DIA BEACON.

There's no way to show the grandeur of the place on Instagram, and even the photos here pale, but it's better than nothing!

Hard to say which artist's areas Wini and I enjoyed the most, Dan Flaven, Richard Serra, Donald Judd, Robert Smithson, Barry Le Va, Louise Bourgeois, Mel Bochner, Michael Heizer or Andy Warhol. Only really disappointing thing for me, was that most of Lawrence Weiner's work was closed to viewing.

I love the roll gate to get Serra's work into the building.


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