Open Reception for the General Public
Join us Friday March 22, 2013  6pm to 10pm
131 Christie Street
NYC

Artists Include:  Paul Brainard, Kate Clark, Lori Field, Aaron Johnson, Melora Kuhn, Hayley McCulloch, Dennis McNett, Pop Mortem, Lucia Pedi, Mac Premo, Graham Preston, Christy Rupp, Julia Samuels, Tom Sanford, Sigrid Sarda and Madeline Von Foerster.
Curated by Keith Schweitzer & Jason Patrick Voegele

Open to the public from March 21st through May 1st, 2013, Republic Worldwide deconstructs and reimagines the traditional Wunderkammer. With works by over a dozen New York based contemporary artists this exhibition is guaranteed to stoke your sense of wonder and odd delight.

The Wunderkammer, or “Cabinet of Curiosities,” evokes the encyclopedic wonder and spirit of discovery that was once the glory of the European enlightenment. Historically, room sized displays of exotic oddities and artifacts were unceremoniously presented in salon style to fascinated general audiences who were hungry for natural science, culture and entertainment at the dawn of the age of reason. Often described as a turned out junk drawer of the sublime, the traditional Wunderkammer resonates with the fundamental elements of what would one day become the world of contemporary art .

“Die Wunderkammer; Objects of Virtue” celebrates our inherent fascination with the foreign and strange through an exhibition of paintings, sculpture, drawings, mixed-media assemblage, woodblock printmaking, multimedia works and interactive participatory installation. A series of performances, artist salons and additive artwork installations are scheduled throughout the run of the exhibition.

Sponsored by Hendrick’s Gin, Fig. 19 and RIOT Development.
For more information please visit www.thelodgegallery.com, write to jason@republicworldwide.com or call 917. 478. 7513

Mike Reynolds' portrait of me, discovered on facebook

I likely spend too much time checking my facebook. Perhaps this is because my actual social life is pretty much on hold while we child rear. Facebook allows me to check up on what I am missing. It turns out an awful lot of my facebook peers also seem to be in the same situation judging by the volume of baby pictures that are coming down my news feed. But there is also a lot of art being made, and some of it looks pretty damn good.

Earlier this year, very shortly after my second little one was born, I discovered a painting of me on facebook. Naturally I loved the painting. I immediately responded to the brilliant choice of subject matter. I also love the illusion to Otto Dix, one of my absolute all time favorite painters. Perhaps the artist knew I reference the great German expressionist frequently in my own work and secretly hope people see my grand project as an heir to Dix’s nuanced critique of the Wiemar era bourgeois? Anyway, I loved the painting.

Mike Reynolds, an LA based painter, and I are friends on facebook but have not met in actuality. It turns out that Mike has an on going project in which he paints people who come up frequently on his facebook news feed. At the end of last year I was posting a lot of drawings from my 100 Little Deaths project and I must have been cluttering up Mike’s news feed. Luckily for me I caught the facebook portraitist’s attention. I looked into Mike’s work and found we have a fair amount in common art-wise. While I spent my early 20s painting Tupac Shakur, Mike seems to have devoted his early years to Justin Bieber.  He also does other neat socially oriented projects that engage his painting community. Each week Mike takes a fellow painter out to dinner, soliciting his dates online. I loved the generosity of Mike’s work and I simply had to own his painting of me.

 

I contacted Mike via facebook and told him how much I love the painting. I suggested that I paint a portrait of Mike and we trade paintings. Mike dug the idea and I got to work.

Tea Party Rally (2010-2011)

March 8 – April 26, 2013

Artists: Toru Ishii, Don Porcella, and Tom Sanford
Curated by ISE Cultural Foundation

Opening Reception: Friday, March 8, 2013, 6-8 PM
Artist Talk: Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 6-8 PM

ISE Cultural Foundation is pleased to present a three-person exhibition, “Weird World” featuring Toru Ishii, Don Porcella and Tom Sanford.

Mass consumer society manipulated by global economic strategy of the corporation, quick access to news and celebrity’s scandals by social media, the world we are living in is speedy, irrational, highly provocative and weird. In this exhibition, we invite three artists who cut through the wonder of contemporary society keenly with their art, and express discernment calmly or sometimes comically.

Using the century old Japanese traditional craft technique of Yuzen Dyeing, Tokyo based artist, Toru Ishii expresses highly competitive, materialistic and stressful capitalist society of today with keen sense of humor. Influenced by Japanese masters such as Hokusai and Kuniyoshi, Ishii’s work has dynamic composition and stylized elegance, at the same time, it captures people who are unconsciously restrained as a group and controlled by the busy corporate world.

Don Porcella states; “I am constantly engaged in creating a weird world. ” By producing his charmingly colorful hand-made works from materials such as woven pipe cleaners, Porcella seeks to transform these lowbrow craft supplies into a high art context, while laughing at the human condition and presenting a unique world that is shamelessly awkward and unabashedly comical. At this exhibition Porcella emphasizes his vision of celebrating nature and human absurdity.

New York based artist, Tom Sanford has been working on “History” paintings, which describe the very moment of our time. Inspired by wide range of today’s news, from Tea Party Rally to Celebrity’s gossip, Sanford edits the sources freely and creates hilarious epics in monumental scale. With his rich knowledge of art history of history paintings, Sanford refers both Italian Renaissance masters and contemporary street art in order to produce strong pictorial images that we all could recognize easily.

Supported by YOSHINO GYPSUM ART FOUNDATION

BravinLee Programs 526 W 26th street, #211.

Departures (Last Call), in progress detail Tom Sanford 2012. oil/wood

BravinLee programs is very pleased to present 100 Little Deaths by Tom Sanford, opening New Year’s Eve, 6-9pm.

Tom Sanford set out to draw one hundred notable individuals who passed away in 2012 with the idea of “Petite Morte” in mind. Translated literally, this means “little death” but it is often used colloquially to mean orgasm. It is a beautifully romantic notion, that with each orgasm a little part of one’s self dies and is gone forever; each person held particular interest for Sanford. 100 Little Deaths will open on New Year’s Eve.

In our post-Warholian culture, we celebrate the lives of the famous with a brief ecstatic excitement, a metaphorical cultural media orgasm. We read obituaries and articles about them, post on Facebook and Twitter, listen to their songs on the radio, watch TV specials and YouTube videos about their lives and accomplishments. Inevitably, however, the excitement fades and with each of these deaths, we have lost something forever.

Sanford, was able to meditate on each individual, as he drew, remembering their unique contributions, and according to Sanford, “As the drawings of those who passed away in 2012 accumulated, I realized that to see them all together would be very powerful. Installed together I hope that my 100 Little Deaths shows the immensity of what we lose every year. The wall of drawings becomes a mausoleum for 2012.” Among the portraits represented are political figures; music legends; cultural icons of our youth such as Davy Jones and Donna Summer; noteworthy artists, Thomas Kinkade, Franz West, and Will Barnet; publishers; religious leaders; comediennes; and news worthy individuals such as Rodney King and Joe Paterno. The list goes on.

In wishing to bring levity to a very serious and somewhat somber project, Sanford embarked on his most ambitiously scaled painting, measuring 8 feet by 16 feet. Sanford states “The painting is of an airport departures cocktail lounge where each of the 100 Little Deaths are depicted gathering for a last drink before they board flights to oblivion. I executed this painting in a more cartoonish manner and is intended to be a Mad Magazine meets Jorg Immendorff style purgatory scene of the dead before they depart, finally and forever.”

To further lionize the departed, Sanford invited other artists to make small works of one of the individuals for BravinLee’s project room. The artists include: Graham Preston, Jessica Ellis, Shay Kun, Rudy Shepherd, Les Rogers, Jonathan Allen, Dan Heidkamp, Kelli Williams, Joe Heaps Nelson, Noah Becker, Eric White, Nic Rad, Daniel Davidson, Taylor McKimens, Kristen Schiele, Ryan Schneider, Aaron Johnson, Michael Hilsman, Sydney Chastain-Chapman, Michael Scoggins, Robin Willimas, Josh Jordan, Ridley Howard, Holly Coulis, Natalie Frank, Paul Brainard, Jeremy Willis, Jeff Beebe, Michael Anderson, Guy Richards Smit, Michael Bevilacqua, Francesca Neiman, Alfred Steiner, Eric Doeringer, Peter Daverington, Thomas Broadbent, Dawn Frasch, Nina Chanel Abney, Kevin Klein, Erin McNalley and Aaron Zimmerman.

Tom Sanford lives and works in New York and has exhibited internationally. He has enjoyed solo shows at Leo Koenig Gallery in New York, Galleri Farschou in Copenhagen, Galleri Poulson in Copenhagen, and Gallery Zidoun in Luxembourg, and group shows at ACME in Los Angeles and Freight and Volume in New York, among many others. He recently completed a temporary public art project that was curated by Keith Schweitzer, ArtUp, FABnyc, and installed on scaffolding on the Lower East Side in New York.

For more information please contact BravinLee programs at 212.462.4404 or email us at info@bravinlee.com

SEVEN

December 4 – 9th, 2012
2200 NW 2nd Ave. Miami, FL 33127

Here is my painting “Portrait of Neil Armstrong” (2012) oil on wood, 24inches x 24inches.

ABOUT FACE
November 17th – December 22nd

ACME. is pleased to announce “About Face,” a group exhibition of small works on paper and paintings by over thirty-five artists curated by Los Angeles art dealer Daniel Weinberg. Approximately fifty pieces will be shown throughout ACME.’s three gallery spaces.

The exhibition showcases eccentric, small-scale portraiture that distorts classic presentations of the human face and/or figure. As a group show with roots in Surrealism and German Expressionism, the exhibition reflects the influences of individual artists such as Lucas Samaras’ Polaroids and Alice Neel portraits. The effects of the current Digital Age are also expressed in several works.

Artists include Richard Artschwager, Lutz Braun, Cris Brodahl, Kristin Calabrese, Brian Calvin, Anh Duong, André Ethier, Asad Faulwell, Llyn Foulkes, Steve Gianakos, Alexander Gorlizki, Scott Grodesky, Mary Addison Hackett, EJ Hauser, Kati Heck, Jonathan Herder, Becky Kolsrud, Robert Lostutter, Ashley Macomber, Josh Mannis, Eddie Martinez, David McGee, Damien Meade, John Mills, Malcolm Morley, Ryan Mrozowski, Loren Munk, Jim Nutt, Robyn O’Neil, Ed Paschke, Joshua Petker, Jerry Phillips, Stephanie Pryor, Helen Rae, Tom Sanford, Amy Sarkisian, Allison Schulnik, James Siena, Neal Tait, Michael Tetherow, Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, John Wesley, Karl Wirsum, and Tad Lauritzen Wright.

Saints of the Lower East Side

June 5, 2012 – September 5, 2012

Works by Tom Sanford Curated by Keith Schweitzer & Presented by FABnyc Exhibition Location ArtUp Scaffolding Bridge, 70 East 4^th Street Cultural Center Between Bowery and 2^nd Avenue Artist Reception Tuesday, June 26 / 6:00-8:00PM @ FAB Café, 75 East 4^th Street

The Saints of the Lower East Side by Tom Sanford

NEW YORK – Fourth Arts Block (FABnyc) presents “Saints of the Lower East Side” by artist Tom Sanford, the latest in a series of exhibitions produced through FABnyc’s ArtUp public art program. The outdoor exhibition features seven painted portraits mounted 14 feet above street level on a scaffolding bridge at the 70 East 4^th Street Cultural Center. ArtUp is generously supported by the 70 East 4th Street Cultural Center, future home of Downtown Art and Alpha Omega Theatrical Dance Company. Project management services for this exhibition have been provided by Republic Worldwide.

This exhibition is Tom Sanford’s first outdoor public art project. The array of large gilded paintings are intended as an homage to the cultural icons who lived and worked on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. In the artist words, “These seven artists, along with many hundreds more, made the Lower East Side the crucible of the American avant-garde and a neighborhood that captivates my imagination as a New York artist.”

Tom Sanford is a Harlem-based artist whose work has been exhibited all around the world. His paintings, which range from historical works depicting celebrity assassinations to portraits of cultural icons such gangsta rappers and Mao Zedong to elaborate cosmologies weaved together from Hollywood movies, reflect a deep ambivalence about the American cultural condition. He is currently preparing for an exhibition of drawings that will open this New Years Eve at BravinLee Programs in the Chelsea district of New York City.

A reception for the artist will be held on June 26^th, 2012 at 6pm at FAB Café. An indoor installation of artwork by Graham Preston, who worked closely with Sanford on the scaffolding bridge exhibition, will be presented inside of FAB Café during the reception. Both exhibitions will remain on view through September 5^th, 2012. The indoor exhibition, entitled “Our Ladies of Grandeur”, consists of a series of paintings honoring the exploits, undertakings and legends of lost cultural heroines from the historical Five Points.

This exhibit is the latest in a series of temporary art installations in atypical locations in the Lower East Side through FABnyc’s ArtUp program, which is produced in collaboration with MaNY Project and directed by Keith Schweitzer. Through ArtUp, FABnyc seeks to reinvigorate underutilized spaces through public art and community partnerships. The exhibit is funded, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

FABnyc was founded in 2001 as the nonprofit leadership organization for the East 4th Street Cultural District, a historic and vibrant arts corridor in Manhattan between 2nd Avenue and Bowery. Now a neighborhood-wide coalition of arts and community groups, FABnyc drives community and economic development, while also preserving the Lower East Side’s rich heritage and creative energy.

MaNY Project produces outdoor murals and public art exhibitions to enhance NYC’s visual landscape through community engaging work.

I will write more about the project in a later post, but in brief I made large gilded icon paintings of a few of the cultural icons who lived and worked on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. These seven artists, along with many hundreds more, made the Lower East Side the crucible of the American avant-garde and a neighborhood that captivates my imagination as a New York artist.

I chose to pay homage to Martin Wong, Joey Ramone, Miguel Piñero, Ellen Stewart, Charlie Parker, Arthur Fellig and Allen Ginsberg. Of course I could have come up with hundreds of other equally influential and prominent figures who have haunted the streets of the LES, but these are my seven.

The Saints of the Lower East Side is installed between the Ellen Stewart Theater and the offices of La Mama etc. on East 4th Street (between Bowery & 2nd Ave). It will be there until September 5th or so, so please stop by and pay your respect to some of the saints of our American cultural heritage. While you are there please feel free to ping me, it always feels good to know that friends are communing with my saints.

In the meantime I will be trying to find a more permanent resting place for the saints, hopefully in a public or semi-public place on the Lower East Side, so if you have any ideas feel free to pass them along.

Below are a few photos from yesterday’s installation of the piece. Many thanks to Keith Schweitzer and Jason Patrick Voegele for all of there help yesterday with the install and again to Keith and everyone at Fourth Arts Block for helping out with this, and a million thank yous to the great Graham Preston for his collaboration and help actually making these paintings. Also thanks to Carlo McCormick for providing the inspiration and Aaron Zimmerman and everyone at PPOW for help with great photos of Martin & Miguel. Cheers!