Be.BIKE Presents: "The
Shift Exhibition"
In association with Dream So Much
It is widely believed that a bike messenger, TAKI 183, was
the founder of the modern graffiti movement. To this day, bicycles and
contemporary street art-encompassing everything from graffiti tags and
throws to vinyl stickers and wheatpaste posters-go hand-in-hand as two
primary signifiers of the modern city. One a mode of transportation,
the other a trace of everyday urban existence. Both delineate mobility
and the movement and ephemeral energy of the urban environment. Just as
bikes are all-terrain, so is graffiti art, finding its way into the
highest reaches and shadowed alleys of the city landscape.
Shift is an exhibition of eight custom-designed
Be.BIKE bicycles by eight highly-acclaimed graffiti-influenced artists:
FUTURA, HAZE, KAWS, KENJI HIRATA, MATZU MTP, MISK, SKWERM, and STASH.
Each bike has been altered completely to represent the artist's vision.
Shift brings together a representation of the
historical expanse of street art, from the 1970s to the present. It
investigates the blurred boundaries of art and the quotidian sublime
within design and urban life. Production of each artist's edition is
limited to 100 units. The exhibition will be accompanied by a video
installation by REID VAN RENESSE.
The exhibition is located at the Supreme Trading NY Gallery
at 213 N. 8th St. in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Opening party is December
9, 2004, from 7 pm to 9 pm. All the artists are expected to attend, as
Haze and Misk are being flown from California just for the event. The
Shift Exhibition will run through December 23, 2004. It is being
sponsored by Be.BIKE, Scion, Altoids, amNew York, and Freshnessmag.com.
About the Artists FUTURA can be considered nothing less than the
godfather of the modern street art movement. He began writing graffiti
in the 1970s and quickly moved into the gallery with solo exhibitions
at Tony Shafrazi and Fun Gallery. In the '90s, his work as a designer
for London's Mo'Wax record label propelled him to a career in product
and clothing design. In 2000, Futura joined forces with Stash ( see bio
below) to open three Recon boutiques (New York, San Francisco, Tokyo)
and startup the Project Dragon clothing line. He is the single most
influential street artist of his time. Urban-influenced art and design
begins and ends with Futura.
HAZE began writing graffiti in 1972, tagging subway
trains at the dawn of New York City¹s graffiti movement. Since
starting his own design studio in NYC in the Œ80s, he has devoted
himself over the last three decades to creative works ranging from
graphic art, painting and product design. He has created album covers
for the Beastie Boys and LL Cool J., his own clothing line, and limited
edition products for clients including Honda Motorcycle, Nike, and
Casio G-Shock. Even more amazing is the fact that over 20 years after
Haze became a graffiti legend in New York, he has now reached a
worldwide audience, and his fame and popularity continues to grow on an
international level. For more info, see
KENJI HIRATA was one of only four artists recently
selected by Absolut vodka to design its Raspberri ad campaign. Kenji
combines traditional Japanese and South East Asian iconography and
Buddhist themes with the color and energy of science fiction and
graffiti. His message is one of optimism, and he believes that
creativity is especially important in times of overwhelming strife. In
addition to his solo work, Kenji is a member of the legendary
Barnstormers collective.
KAWS Bio unavailable.
MATZUMTP has seen his career take off in 2004. Just
three years removed from Japan, the young artist has had solo
exhibitions at The Reed Space and Levi's Gallery, both in New York
City. He has also participated in the dream so much 2 and Street Wise 3
group shows. MatzuMTP applies Japanese techniques and sensibility to
his paintings. This includes his use of Japanese calligraphy brush
strokes and a traditional Japanese color palette and application of
negative space. Together, the three elements evoke a tension and sense
of melancholy, but one that is not entirely without hope.
MISK began experimenting with three-dimensional
graffiti writing about five years ago. Already known for his vibrant
wildstyle works-revealing influences from Skrew, Crayone, and Neon-he
added light drop shadows and shading to the letters to create what he
now calls Surreal Typography. MISK's incredible works flirt around the
logic of dimension. "The perspectives are so tweaked," he says about
the style, "that creating them as sculptures would be really tricky
without jeopardizing the design." MISK has exhibited at the MoMA in San
Francisco, and his designs have appeared on products by Infinity
Snowboards, Levi's Silvertab, Nike/Foot Locker, and Xbox.
DAVID ELLIS has exhibited throughout the United
States, Europe and Asia. He works in Film/Video, Public Work, Painting,
Sculpture and Music. In addition to creating his own singular work,
Ellis is founder of the talented collaborative "Barnstormers". He is
currently an artist in resident at Dumbo's Smack Mellon in New York.
Ellis's work has been reviewed in Art Asia Pacific, Art Forum,
Flash Art, NY Times, The Fader, Mass Appeal, Tokion Magazine, Creative
Review, and Res magazine. In 2004 Ellis exhibited at Lump
gallery and SECCA in North Carolina, Urbis Museum, Manchester, and The
Contemporary Museum, Hawaii. His "Paint on Trucks" video projection ran
for 6 months at the Museum of Modern Art. David Ellis currently lives
and works in Brooklyn, New York.
STASH first exhibited his works on canvas in 1982 at
New York City's Fun Gallery-a mere three years after he tagged his
first wall. From 1980 to 1987, Stash established himself as one of the
great graffiti writers of the period and was featured in the classic
graffiti book "Spray Can Art". In 1987, he quit subway writing to focus
on fine art and design. With Futura, Stash founded the Project Dragon
label (1997), opened Recon, and held solo and group shows all over the
world, including Deitch Projects (NYC), Rocket Gallery (Tokyo), and
most recently at Elms Lester Gallery (London). His art is a collective
homage to the spray can movement, and his name is synonymous with the
expansion of graffiti art into the modern urban consciousness through
fine art, clothing design, and entrepreneurship.
REID VAN RENESSE is the director of "Dithers", a
documentary on contemporary artists and designers. There are four
themes that remain a constant throughout Reid's life: Music, Motion,
Art, and Adventure. The majority of his teen years were occupied with
skateboarding, graffiti, NY hardcore and hip hop. After graduating from
SUNY Purchase with a BFA, Reid worked a number of different jobs in
NYC, such as bike messenger, screen printer, DJ, and later as a
wilderness guide for troubled teens in the high deserts of Southern
Utah and northern New Hampshire. It was during these years that Reid
concentrated more on photography, eventually inspiring him to combine
his visual captures with his love of music and motion. Reid later
worked as a videographer, and eventually a producer, for an outdoor
adventure-sports television channel in Lake Tahoe, CA. He lives in
Brooklyn, working as a freelance producer, shooting and editing various
commercial and independent projects.
About Dream So Much
"Dream so much is the pretty name of a New York-based
artists' collective dedicated to helping emerging urban talent gain
exposure. Its founding members are Richard S. Chang and Alexandra
Chang, a bright young brother-and-sister team; he is a writer, she a
filmmaker." - Holland Cotter, The New York Times, Dec. 26, 2003.
RICHARD CHANG has written both fiction and
non-fiction piece for publications, including The New York Times,
Columbia: Journal of Literature and Art, The Tulane Review, and
AutoWeek. He has previously written on graffiti art and street culture.
ALEXANDRA CHANG is a filmmaker and the features
editor at amNew York. She has written articles for Art Asia Pacific and
catalogue essays and will be curating the exhibition "Breaking the 4th
Wall: Hors Cadrage" at Ise Foundation in February 2005. Her documentary
film, "The Indelible Line: Asian American Art" will be finished in
2005.
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DREAM SO MUCH 2 ARTISTS BOOKS
NOW AVAILABLE
32 Pages; Full Color; Glossy;
Dimensions: 9 in. x 9 in.
Art by Dalek, Misk, MatzuMTP, and Kenji Hirata
Forward by Franklin Sirmans
Essays by Co-curators Richard S. Chang & Alexandra Chang. Limited
Edition of 1,000.
