Below are some photos from the Jesse Edwards “Dialogue Of The Streets” opening at Klughaus Gallery on Friday the 13th (1/13/2012.) Thanks to everyone who trooped it out to the Lower “Far East” Side in Chinatown on such a cold night. It was a great turn out and the gallery was packed through out the evening with wonderful people and amazing art by Jesse! A special thanks to Bomb Lager for sponsoring us with refreshments (that people thought were energy drinks at first, but were very happy when they realized it was beer!)
Jesse Edwards talking about his ceramic pieces to Judy Rifka. Most of the ceramic pieces were sold within the first hour of the show!
via: freshpaintnyc
For each of the pieces in this show, we created mobile optimized web pages that could be accessed by scanning different QR codes next to the pieces. The web pages contained the description of the particular piece in Jesse’s words along with some additional photos of the work in progress. If you know Jesse, you know that he can definitely talk “art” for a long time! His stories and reasons behind painting his pieces were really interesting, so we wanted to share the insight rather than just displaying the work itself. At the opening, the tech-savvy people familiar with the QR codes started scanning away. There are a number of free QR reader apps for Blackberry, iPhone, and Android that we suggest you download if you are coming to check out the show!
via: freshpaintnyc
For those who do not have a fancy phone, we added some sample excerpts from the QR code scans below the paintings in this post. If you want to read the rest, come by the show! Free WiFi is also available at the gallery.
“I used to frequent the casinos with my friend LEWY. Over the course of six months, I lost my entire life savings. At many casinos, at the reception desk upon leaving, they have a basket of used playing cards and candy. I arranged a house of cards from one of these packs to paint. I guess this is making the best of the situation. The dice rolled are turned to the number six and six is a good number to play when playing dice. I would consider this is a good luck piece.”
“This painting depicts somewhat taboo objects painted in the color orange. While I was attending art school, the colorist Charles Emerson was an instructor of mine who I respected. He told me that the color orange was bad. As a result, I tried to use as many “bad” things in the color orange to make a “bad” painting. On the table, you can see a pill jar tipped over with some mysterious white powder laid out with a razor that says “Happy Days.” The artist John Currin would frequently switch up his manner in painting to have a painting with various different treatments of different parts with his brush to create a more complex image. I tried to do this with the pixelating technique to the oranges. You can also see how this is somewhat of a transitional piece between my styles that I use to portray objects and people.”
“The Jesus painting was inspired by all of my dark paintings that I have created. I thought it would be nice to do something a little more uplifting that represents something that is positive and redeeming. I also find contemporary religious artwork quite rare and thought it would be interesting to do something modern of such an old school concept.”
“The Tompkins Square painting was one of six in a series I did when i was is staying at 10th and A Street in the East Village. The New York Times did a brief article about the try outs for the work of art show on the Bravo network. I was featured at the end of the article and my photograph was taken and this was the painting in that image.”
“This is an oil painting I did from a photograph of six African American lesbian women engaging in group sex. For the original composition, I rendered the orgy in a traditional style. But upon having the image around and having to spend time with it, I found it to be just a little too offensive. Around this time, I began to experiment with my pixelated images in oil painting. So, I thought I might make it into something a little more visually pleasing to myself by pixelating the image. I ended up “censoring” it to its current state.”
CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING (PART 2) >>
Upcoming: Jesse Edwards will be contributing to a new exhibit, “Universe of Desire” at the Museum of Sex in New York City. The show runs from February 9th through November 4, 2012.
Links to other reviews of the Dialogue of the Streets show:
12ozProphet – “Recap: Jesse Edwards “Dialogue of the Streets” at Klughaus Gallery”
Fresh Paint NYC – “RECAP: JESSE EDWARDS: DIALOGUE OF THE STREETS”
Rad Collector – “Dialogue of the Streets”
Supply and Demand – “Jesse Edwards “Dialogue of the Streets”
Jesse Edwards “Dialogue of the Streets” will be on display through February 12, 2012.
Gallery Hours:
Thurs. & Fri. 1-7pm
Sat. & Sun. 12-6pm
*Viewing appointments available any other time.
Klughaus Gallery
47 Monroe Street
New York, NY 10002
info@klughaus.net
646-801-6024
Transportation:
F to East Broadway
M15/M15 Select to Madison St. x Catherine St.
