Antonio Trecel Diaz is a New York based artist whose drawings depict images of death, violence and dismemberment. Diaz creates symbolic systems that screen the traumatic, renderings of figures slipping beyond recognition. In Diaz’s economy the body is always a body in distress, torn apart by malfunctioning tools, impossible longings, charts and representations. Drawing becomes the expression of loss, lack and failure that doubles itself through the malformed subject matter: humans and animals in states of ambiguity, amputated and dissected; forms manipulated by external forces: severed bodies, incomplete lines and marks that all end in the creation of something other. Drawing as desire, as a form of archaic magic where there are no ideals, figures or objects, only moments of immanent assemblages pieced together, pushing themselves towards the horizon of the visible. The content of Diaz’s work exist somewhere between its subject and the marking, the mark being foundational and the subject being secondary in that it is an armature which is quickly effaced and only surfaces as effacement. Disappearance takes on the quality of a residual build up on the surface of the paper, which always points towards the limits of representation, the limits of perception. This is the trace that is so essential to drawing: the shadow cast by communication.
Aaron Johnson
Aaron Johnson lives and works in Brooklyn, NY, and holds an MFA from Hunter College (2005). His work has been exhibited at institutions including the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, Peekskill NY; and The Knoxville Museum of Art, Tennessee; and at galleries such as Stux Gallery, NY; Priska C. Juschka Fine Art, NY; Maddox Art, London; and Mogadishni, Copenhagen. He has received reviews in numerous publications including the New York Times, Art News, Whitewall Magazine, Time Out London, Beautiful/Decay, and The Village Voice. His work is included in the permanent collections of the Frederick R. Weisman Foundation and the Museum of Modern Art.
“Works that are visceral, beautiful and flamboyantly timely, which is saying a lot” Roberta Smith, The New York Times
Judith Supine
Judith Supine lives in Brooklyn, NY. Supine could not speak until a month after his seventeenth birthday. He could not physically articulate words, he could only squeak and grunt. Supine often drew pictures to communicate with his family. His mom saved all of his pictures, just one of many reasons of why his mom is great. Judith Supine uses materials that are free or at least real cheap. He uses an exacto-knife, glue sticks, cheap ugly paints and real sleazy magazines that make him sexually uncomfortable. Judith Supine gets his magazines out of people’s trash, from the public library, from the dentist’s offices, from his little sister’s magazine collection, from bankrupt porn shops. His work has been exhibited in at the Leonard Street Gallery in London, he also took part in the 11 Spring Spring St. show, curated by Wooster Collective, ABC no Rio Gallery in NYC, and has been talked and blogged about in a profuse number of street art & culture publications such as: The Village Voice, Wooster Collective, Animal New York, Visualresistance, A Brooklyn Life, Art of the State Blog, Tiki Chris (Juxtapose Magazine), Feedmecoolshit, Sidewalkpressed, just to name a few.
Gino Perez
Gino Perez is a Los Angeles native with Mexican and Native American roots. From the time he was born he was surrounded by art. His mother is an artist and a seamstress. His father, an artist as well, spent much of Gino’s early life in jail and battling addiction. Growing up in Highland Park with four sisters and a brother, Gino countered his humble beginnings by immersing himself in his love for skateboarding. By age 17 he was traveling the world as a professional with such notables as Mark Gonzales. It was on his travels that Gino came into contact with the works of Picasso, Miro and Basquiat, whose pieces inspired him along with those of his own parents as he started drawing and painting. Ben Jones: Ben Jones (Pittsburgh, 1977) lives and works in Providence, Rhode Island. He holds a BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art. He was one of the founding members of the artist collective Paper Rad. Selected exhibitions and screenings include: Foxy Productions, New York (solo); Andreas Melas Presents, Athens (solo); Deitch Projects, New York; Peres Projects, Berlin; Pace Wildenstein, New York; CANADA, New York; Green on Red Gallery, Dublin; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; Tate Britain, London; Musee d’ Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris/ARC, Paris; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; The Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool.
Cleon Peterson
Cleon Peterson is an LA based artist whose chaotic and violent paintings show clashing figures symbolizing a struggle between power and submission in the fluctuating architecture of contemporary society. Cleon’s paintings are monochromatic while channeling at the same time the fashion sensibility of the early 80′s, complete with skinny ties and day glow colors. Cleon received his MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Detroit, MI and a BFA in Graphic Design at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Past exhibitions include: “Trailblazers”, Boutwell Draper Gallery, Sydney, Australia, “Park Life”, Subliminal Projects, Los Angeles, Art Basel 2007 and “Mail Order Monsters” at Deitch Projects New York, NY, “Those Damn Yanks”, The Leonard Street Gallery, London, UK. He has been featured in LA Record Magazine, Juxtapoz, and Eyes Cream (Japan).
Neck Face
First gaining notoriety for the quick wit and gallows humor his graffiti left on cities around the world, Neckface is now also known as much for his gallery shows as he is for his reclusive persona. His first solo show, “Witch Hunt,” was held at New Image Art in 2004, and a book of his work entitled “Satan’s Bride!!” has since been published. Neckface’s drawing style and humorous musings are now easily recognizable and familiar elements of the urban landscape. Carlo McCormick, art critic and curator, calls Neckface “The most prolific and idiosyncratic street artist working today.” Neckface has previously had solo shows at dpmhi (London), Monster Childeren, (Sydney), and was included in “The Bay Area Now” show at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco). He has also shown at The Luggage Store Gallery (San Francisco), just to name a few. Neck Face has also been featured in numerous global publications.
Ben Jones
(Pittsburgh, 1977) lives and works in Providence, Rhode Island. He holds a BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art. He was one of the founding members of the artist collective Paper Rad. Selected exhibitions and screenings include: Foxy Productions, New York (solo); Andreas Melas Presents, Athens (solo); Deitch Projects, New York; Peres Projects, Berlin; Pace Wildenstein, New York; CANADA, New York; Green on Red Gallery, Dublin; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; Tate Britain, London; Musee d’ Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris/ARC, Paris Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; The Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool.
Cat Cult collaboration with Corrina Martinez
Cat Cult is a collective of artists who are based in Los Angeles, California. Its participants create work both individually and under the singular identity of Cat Cult, displaying work in galleries as well as on the streets. Cat Cult embraces a variety of mediums, including printmaking, illustration, photography, painting, sewing, and graphic design. From trickster characters to divining spiritual guides, cats have been used throughout history to represent important figures within ancient fables and myths in cultures and societies across the globe. Cat Cult embraces these multidimensional identities that the cat embodies and plays upon these iconic ideas in playful and ironic ways throughout the urban environment.
: : In the Project Room : : “Horseradish” by Bäst
Bäst returns to New Image Art with a new series of Jockey inspired collages from his Brooklyn studio. Bäst has been an intricate part of the street art scene for the past 10 years throughout New York and Europe, where his wheat-pasted images feature prominently across the urban landscape.
Interestingly the artist has remained an elusive character that has rarely been seen in public and whose very existence has been debated. Little is known of his work outside of what the public sees throughout New York’s urban environment, but fortunately, more has become known as Bäst’s images have evolved to gallery-exhibition status in recent years.
