Creative Slump No More

Appropriating an image from the opening lines of Dante’s Inferno as visual and thematic source material for the exhibit, the artists in Among Darkened Woods present works that seek to represent the derivative potential of darkness, to probe the obscure, to lend plasticity to shadows and other forms evanescent, to perceive presences and apparitions in that which seems to have disappeared.

While Dante’s infernal quest leads him from the selva oscura of life’s proper path gone astray, as it were, to visions of the most profound reaches of physical suffering, punishment and ceaseless decay, the works here suggest an earlier stopping point, a less hellish locus, a place perhaps only subtly subterranean where forms have not yet dropped into the abyss of a falling apart, evoking instead the ordered calm of a falling away.

Featuring paintings, drawings, sculptures and mixed-media works by Tim Kent, SHM Kim, Adam Collison, Amanda Nedham, Mary Kate Maher, Monika Zarzeczna and Paul D’Agostino, and featuring an essay accompaniment by Paul D’Agostino.

Opening Reception May 14th, 7-10pm

This May, Factory Fresh goes wild as it opens its doors to the zoetic art of Belgium-born artist ROA. The artist’s organic animal forms, huge in both their reputation and impact, will grace the walls of the gallery this May, reminding spectators of the forgotten natural world beneath the city’s streets.

Through his large-scale installations of very wild wild-life on the industrial canvas of the city, ROA produces a juxtaposition of the overtly natural against the mechanic that is both feral and nostalgic, a reminiscence of what the world used to be before cement and concrete. ROA is famous for his large black and white works that depict both the outer and inner appearance of rodents, bulls, roaches et al, who slumber on garage doors and cement blocks, copulate in abandoned alleyways and decay on brick walls. His work is sprawling and uncontainable, and will be filling Factory Fresh as such, barely pinned down to found materials, clustering in our corners and escaping out into our surrounding streets.

ROA began pulling animals out of the depths of the industrial world in his hometown of Ghent, Belgium, where he explored the area around his home and was inspired by the life that lurked in its lonely smokestacks. His resulting work snarls at you from wherever it prowls, awaking a visceral reaction that comes from seeing something familiar yet unknown, an uncanny portrayal of the animals within and around ourselves that our contemporary lifestyles have made null.

Since his Belgium beginnings, ROA’s work has hit the ground running like the animals he depicts, scattering on four legs all over major cities, showing up on the walls of galleries and abandoned factories alike. His work has been shown in London, Berlin, Warsaw, and sold out in two days in Paris. He now returns to New York, arriving at a very different kind of factory than the industrial wastelands his animals are known to inhabit, ROA’s show at Factory Fresh promises to be untamed and animated as his pieces.

On view till May 30th.

Press release by Margaret Boykin.

Show opens Friday, March 5th from 8pm-11pm
This March, Factory Fresh welcomes heliumcowboy artspace of Hamburg, Germany as we partner to presents the art of Boris Hoppek & Alex Diamond. Our two galleries will bring together German Artist Boris Hoppek & transient Alex Diamond’s work as they have received increasing international popularity in recent years. These artists have exhibited in solo and group shows in museums, galleries, festivals and art fairs in Europe as well as in the US. In a joint effort the artist will show new works on paper and Boris has promised an up the skirt installation.

Boris Hoppek, has been an acclaimed name in the Graffiti-world since the late eighties, more recently he has become an outstanding talent within the contemporary art scene. By thematizing sexuality, violence, racism and oppression in a very clean and accurate style, the artist isolates provocative themes for contemplation. Since 2004, the heliumcowboy artspace has exhibited his works in three solo shows and on diverse art fairs. In Basel and Miami 2007, Hoppek set up huge interactive cardboard installations at SCOPE, and today he is one of the most prominent European artists coming from a background in Street Art/Graffiti. For SCOPE Basel 2008, Hoppek was invited to convert the water taxis commuting across the Rhine into floating artworks, bringing his narrative potential away from the constrictions of a traditional booth scenario onto the water.

Alex Diamond is unseizable as a person and difficult to categorize as an artist, he is more fantasy than reality. His main issue always centres around his work and its presentation, but never around the personality of an individual. Alex Diamond appears always as a new and different creation of a role or character with every one of his shows. Not limited by a CV, a formative education or even a dedicated technique or style, Alex Diamond constantly develops a new specific presence for the “Artist behind the work“. Alex Diamond is an artist who apparently lives solely through the art he creates – and vice versa. He plays mind tricks with visual aids, pleasing at one moment, disturbing in the next. Independent from styles and techniques, he mirrors life and our constant fight for possession, superiority, survival and love in an almost nonchalant way. Having focused on his project Being Alex Diamond for the last year and a half (and of which also a catalogue has been published lately), the artist will now present a whole new body of drawings at Factory Fresh.
Runs till April 11, 2010

Show Opens Thursday, December 10, 7-10pm
Show Runs till January 10, 2010.

This December, Factory Fresh pulls out all the stops as we welcome The London Police and Galo as they return to New York to celebrate more than a decade in the game. Known for their iconic characters collectively these artist work have respectively graced streets and galleries in 35 countries and have been feature in numerous publications throughout the globe. The artists will be showcasing new canvas, featured films of the artist and installation works created site specifically for Factory Fresh.

This year has seen the return of Bob Gibson to The London Police after five years of touring with the band ‘MOSS’ and flipping burgers in a filthy Dutch snackbar. And so the original founding members are re-embarking on their quest to combine making artwork and travelling the globe to better themselves and spread artistic love through the world. The blueprint for this year was to produce solid back-to-basics black and white artworks collaborating the iconic LADS characters drawn by Chaz with the tight architectural and illustrative landscapes of Bob Gibson. To celebrate 10 years in the field TLP had shows in London (Stolen Space, April 2009), Amsterdam (Go Gallery, May 2009), and Los Angeles (Carmichael Gallery, Sept 2009) with their final show at New York’s Factory Fresh.

Italian stallion, Galo, packs a punch when it comes to covering things in paint – he has painted almost every surface imaginable to man or beast. His work has appeared on three continents, in galleries, museums, cafes and nightclubs, on walls and off. Life for Galo is just one big moving canvas. Welcome to the Galoverse…

In addition to the newly painted works created specifically for this show by each artist , The London Police and Galo will create a collaborative site specific installation for Factory Fresh. Despite the possible cold weather, plans are set for painting a large scale mural in the courtyard of Factory Fresh.

This November, Factory Fresh brings together four elusive artists who each work seamlessly in between the worlds of graffiti and streetart. These two art forms look identical to the untrained eye but in actuality are more like brawling brothers to those who are part of the movement. Artists Armer, Darkcloud, Goreb and Deeker are a few exceptions. Each of their work ranges on the street one day a large scale mural, another day carefully placed signs or paintings, sometimes even a junk sculpture is installed onto a crowded street. As a result these artists cannot be dismissed by any group of urban artists and have been validated by their acceptance from multiple ranges of critcs.

The Darkcloud image has been a constant staple in the urban art scene since 2003 and can be seen all over the east and west coast. Darkcloud is attributed with having more hand painted stickers up than anyone on the scene today. The meaning being unclear for most, it stems from the concept that angst is always following us. A visual representation of the darkness in our lives we are unable to escape. Darkcloud will be showing a mix of paintings on glass, metal, wood, and more. Also, prints may be available for the first time in his artist career.

Deeker is a rogue, pessimistic bastard who comes out and paints when the weather is at it’s worst. This bottom feeder lurks around the other three, drops hints of doomsday, tells tales of perpetual unemployment and generally depresses everyone. His work will consist of ghastly character paintings and painstakingly fine cut wooden words and botanical elements. The likes of which you can find hidden all around the streets of New York, if you look carefully.

GoreB’s work was first noticed in Dumbo in the summer of 2004 and people discussed his work in tones you might use to talk about a griffin or a chimera, a former math prodigy who’d been corrupted in his teen years by something called hobo freight art, then spiraled into a life of nomadic polymath street-art savanthood and touched down, for a few years, in New York. Goreb currently resides on the West Coast in Santa Cruz and has created new oil paintingsfor the show featuring collages of birds, black and white photos, and fonts with hints of older paintings underneath.

With GoreB and Deeker as mentors and occasional sidekicks, young Armer paints large, uncomfortable faces on both coasts. His streetwork is powered by the painterly and gestural satisfaction he gets from working on a grand scale and from the belief in American graffiti as a way to respect the past while fighting the present. This show gives Armer his first crack at gallery walls. Pared down to a self-retrospective, mixed media work will echo his presence in the street (color combinations he loves; how he processes and releases information) but also will chronicle a day/night in the life.