Category Archives: Press

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“Words for Women” in Huffington Post

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Sugar tits. Butter face. The language we use to put down women is illustrious and plentiful, a cloying metaphor for every ingredient in a well-stocked kitchen.

Meanwhile, the disparaging remarks in the English language’s man-dissing arsenal are restricted to less evocative animal and body part comparisons, i.e. jackass. Or, worse, they draw from women-centric language, as if to say there’s nothing lower than femininity. Douchebag. Bitch.

Poking fun at the inane words we use to insult women, photographer Anna Friemoth staged literal representations of the terms and phrases in her aptly named series “Words for Women.” In one image, a brunette smears a stick of butter on her made-up face, contorted in an agonized pout. In another, a figure proudly displays her bare chest, smeared in sugary frosting.

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Anna Friemoth’s “Words for Women” in The Creator’s Project

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Terms like “arm candy” and “wallflower” aren’t explicitly gendered, but they’re the sort of hyper-critical comments about someone’s looks or behavior that are generally more likely to be directed at women. In her new show, Words For Women, photographer Anna Friemoth mocks these phrases by styling herself and other models as the literal embodiment of the terms. In Butterface, she literally smears a stick of butter on her face. The arms of the model in Arm Candy are wrapped in crinkly polka dotted plastic of the kind that encases the sweets filling the glass bowls on every grandma’s coffee table. Seeing the terms depicted so literally makes it clear just how ridiculous they really are.

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We Heart on “The Radical Intent”, the exhibition proves marble isn’t lost as a contemporary sculpture material…

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Go back a few hundred years to Renaissance Europe and you’d be falling over yourself for sculptors hammering away at a block of marble with chisel and mallet – the combined noise must have been like the early equivalent of a pneumatic drill. These days, sculpture seems to be all high concept installations, so it’s nice to see the art of stone sculpting isn’t dead as Gallery 151 and ABC Worldwide Stone hold a group exhibition that includes plenty of marble to marvel at.

Radical Intent brings together four skilled practitioners in the field, united not only by their material of choice but in their connection to everyday objects. The way in which Sebastian Martorana, Barbara Segal, Stephen Shaheen and Alasdair Thomson marry the seemingly archaic carving skill with contemporary items creates an arresting juxtaposition; Thomson’s t-shirt for example, folded as if ready for the wardrobe, and Martorana’s little lamb children’s stuffed animal pose questions about mass-produced objects’ intrinsic value in contrast to its worth when laboriously crafted using skills that take years to perfect.

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The Art of the Hotel: Hotel Grand Union (HGU) New York in Blouin Art Info

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Meet Hotel Grand Union’s Top 5 Artists:


Evan Desmond Yee
Evan Desmond Yee, a 25-year-old artist and welder, stood smiling in front of his silver sculptural work “Chasing Eternity,” at Gallery 151. It is a square silver light installation in perpetual ‘buffering’ mode.
“My work is a mockery, a satire on modern technology. Chasing Eternity is about waiting. We notice this a lot more now that everything is digital,” said Yee. The artist has even set up a fake Apple store, branded with a colored, rotating computer icon called the Pinwheel of Death. “Waiting for things to load on the internet is akin to meditating in limbo,” added Yee, who self-identifies as a millennial.

Fab 5 Freddy
Fab 5 Freddy is a renowned visual artist and hip-hop music video director. At Gallery 151, he presented “Abstract Remix #4″ (2011) a collage of original 80s-era graffiti using spray enamel, acrylic and crystals on canvas. “This is a throwback to that 80s energy,” explained Fab 5 Freddy. “My work is made the same way urban music is made. Everything is a remix.” Though his street art heyday was in the 70s and 80s, Freddy looks to abstract artists Frank Stella andJohn Chamberlain for his current inspiration.

Justin Jay
Photographer Justin Jay has spent the last several years shooting a book project in Hawaii documenting the subculture of professional surfers on the north shore. At Gallery 151, he presented a photograph of renowned surfer Mark Cunningham.
“I took this photo in front of his house. I love that it shows the vastness of nature with one lone person about to body surf inside a wave. He’s not fighting nature, but resorting it. He’s a peaceful, powerful person. This is his world,” said Jay.

Isaac Aden
Artist Isaac Aden is known for controlling the oxidation of steel in his contemporary work. At Gallery 151, he discussed the process involved in his painting “Book of Exodus.” In it, the melted bronze steel creates a kind of tortured landscape, poured over the pages of a book.
“The point of this book is an escape from bondage. It is a historical, Biblical reference. Ultimately, it is about how people are subjugated and oppressed physically,” said Aden. “I’m interested in how people overcome or contend with that.”

Arthur Cohen
“Leaving,” by artist Arthur Cohen, is a tremendous portrait of a riding bull walking away. Cohen began painting bulls in 2009 after buying a ticket to see a rodeo at Madison Square Garden in New York. “I’m intrigued by the mortality and self-annihilation of it, while still trying to look cool,” said Cohen, before joking, “I myself am aging, and facing mortality – and I’m still trying to look cool!”

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Gallery 151 in Collectively

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From Collectively:

“In seeing the art, the viewer is confronted by the fact that the artist is a living being, but also a prisoner. The show puts a spotlight on how easy it is to dismiss, and thus dehumanize anyone who’s been convicted of a crime. “Looking through the art I was really touched, and remembered that prisoners are human beings,” Joan said, “I think that the general population believes that some laws are silly and unjust, but still when people meet a criminal they will still hold a certain stigma against them.” Read More.

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Gallery 151 in The Atlantic

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From The Atlantic:

“As the story goes, Aeilta started painting before she could walk. According to her Australian father Michael Andre, at around nine months, she crawled onto a canvas of his and started “smearing paints around.” Within a year, Aelita had amassed a collection of over 60 paintings in the family’s home. When Aelita was 19 or 20 months, her Russian-born mother Nikka Kalashnikova decided to show some of her daughter’s work “on a whim” to Mark Jamieson, the director of a commercial gallery in Melbourne that represented her own photography.”

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Gallery 151 on Collectively

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From Collectively:

“In seeing the art, the viewer is confronted by the fact that the artist is a living being, but also a prisoner. The show puts a spotlight on how easy it is to dismiss, and thus dehumanize anyone who’s been convicted of a crime. “Looking through the art I was really touched, and remembered that prisoners are human beings,” Joan said, “I think that the general population believes that some laws are silly and unjust, but still when people meet a criminal they will still hold a certain stigma against them.”

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Gallery 151 on Divas & Dorks

From Divas & Dorks:

“If you’re looking for an unforgettable experience that stimulates your sense of sight and sound, why  not check out the “Inseparable: Soundwall Experience” in NYC.  “Inseparable: The Soundwall Experience” is a hybrid art, music and tech series featuring artist collaborations, exhibitions and events that seamlessly integrate art and music like never before.  The summer group exhibition in partnership with Soundall reaffirms music and visual art as inseparable forms of expression.  Soundwall is customized, hand-crafted, framed artwork that hangs on the wall and plays music wirelessly.  Using the Soundwall technology as a channel to explore the bond between sound and sight, each artist was asked to curate a song paired to their visual work.”

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