SEBASTIAN PIRAS | TOUGHER THAN…  
Opening Thursday, September 26th 6-9pm

On View from September 26 through November 7, 2013 at Gallery 151. 132 West 18th Street, New York, NY 10011.

Gallery 151 is proud to present Tougher Than…, a solo exhibition from photographer Sebastian Piras.

The exhibit will feature works from Piras’ personal collection; taken in New York City during the summer of 1986, these works not only give insight into the city during that time period, but also a view of the hip hop scene, as Piras worked as the still photographer for the 1988 Def Jam film “Tougher Than Leather.”

On display are rare photographs of hip hop artists, including Run-D.M.C and the Beastie Boys as well as portraits of figures such as Robert Mapplethorpe and Andy Warhol and views of the landscape of New York City. Also featured is a video installation of Piras’ 2012 interview with Ric Menello, co-writer of the film.

Alongside the exhibition, Gallery 151 and Piras are releasing a limited edition magazine-style catalogue entitled NYC86. The catalogue will feature exclusive interviews from those individuals involved in “Tougher Than Leather.”

For more information please contact gallery151@thecityfirm.com

Opening Reception Thursday, September, 26th 6-9pm
On View September 26th- November 7th, 2013
Open to the public Tuesday-Saturday 11am-6pm
GALLERY 151 132 West 18th Street, NYC 10011
(Between 6th & 7th Ave)

On View from July 18 through August 31, 2013 at Gallery 151. 132 West 18th Street, New York, NY 10011.

Gallery 151 is proud to present The Least Orthodox Goddess, a guest-curated show from Jasmine
Wahi. This group exhibition features work from a dozen contemporary artists who explore the mannerisms
and traits of the Goddess character, as imagined by curator Jasmine Wahi. The Least Orthodox Goddess is
the embodiment of the female superhero: unapologetically strong, unabashedly sexual, and unequivocally
outspoken.

Inspired by Anjali Bhargava and Swati Khurana’s 2012 mixed-media piece, “Unsuitable Girls,” Wahi
has expanded the project through this namesake exhibition. At a surface glance the collection of
work seemingly illustrates a mystical narrative, but on a deeper level The Least Orthodox Goddess explores
the visual culture of gender-empowering contemporary art that draws from religious symbolism, fashion, and
photography. Borrowing from both Christian and Hindu mythology, Wahi’s exhibition promises a
cross-cultural story of depictions of femininity that negotiate power, be it Anjali Bhargava’s Pietà-inspired
portrait or Peter Gronquist’s taxidermied mash-ups of fashion and violence. Featuring both male and
female artists, each work in the exhibition explores ideas of empowerment, feminist identity, popular
culture, and symbolism, offering a reflection on the role of the female form, with special attention paid to
women of color.

Jasmine Wahi is a New York City based independent curator and the co-founder of Project For
Empty Space, a nonprofit arts organization that is dedicated to bringing contemporary art to communities
worldwide through the use of abandoned and unusual urban spaces. Wahi’s curatorial practice primarily
focuses on addressing social issues through the exhibition and exploration of work by women of color.
Wahi serves on the Board of the South Asian Women’s Creative Collective (SAWCC), as a visual arts
specialist. She is also a volunteer teacher at GEMS (the Girls Educational Mentoring Services network), and
an advocate for women/girls sexual rights.

For Sales Inquiries related to The Least Orthodox Goddess, contact

On View from June 28 through July 9, 2013 at Gallery 151. 132 West 18th Street, New York, NY 10011.

Alec Baldwin will unveil an exclusive curated collection of iconic rock photography, featuring 30 photos of music and film legends hand-picked from Rock Paper Photo’s comprehensive online collection. Presented by The Macallan and Inside Hook at Gallery 151, the exhibit will include rare photos of pop culture icons like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor and David Bowie, among others. Additional event sponsors include McIntosh Legendary Performance and Alfa Development.

Rock Paper Photo is the definitive fine art photography online gallery featuring rare and never-before-seen images of music and pop culture legends. The carefully curated site specializes in beautifully produced, hand-signed limited edition and largely unpublished prints of iconic moments captured by renowned photographers. The company offers an extensive inventory of photographs numbering in the tens of thousands, with a constantly evolving selection suited to meet the desires of both passionate fans and serious art collectors. Its unframed and framed museum-quality prints, offered in Silver Gelatin, Archival Chromogenic, Archival Pigment and Platinum, range in price from $150 to more than $10,000. A certificate of authenticity accompanies each hand-signed print. To view the gallery, please visit www.RockPaperPhoto.com.

On View from May 9 through June 15, 2013 at Gallery 151. 132 West 18th Street, New York, NY 10011.

Gallery 151 is proud to present 186,281, a solo­ exhibition of new works by Bentley Meeker. As an artist working with light, Meeker has exhibited at Gallery Nine5, The Burning Man Festival, and at The Whitney Museum of American Art. He recently collaborated with the writer and anthropologist Michael Taussig, also at the Whitney, in their presentation of the “Berlin Sun Theater” this past February. Meeker is the author of Light X Design, 20 Years of Lighting.

Meeker’s light art installation work confronts the fundamental quality of light and the powerful but underestimated effect it has on viewers–on biological, emotional and spiritual levels rather than for it’s visual presentational purposes.

In 186,281, Meeker’s poured resin shapes and contours reflect a combination of LED and incandescent light sources. The shadows created from the two different sources allow the viewer to explore the juxtaposition of both types of light, and to examine the properties of each type of light within the context of a traditional frame. This allows the viewer to develop an awareness of the ways different light impacts us. Meeker’s work for 186,281 is comprised of 20 light pieces which are each contained within a 40″ x 40″ frame, hanging as conventional paintings.

Meeker is widely known for his prestigious work with his event lighting company where he has arguably blurred the lines between art and commerce for over two decades. His extensive experience working with lighting as design has led Meeker into the exploration of light not only as a tool, but as its own medium that can evoke a multi­sensory experience. While there is a lively movement under way using light of all different types to create spectacle, culminating in the extraordinary LED display on San Francisco’s Bay Bridge by Leo Villareal, (who, along with Meeker, is a fellow Burning Man participant), there is little examination within the artistic community, or outside of it for that matter, of what light actually is–what the differing properties of each type of light are and how it moves all of us at every level.

The design of light for architectural and aesthetic effects has been with us throughout human history. Transcending our day-to­-day relationship with light, the modern concept of light art has emerged with the experiential modern art movement and the development of artificial light sources. In an article written by art critic Hilarie M. Sheets for Art News entitled “Waves of Light,” she explains: “The interplay of dark and light has been a theme running from Greek and Roman sculpture to Renaissance painting to experimental film. But as technology advanced from the glow of the electric light bulb to the computer monitor, artists have been experimenting with actual light as material and subject. The 1960s saw a high point in activity, with artists such as Flavin, Bruce Nauman, and James Turrell creating sculptures and environments out of diffuse light or radiant fluorescent and neon tubing. Today, younger artists are looking beyond their forerunners and taking light in new directions.”

Bentley Meeker continues to push the envelope within the lighting community, both commercially and artistically, with his art installations creating a platform for us to peer beyond the ubiquitousness of daily illumination and access our personal relationship with light and the ways it affects the quality of life of all individuals.

On View from March 28 through May 3, 2013 at Gallery 151. 132 West 18th Street, New York, NY 10011.

Gallery 151 is proud to present a wide variety of works by New York-based artist Oscar Dotter. Twenty paintings from two collections and two life-size polar bear sculptures will crowd the gallery to build a dialogue between two poles of the artist’s experience of Nordic life. Gallery 151 and Huh What Art Studio will offer a portion of the proceeds from Nordic Pop to the World Wildlife Fund, including sales from merchandise designed by the artist and a raffle with all earnings dedicated to saving the Polar Bear.

Inspired by annual trips to Scandinavia, on one end of Nordic Pop is “The Dots” collection that evokes the vitality of Denmark and Finland through a layered, mixed-media play; at the other end are the paintings from the“Abstract Polar” series, part of a continued meditation on climate change, the power of nature, and the human hand in all of this. Dotter’s practice thrives on chance encounters, the pursuit of visual ideals, and mixed media materiality. His use of “hard materials” (in the artist’s words) like plaster, resin, and wax make some paintings resemble found materials and street art, creating fusions between natural spheres of color (the Aurora Borealis, for example) and urban zones of counter-culture. Even paintings from the series “Abstract Polar” confuse the natural and the human, repeatedly portraying the same open-mawed polar bear in different revivals: a fading emblem, a bloodied monster, a Pop-art icon, and every permutation in between. Each piece seems to have been reimagined and repainted a dozen times, its past selves emerging and peaking out of view. The emotionally charged installation becomes an ambivalent visual playground somewhere between celebration of the bright colors of the human world and more somber views toward loss and deterioration in the natural world, marrying man and nature with surprising, playful results.

Oscar has lived in New York City since 1998, drawing inspiration from retro and vintage themes, contrasted with bright backdrops of bold coloring, often with a touch of vulgarity. A self-taught painter and photographer, Oscar typically works on canvas with heavy acrylic and oil paints, incorporating other elements such as charcoal, silicon, leather, coffee, tea, plastics and textiles. Having painted his entire life, Oscar has also produced art and visual installations for various corporations and individuals throughout the world. Oscar works out of his Huh What Art Studio located in Chelsea, New York City. Various pieces of his collections can be found at www.oscardotter.com & www.nordicpop.com

Curated by the Huh What Art Studio & The City Firm Inc.

On View from February 28 through March 21, 2013 at Gallery 151. 132 West 18th Street, New York, NY 10011.

Gallery 151 is proud to announce an exhibition of new works on paper by New York-based artist Samuel Stabler. The dozen works in Samuel Stabler: A Long Way From Dixie are divided between acidic, highlighter cadmium yellow remixes of Master paintings from the Western canon and rigorous cutouts that grow from a layered collage technique. At the core of both projects is a love affair with images and their division and synthesis in the world today. By sampling the old Masters, Stabler creates drawings that are at once immediately recognizable, but strikingly new.

Stabler’s drawings, sourced from Western art history, might resemble the master studies that the same Renaissance artists used in their own training. However, these drawings are far from simple reproductions. Stabler recolors the works in a dizzying palette of neon highlighter pigment and gold gouache, departing from the originals and democratizing the compositions. Pieter Aertsen’s 1551 masterwork “Meat Still Life,” for example, comes to triumphant, celebratory decadence in Stabler’s drawing, replacing the allegory of the original with an abstract composition discovered in the gossamer outlines of Aertsen’s painting.

Less identifiable are Stabler’s cutout works, where abstract compositions are formed through layers of images from magazines, the internet, and everyday life. Meticulous cuts isolate the resulting networks of line and contour, leaving a web of paper that resembles topology and maps rather than the jumble of layered images that began the work. Complementing these “positives” (in the artist’s terms) are the “negatives,” made from arranging the scraps into equally abstract, white-on-white images. In both, there is a palpable tug-of-war between figure and scene, a surface vibration that rivals his neon drawings despite his cutouts’ complete lack of color. Together, Samuel Stabler’s pieces stand as visual puzzles, inviting new and exciting views into the vast history of Western images.

Samuel Stabler was born in Georgia in 1984. He graduated with a BFA in Drawing from the University of Georgia in 2007 then continued to get his MFA at St. Martin’s School of Art and Design in 2010. Over the past five years, he has shown nationally and internationally in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Stabler lives and works in New York City.

Curated by Max Teicher and the City Firm Inc.

On View from February 7 through February 21, 2013 at Gallery 151. 132 West 18th Street, New York, NY 10011.

Gallery 151 is pleased to present its owner & founder Michael Namer’s private collection as a special 2-week exhibition entitled GRAFOLOGY. Featuring work from past Gallery 151 exhibitions produced by Namer, the collection includes graffiti canvas pieces by ERO, Fab 5 Freddy, LA2, and KOOR shown alongside never before exhibited sections of the legendary 151 Wooster Wild Style Wall; a collaborative graffiti mural uncovered by Namer in 2007 in SoHo, New York City. Many of the artists exhibited in Namer’s collection have also shown at the Fun Gallery of the 1980s, headed by curators Patti Astor and Bill Stelling. Past Gallery 151 exhibitions that feature works from Namer’s collection on view include KOOR’s solo exhibition Back to the Roots, ERO’s posthumous solo show ERO:RIP – “Ever Rocking On”, Green Style featuring Charlie Ahearn, Jane Dickson, LA2, ERO & Sharp and Fab 5 Freddy New York: New Work, a solo exhibition with a statement written by Jeffery Deitch during MOCA’s Art in the Streets. The opening reception for GRAFOLOGY will be held on Thursday, February 7th from 6-9PM, and will be on view at Gallery 151 through February 21st.

As told by the Associated Press In 2007, Michael Namer’s son Matthew discovered the 151 Wooster Wild Style Mural; a wall of graffiti from the early 80’s hidden under layers of sheetrock at Namer’s 151 Wooster St. building in SoHo. Featuring a large spray painted image of a bomber plane by Fab 5 Freddy (the artist described it as the bomb he was dropping on culture at the time) and distinctive writing attributed to Jean-Michel Basquiat, this collaborative mural captures an iconic moment in the history of early 1980s New York City street art before these artists received international fame. Other artists that were known to have tagged the uncovered wall include Rammellzee, Johnny Dynell, Francesco Clemente, Koor, exVandels, Nesto, and Futura 2000 (who commented that his tag on the wall was one of his earliest.) The first-ever exhibition at Gallery 151, held in December of 2007, was an unveiling of the 151 Wooster Wild Style Mural alongside a retrospective of the Graffiti Movement circa 1980-1985 curated by Hal Meltzer.

GRAFOLOGY will also feature an audio portrait of Michael Namer created by curator/sound artist Laura O’Reilly (aka Miz Metro) that was exhibited in the Summer of 2012 at Deitch protégé Kathy Grayson’s gallery The Hole for the all-star Portrait of A Generation exhibition. The Hole exhibition featured over 100 artists that were paired up and asked to create portraits of each other. The show featured a wide range of artists and culture makers that influenced the downtown art community including Kenny Scharf, Fab 5 Freddy, Yoko Ono, Barry McGee, Terence Koh, Aurel Schmidt, Clayton Patterson and Michael Namer.

GRAFOLOGY, playing-off the literal definition of “graphology”, the pseudoscience of handwriting, refers less to the forensics of the written word than it aims to probe the recesses of the writer’s mind. The works that comprise GRAFOLOGY offer just that, encapsulating the energy and momentum of their creators beyond the facture of traditional painting. The gestures that form every shape are still pulsing with the passion of their creation, leaving viewers with a clear view straight back to the New York of the 1980s and the talent that persists to this day.

Michael Namer is an oil painter, patron to the arts, and green building developer focused on sustainable living. Along with sculpting the actual skyline as a building developer, Namer is giving back to the cultural landscape of New York through his personal support of arts. Inspired by the discovery of the 151 Wooster Wild Style Wall and it’s history Namer decided to take it a step further and cultivated a community around the works and the artists that produced them by founding Gallery 151, (originally created solely to house the 151 Wooster Wild Style Mural) the gallery has continued to be a platform for emerging and established artists and curators to have an outlet from 2007 to the present day. Namer founded Gallery 151 on the belief that art makes the world a better place and that artists should be valued in our society.

Additional Information on the 151 Wooster Wild Style Mural:

It was the stuff of urban legend — rumors that a historic SoHo building had important graffiti hidden in its walls.

Except, in this case, it was true. A large mural that was created by some of graffiti’s earliest pioneers was discovered recently in a 10-story limestone building just as developers were converting it into luxury condominiums. The artwork contains a variety of images and writing executed in spray paint, grease pencil, magic marker and whatever else was at hand — in silver, gold, pink and red. There are cartoonlike pictures of a bomber airplane, images of a heart and a cake, and several references to Quaaludes, a popular 1970s party drug.

The mural was found in the eighth-floor loft owned by art critic Edit deAk in the late ’70s and 1980s — a time when much of fringe art, including graffiti, was being validated. The wall is nearly intact, except for gaps where a dishwasher and plumbing were installed years later.

Fab 5 Freddy and Futura 2000 — who helped pioneer graffiti as an art form by spray-painting entire subway trains in psychedelic colors — figure prominently on the wall. There’s also writing believed to belong to Jean Michel Basquiat. The stylistic words “Dead or Alive” strongly suggest that it is the late artist’s work. His tag, “SAMO,” appears in the stairwell of the building.

But experts say the wall’s significance doesn’t depend on Basquiat, who died in 1988 of an overdose at age 27 and whose works command millions of dollars on today’s art market. Rather, it’s a testament to the underground culture of almost 30 years ago, and especially to the iconic artists who were living the art of the street. “It’s a great discovery,” says Alberto Mugrabi, a major Basquiat and Andy Warhol collector. “It’s the beginning of graffiti (as art).”

“Obviously, it’s a critical piece of history, SoHo history,” says Lisa Dennison, the former director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. – Associated Press, December 12, 2007

Clues to the work’s date are numerous — and despite the archaeological quality … we are not talking prehistory. There are terms like “Fab 5,” as in Freddy, an early rapper, and more than one “1980.” The palette favors hot pink. Also, records show that Edit deAk, an influential art-magazine editor, lived in the eighth-floor space in the early 1980’s, when the neighborhood was teeming with painters and galleries … Gallery owners and museum directors say Ms. DeAk regularly socialized with artists whose medium was spray paint — people like Jean-Michel Basquiat, traces of whose handle, “Samo,” appear on the wall. – New York Times, June 3, 2007

The artwork contains a variety of images and writing executed in spray paint, grease pencil, felt-tipped pen and whatever else was at hand in Silver, gold, pink and red. There are cartoon-like pictures of a bomber airplane, images of a heart and a cake, and several references to Quaaludes, a popular 1970s party drug. The mural was found in the eighth-floor loft, which was owned by art critic Edit DeAk in the late 70s and 80s – a time when much of fringe art, including graffiti, was being validated. – Newsday, Dec. 13, 2007

SANDY RELIEF FOR HAITI

Voodoo Altars, Zombies, and Oil Cans

On View from November 8 through December 8, 2012 at Gallery 151. 132 West 18th Street, New York, NY 10011.

Gallery 151 is proud to announce a guest-curated exhibit by Keyes Art Projects, “Voodoo Altars, Zombies, and Oil Cans” part of Carnegie Hall’s Voices from Latin America Festival. The exhibition features a selection of art from the collection of Mary Jo McConnell and new photography from Jill Peters, the work represents two facets of the culture of Haiti with older works positing a supernatural vision and new photographs grounding the exhibition with the faces of Haitian refugees in Miami.

Given recent events, it is difficult to see these works without considering the tragedy and loss of life in Haiti these last weeks since Hurricane Sandy. The same themes of diaspora and displacement, of grotesque transformation and defiant subjecthood transform under this lens, and to interpret this assembly of works with the current social conditions of Haiti gives them new life and urgency. Gallery 151 will pledge 20% of any sale of works to disaster relief efforts abroad in Haiti as well as locally in New York City for the duration of the show.

Paintings and altarpieces from the collection of scholar and art historian Mary Jo McConnell offer narrative icons of Haiti – its voodoo, culture, and the artifacts it produced. Displayed here in New York City for the first time, graphic paintings combine vibrant color with the esoteric semiology of voodoo culture, warping and modifying figuration with cosmograms and contorted dance. Sculptures from repurposed, derelict oil cans echo a mediation between the earthly and supernatural. These therapeutic formulations from a culture born in diaspora reinterpret old tradition in the wake of increasing modernity. Seemingly grotesque, the ramshackle combinations and fusions that occur indicate a people in transition, and serve as document to the supernatural visions of an old Haiti.

In contrast, photographer Jill Peters captures images of Haitian refugees in Miami that ground the exhibition in the reality of Haitians today. The elderly women pictured emigrated from Haiti in the 1970s in the face of conflict. Peters writes “I was attracted to these matriarchs as rich visual subjects and I suspected that this was so because they had survived challenges that would surely be written into their faces.” The same faces that Peters figures as the documentation of conflict reveal an overwhelming depth of faith and abiding optimism, both trumping any trace of self-pity. The stark contrast between the black and white figures and their saturated backgrounds proposes a duality in their character and a flickering space that begs reconciliation between the past and present. Each strong gaze asserts a bold presence that remains otherwise unseen in the current view of Haiti. This is Haiti today, these women and their courage, asserting strength and stoicism while the chroma of their respective backgrounds threatens them with total consumption. Themes of diaspora, displacement, and memory surface in each image, echoing the friction of the paintings, sculptures, and altarpieces collected by McConnell.

On View from September 27 through October 27, 2012 at Gallery 151. 132 West 18th Street, New York, NY 10011.

Gallery 151 is proud to announce Beach Access by photographer Justin Jay. The gallery will feature works that offer an intimate perspective into the culture of professional surfers on the North Shore of Hawaii. Large scale landscape photographs of Oahu, coupled with candid captured moments of iconic surfers will create an immersive North Shore narrative not often experienced by outsiders. As viewers, we are invited to be voyeurs into the realm of a private community while we soak up the universal lushness of a tropical paradise.

In an age where we have the technology to simply document every waking moment of a person’s life, Justin Jay has instead learned to unearth hidden narratives that are won on a foundation of trust and privileged access. The North Shore is a notoriously tight-knit and territorial community. Outsiders need to be expressly invited into the fray by an existing member of the group. Jay has been able to accomplish just that. His unique experience shooting behind the scenes in the world of hip-hop has enhanced his ability to earn the confidence of a group that highly values respect, trust, and often shies away from infiltrators. His work exhibits the authenticity of the insider coupled with the psychology of the outsider, garnering an unparalleled vision.

Beach Access invites the viewer into a world where nature and the human experience dance in a colorful balance so genuine that you can nearly smell the ocean.

Curated by Mike Namer & The City Firm Inc. For more information on Justin Jay and to view his portfolio visit: http://www.JustinJay.com

On View from August 29 through September 20, 2012 at Gallery 151. 132 West 18th Street, New York, NY 10011.

Gallery 151 is pleased to announce a solo show from Queens-based Walker Fee made entirely with tape. In this group of new works Fee updates the symbols of an art historical past with contemporary signifiers and personal mythology. And with Fee, the symbol is everything, acting as both the characters and settings of his stories. His collage of near-figures form the hieroglyphs of his own language: the Alpha and Omega are coupled with the script of a Met’s logo, the scales of justice are juxtaposed with the curves of a street light, and the contours of a triptych give way to the repetition of a crosswalk. Drawing from Greco-Roman mythology, Egyptian cartouches, and illuminated manuscripts from both the East and West, he welcomes the new symbols of our age to the pantheon of gestures that encompass all that came before him.  His works forge a pastiched landscape of immediately legible symbols new and old that shies from figuration and leaves the viewer in dizzying cycles of interpretation and reinterpretation.
But despite the insular impulse that seems to walk hand in hand with the desire to create a new world, Walker Fee’s works with tape are devoid of egoism. Much like the ancient icons and manuscripts he emulates, they speak to transcendence. Like icons, they aren’t mimetic representations of this world, but rather a mirror whose reflection we hope to live up to. And like icons, the materials he uses make his works objects rather than windows to the world. His use of tape is closer to printmaking tactics than painting in spite of his rampant historicism. Fee has described these works as “printmaking without the mess,” and like printmaking, the works are faced with their own mortality. According to the artist, “Altarpiece For The Birds” has changed dramatically since its inception, the colors already fading indiscriminately. The fragility of the pieces adds another, powerful layer to the work, a dichotomy between the timelessness of the symbols, the world they posit, and the very physicality of the works themselves. Fee thus questions the new conditions of art as commodity while using household tape to tell his story, a material as readymade as his symbols. Anyone can work with tape, but these works go beyond what can be readily imitated, and rather encourage people to play with symbols and think about symbols for themselves.