fountain art fair

ravine 01, 2012. 

oil, acrylic and graphite on paper. 9 inches by 9 inches.

framed. 12 inches by 12 inches

this weekend i had a small piece in Fountain Art Fair at the Lexington Avenue 69th Regiment Armory, site of the original Armory Show 100 years ago in New York City. a small gesture, a paint sketch of mine was among 70 artist friends called The Hullaballo Collective in 2.5 booths that encapsulated a spirit reminiscent of the original Armory Show and today's creative pulse.

"The Hullaballoo Collective is a diverse group of artists who have come together through social media to present salon style exhibitions of collective strength and intrepid individuality - rowdy expressions that offer audiences the possibilities presented by an inclusive understanding of art. Outsider, emerging, veteran, we are thinkers, and we are makers. We are artists. We are part of the egalitarian zeitgeist, that energy that underlies the new century and that uses new tools to reach broad audiences." - Hullaballo.

“It’s an incredible honor for Fountain to be carrying the torch for the universally heralded 1913 Armory Show, the first exhibition of contemporary art in the United States. We strive to be harbingers of the revolutionary. Fountain will certainly honor the legend by continuing the tradition of our predecessors at the 69th Regiment Armory during this centennial celebration.” ~ Fountain Co-Founders David Kesting and Johnny Leo.

during my life i have walked by the Armory on Lex. more times than i can remember, never thinking that someday i might have something made by my own hands hanging under its soaring roof. the Armory is grand, my piece is small. i like that it is in there,  amid the color and noise - just being. hanging out. lurking. 

as an artist we want to be noticed, and perhaps this will sound strange: but as a born and raised New Yorker there is one thing i love and certainly long for daily: the feeling of being completely unique and completely anonymous on the street: lost in the crowd,  but bright and happy in the crowd-ness, visible and invisible. present and absent. cohesive as one and as all.

as i write this post from the City of Atlanta, my little painting is my surrogate, and that feels good to me.

i thank my friends for inviting me. you can check them out individually in the links below. 

and i must admit, that i can add a new mark to my "leaving traces in my home town" list:

  

the first one was large: a skyscraper in Times Square that was finished in 2001, at about the time that we moved to Atlanta. the second, a place in the New York Times Magazine "30 artists 30 and under" once (not so) long ago, and now this: a tiny, transient mark in a grand room in a grand building for a few days and nights.

today is the last day to see us at Fountain.

see us here: hullaballo collective. and here: hullaballoo at fountain

photo by Assunta Sera, 2013

photo by Bernard Klevickas, 2013

art critic, jerry saltz visits us at Fountain.

photo by fountain art fair.