Hanging Joanna's Show

HUNG Hijinks with Tom Billings

Tom Billings, one of Gitana Rosa's artists currently featured in the on-going show "Hung: Checking Out the Contemporary Male," stopped by last week and hilarity ensued. Witness Exhibit A, his piece in the show, titled "Happy Valentine's Day":

We're not sure what got into Tom -- maybe it was a misguided sense of competition with the other work on display -- but he suddenly decided to derobe and flash his, ahem, other piece. Exhibit B:

That's Vanessa Liberati, Gitana Rosa's owner, pointing at the obvious. Standing next to her is poor Tim Wood, another of the gallery's artists (and yes, that's his real name). Perhaps no other man in Williamsburg has ever been faced with so much real and artistically rendered schlong in one night.

Tom seemed unconcerned. Hence, Exhibit C:

Any regrets, Tom?
We'll take the above as a no. It's not always so exciting after hours here at Gitana Rosa Gallery...or is it?

Above are Carolyn Weltman's small prints.

And another one of Weltman's prints, "Fight Boy Getting Ready" (a limited edition print), reflected in the gallery's front window.

Vanessa and Tim, with a now fully clothed Tom, contemplate just how far they've been willing to go to expose great art.

Pics from Last Night's Trunk Show

Last night the ladies came out in full force to check out Michelle's beautiful jewelry and Sofia's natural skincare products at our Delicate Raymond + Victory Garden Trunk Show. (Michelle, pictured third from left; Sofia, first from left.) A whole lot of Hangar Vodka, coupled with good company, made for a fun night.
Thanks to everyone who made it out!

Delicate Raymond & Victory Garden Trunk Show

Delicate Raymond Jewelry (http://delicateraymond.com/) and Victory Garden NYC (http://victorygardennyc.com/wp/blog ) are joining for a fall holiday preview trunk show showcasing natural skin care products and vintage inspired jewelry hosted at Gitana Rosa Gallery on Wednesday September 29 from 7-9pm.

Michelle Zimmerman founder and owner of Delicate Raymond Jewelry incorporates intricate vintage wear offset by romantic hints of blush gems, or mixing semi precious stones with locally sourced gold and silver, the collection is a reflection of a rich family tradition blended with cultural influences captured from moments spent abroad.

Sophia Brittan is the founder and owner of Victory Garden NYC. While looking for her future location for selling her brand of local ice cream, she is selling carefully-sourced, natural skin care products made by local farmers. Sophia believes that health and beauty are integrative, and while you might enjoy a scoop of wholesome ice cream, your skin might need a treat too.

Victory Garden NYC will preview products such as, Lotion Bars in Rose and Lavender (Ingredients: Coconut Oil, CT Beeswax, Mango Butter, Cocoa Butter, Almond Oil, Jojoba Oil, Fragrance (phthalate-free), Vitamin E), and Lip Balms in Rose and Neroli (Ingredients: Beeswax, Natural Essential Oils, Organic Shea Butter)

Delicate Raymond will have her holiday preview collection and Delicate Raymond’s signature monograms will be available for special order.

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For press inquiries please contact Evy Gonzales at evygonzales@yahoo.com / 917.554.5063

Here is a post written by Daniel Maidman, one of the artists exhibiting work in our current show HUNG.

Well, here's a bit of a format switch-up for you. I bumbled my way (with the generous help of Fedele Spadafora) into a group show of male nudes at Gitana Rosa Gallery in Brooklyn on September 10th, and the show opened last Friday, the 17th, at 7 p.m. I've somehow gotten a reputation as that one guy who can write words, so the gallery owner, Vanessa Liberati, asked if I would write a page of text about the show for the thing in the lobby where galleries tend to put a page of text about shows.

So this post, also at the request of the extremely clever, attractive, effective, charming, and well-dressed Vanessa, is that page of text. The show opened, as I said, at 7 p.m. on Friday. When did I get to see the pieces and sit down and write the text? 6:35 p.m. This bit of writing amounts to about 10 minutes; it doesn't have the extravagant 45 minutes I usually lavish on my well-thought-through blog posts, and I'm worried it might not be up to my standards. It's definitely more art-speaky.

Let me make a deal with you - if you can scrape off the art-speak and find there's something worthwhile in there, let me know, and I'll feel free to post this kind of thing once in a while if it comes up in the future. If, on the other hand, you feel I'm abusing, for self-promotion, the time you give this blog, let me know that too, and I will apologize to future gallery-owners under the heading the readers have spoken.

So here's the text, with the amusing name of the show first:

HUNG: CHECKING OUT THE CONTEMPORARY MALE
Daniel Maidman

Let’s agree, for a minute, that we can see a point to the nude as a subject for art. Straight out of the gate, then, we will be biased toward the female nude. Naked, or nearly-naked, women surround us: in our advertising, our television, our Internet. Our perception of women and their bodies is extraordinarily integrated – or fragmented, depending on your point of view. Either way, this perception reflects constant exposure.

The male nude still produces a shock of the forbidden, of the unknown; in fact, it produces the same shock that the female nude produced a century ago. This is a surprising effect, but as you browse around HUNG: Checking Out the Contemporary Male, odds are better than even that you will find yourself thinking – Holy crap, this is a lot of penis in one room.

And this brings up an interesting question: just what is it that makes the male nude special and distinct, that makes it different from the female nude?

I would offer you two loci of difference, one physical and one pertaining to gender and the spirit. The physical difference is the penis and the hair. Hips and waists, asses and faces – all of these can make a transit between the sexes with their forms more or less intact. But when you spot the penis and the hairy chest, you can only be looking at a man. Body hair and penises dominate this show, denoting the specificity of male nudity and producing the initial sense of shock. They define the playing field – they piss on the tree, so to speak.

More subtly, the second locus of difference is the concept of masculinity. This is more elusive, more difficult to define. We know more or less what we mean by the feminine, but we have lost that clear sense of the masculine, the unselfconscious, swaggering, strong masculine, which characterizes, for instance, the men of Rubens and Velazquez.

It is in respect to identifying and expressing this sense of masculinity that I think that HUNG goes beyond being merely a stunt-show, a concept-album, and enters into the realm of artistic synthesis and progression. A variety of ideas and approaches to the problem is expressed here.

We have visions of girlish waifs, of S&M musclemen, of ambivalent hipsters. Several pieces ironically regurgitate old ideas of the overpowering masculine, and it seems the artists have surprised themselves with the sympathy they found with these ideas once they tried them on for size. Other pieces identify masculinity and homoeroticism, both as a lived experience and as a fantasy ideal. Some pieces see masculinity as a threat, others as a joke. And some of the pieces see masculinity as simply one part of a personality, a kind of background condition out of which individuality emerges.

All of these pieces, in tackling a subject that still makes us cringe, work hard to reclaim a lost territory, a part of our humanity which has gone wanting on the contemporary American scene. I hope that in exploring the show, you will find yourself reawakened to slumbering resonances, enriched in your appreciation of yourself and the people around you, men and women alike, without whose differences from one another, life would be much poorer and more boring.

These are, to me, preliminary notes, because I think there's a lot to be said about the category of the male nude, and also, I didn't really think this through when I wrote it.

Here are a few pieces from the show, mine first, because who's in charge here? That's right.

The Rest, Daniel Maidman, 2010, oil on canvas, 48"x36"

Mad Max, Melissa Carroll, 2010, oil on canvas, 60"x48"

Self-portrait as Satyr, Adam Miller, graphite and chalk on paper, dimensions unknown by me

I can't seem to find Fedele's painting anywhere on the Web.

Here are a couple of really mediocre snaps of the opening:

the whole room

your humble narrator

And finally, a happy ending to this little story - my piece sold! A couple came in, sat themselves down on a sofa facing my painting, looked at it for a good long while, chatted with me for a bit, and left. They seemed like pleasant folks, and I thought, "Well, you know, at least they're thinking about it." Then Vanessa came over and told me they had bought it. I had a chance to chat with the couple again - they came in at the end of the evening, and were very enthusiastic about the painting.

Let me tell you what this is like, a bit, from the perspective of an artist who is interested in selling work.

First of all, money is nice. My work is terribly expensive to make, and I'm glad to have it start to pay for itself. Getting the attention of Vanessa and my painter friends is nice too.

But what's really nice is to make something, out of nothing, which people you do not know would vote to make a part of their lives. And not with a vote that costs nothing; they had to work to make the money they are trading for my painting, and they like the painting enough that that's worth it for them. I kind of got teared up about it, as I do about all of my art sales. I think my work is beautiful, but who cares what I think? To have other people think it's beautiful enough (in whatever broad way you want to define beautiful) to live with, is very rewarding for me. This is why I am grateful to all of my collectors.

So those are my feelings.

ARS GRAPHIS closing, oil spill condoms and more

Our closing reception for Ars Graphis was a hit, though we're willing to admit the show's beautiful drawings were almost (almost) upstaged by a certain box of Oil Spill Condoms. Yes, the closing reception was also the launch party for the condoms, which are being sold by some bold, yet appropriately precaucious, environmentalists raising money for Gulf relief. (Relief of any other kind is your own business.) See their website for more about how to "drill without the spill" here.

Prophylactics notwithstanding, here are some of the oil-less images from the show:

("Untitled (Woman with Cigarette)," Aaron Valentin)

("Three Graces," Adam Miller)

(Two untitled pieces, John Plunkett)

("Ring around the Posy," Lisa Petker-Mintz)

("Jaunt," Alexandra Pacula)

("Coral," Sonomi Kobayashi)

Finally, an UPDATE ON OUR OPENING HOURS: for the rest of the summer (until Sept. 10), we will be open by appointment only.

ArtHamptons Roundup

Thanks to all of you who attended the ArtHamptons fair! It was a great event, with tons of people coming out to enjoy three beautiful, sunny days. Gitana Rosa Gallery was there, representing.

Here are some of the paintings that were up in Gitana Rosa's booth to check out, including our unofficial Hamptons mascot, aka "Dreamy Dad" -- Dreamy Dad made it all the way from artist Bruno Perillo's Brooklyn studio for the event, and we're glad he did:

(Andres Garcia-Pena)

(Alexandra Pacula)

("Hula Hoop" series, Fedele Spadafora)

("Dreamy Dad," Bruno Perillo)

(Adam Miller)

Please join us this weekend at the beach!!!

GITANA ROSA @ BOOTH 415B July 9-11, 2010 July 8, 2010 - Opening Preview Party benefits LongHouse Reserve Sayre Park Bridgehampton, NY

ArtHamptons returns as one of the highlights of the Hamptons summer season. Now in its third successful year, ArtHamptons has established itself as a top new art fair in America. Expect to see a fantastic display of post-war and contemporary art, presented by a lineup of renowned international galleries. On display in are important art pieces for every budget and level of art collector, from paintings, works on paper and printed editions, to photography, art glass, ceramics and sculpture.

New Convenient Location

This year ArtHamptons moves two blocks west to Sayre Park’s five bucolic acres. The site is located between Bridgehampton Commons and the Hamptons Classic field, just one block north of Montauk Highway on Snake Hollow Road.

Be among the first to view, reserve and buy from 80 + revered galleries. Sponsored by Hamptons Cottages & Gardens Magazine. Admission benefits East Hampton’s LongHouse Reserve.

Gitana Rosa presents works by:

Fedele Spadafora, Adam Miller, Alexandra Pacula, Bruno Perillo, John Plunkett, Lisa Petker-Mintz, Tom Bob, Suzy Q, Sonomi Kobayashi, Tom Billings, Andres Garcia-Pena, Fabio D'Aroma, Tara DePorte, Brett Wintle, Charles Yoder and others...

Primarily focusing on four contemporary Bushwick painters – Fedele Spadafora, Adam Miller, Alexandra Pacula and Bruno Perillo.

Individualistic in subject matter and technique, Spadafora, Miller, Pacula and Perillo reinforce the vibrancy and relevance of oil painting. With a provocative mix of abstract and representational elements and references ranging from Impressionism and Expressionism to Classicism and Pop Art, the works by these four artists are rooted in art history, yet connect powerfully to contemporary viewpoints.

The artists work out of studios in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, and have shown together in seven previous exhibitions. Recent shows include Oil Slick, June 2010, presented by Gitana Rosa; Corpus Hermeticum, May 2010, presented by the Nerdrum Institute (which also featured the paintings of the Norwegian master Odd Nerdrum); and Carnivale, November 2009, presented by Gitana Rosa Gallery.

Fedele Spadafora is an American painter whose figurative work deals with contemporary urban themes. His work shows a wide range of influences, including sources as diverse as the Renaissance, popular culture and
his deep Italian roots. After graduating from Michigan State University in 1990, Spadafora spent six years in Prague, where among other things, he co-founded the alternative publishing venture, Twisted Spoon Press. He is currently working on the “Hula Hoop” series, of which three paintings are being shown at ArtHamptons.

Adam Miller began an apprenticeship with the artist Allen Jones at the age of thirteen. At sixteen, he was accepted to the prestigious Florence Academy of Art in Italy where he underwent extensive training in classical
painting techniques and studied the masterpieces of the Renaissance. During those four years, Miller studied throughout Europe. His work has been commissioned by Robert Pamplin Jr., Chairman of the Board of the Portland Art Museum, Mike Tyson and Eric Rhodes, publisher of Fine Art Connoiseur.

Alexandra Pacula’s vigorous painterly scenes of urban nightlife offer insights into human interactions, seductions and desires. Pacula moved from Poland to the U.S. at the age of fourteen. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from The Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in 2002, and earned a
Master of Fine Arts from Montclair State University. Her work has been included exhibitions around the country, as well as in Spain and London. Pacula recently won a 2010 painting fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts. Other accolades include the 2010 Robert Sterling Clark Visual Art Space Award and winner of the 2008 Saatchi Showdown Competition.

Bruno Perillo graduated from the School of The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 2002. As a conceptual realist, Bruno uses the painted portrait to express how the

viewer/model/artist identify with sacred and profane allegorical motifs from the past through a contemporary lens. Bruno’s varying techniques and styles are inspired by the tenebrist lighting of the Italian Baroque and the Realist/Naturalist movement that emerged out of the mid-19th century French Academy. Many of Bruno’s paintings belong to prestigious private collections in America and Europe. Bruno is represented by several galleries and he currently lives and works in Brooklyn.

More information about ArtHamptons is available at: www.ArtHamptons.com

OIL SLICK written up in the Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal came out to Bushwick this past week and wrote us up in their blog, Metropolis! OIL SLICK is an art event featuring 12 artists, as a fundraiser for The Nature Conservancy, who are currently trying to clean up after the Gulf oil spill.

Gitana artists Adam Miller and Fedele Spadafora get shout-outs in the piece. WSJ describes Miller's striking painting -- of a nude woman standing in the sea, a burning oil rig visible in the distance -- as an example of "bringing back back classical styles of oil painting in a technologically vulnerable age."

OPENING RECEPTION for OIL SLICK: contribute to the Gulf Coast's recovery

Oil can be used for good, as we'll prove this Saturday in Bushwick, during what's sure to be a great opening reception for OIL SLICK, a show Gitana Rosa is putting on with Bushwick Open Studios.

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has ravaged the environment for six weeks now, and it's time to fight back. A diverse group of participating artists, all of whom use oil as a medium, will donate 35 percent of the proceeds from OIL SLICK to The Nature Conservancy, an environmental organization working to help restore and relieve wildlife in the affected region.

Opening night will feature a live DJ and the band Himalayas. They're a great act and not to be missed.

On the visual side, painters Michael Krynski (monkey piece above), Bruno Perillo, John Plunkett, Andres Garcia-Pena, Alexandra Pacula, Adam Miller and many more are showing their work, featuring a little something for everyone.

Where: The Bogart Street Studios, 1 Grattan St. at Bogart
When: Saturday, June 5, from 5 to 10 p.m.
Directions: L to Morgan, walk out the Harrison exit.

"Black Oil" by John Plunkett

Tara DePorte duo solo shows!

Come check out her work at Gitana Rosa in Brooklyn until June 5th.
Closing party on Friday June 4th from 7-10pm.

Or...If you are in Europe May 26th, the info for her solo show - Athiest Angels is below.

Wow, Tara is so hot right now!


Athiest Angels
recent works by Tara DePorte

May 26th-June 16th, 2010
Opening Reception: Wednesday, May 26th from 5pm to 8pm
Where: Webster Art Gallery, Galgewater 1, Leiden. The Netherlands


More about Athiest Angels:
DePorte's series Athiest Angels, depicts the love and inspiration in a life, found by many in religion, but found--instead--in the friends and families closest to the artist. The series of drawings portrays serene faces of sisters, parents, friends and partner with angelic calm and golden halos, reminiscent of Baroque-style angels. The ghost-whiteness of the portraits juxtaposed against the bold background colors suggest impermanence and fragility that lies between human relationships.

More about the artist: http://www.TaraDePorte.com