Hueless: A Monochromatic Exhibit
March 7, 2011
Curators of Hueless framed work using a grayscale
FAUST, one of the best calligraphers on the New York street (and an MBP contributor: check out Name Tagging and Going Postal), invited Mark and me to the opening for his new group show, Hueless, a Monochromatic Exhibit. The reception invite suggested “grayscale attire”–we should have been clued in. The exhibit features many well-know street and graffiti artists, all showing work in black, white, and gray; it was a great exhibition with a cool installation. The main room had a large grayscale painted on the wall as a frame for the various artworks as well as a sweet little grayscale painted low into a corner in the second room. The works ranged from graphite on paper to light box technology, with several collages and photographs.
FAUST's Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt
FAUST had three pieces in the show: two paintings, and one triptych of calligraphy in a single frame. His main piece, Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt, is an abstraction of urban forms, a view under the Highline Park. The piece reminded me of the Edward Hopper show at the Whitney–flat and planar imagery by Demuth and Sheeler, with Charles Burchfield perhaps the most related; somber geometric landscapes devoid of people and steeped in solitude. I feel love in FAUST’s High Line view; it is New York at its best, celebrating its urban nature and Machine Age past. But we admired his calligraphy too–FAUST plays with grace in two visual worlds.
Fitting cookies for a monochromatic event
New York street art people are serious about both art and expression, and playful in the nicest way. Black-and-white cookies on a gray tray spoke of happy fun. There was one unsung takeaway in that show–the guest book was filled with tags and inscriptions by some of New York’s finest (and Mark and me too!) Hope that book goes to an appreciative home!
The guestbook at Hueless
The scene at the opening was exciting and happy–the street art crowd turns out for its own, and we were pleased to be on the list to get in. Go check it out!
Hueless is at Mallick Williams & Co. Gallery, Chelsea, New York, and features work by D Face, Distort, Shepard Fairey, Erik Haze, Curtis Kulig, Marissa Textor, Pete Watts, FAUST, NTEL, Dirk Dzimirsky, Sam Ske, Marco Zamora, Katsu, Nicholas Forker, Michael M. Koehler, Nathan Pickett, Lindsey de Ovies, Lu Gold Russell Young, and Skullphone. It runs March 4 through April 13.
–Cynthia Batty
