Shai Dahan and Joe Iurato Duo Exhibit at VMG

VINCENT MICHAEL GALLERY PRESENTS A DUO EXHIBITION

This February, Vincent Michael Gallery is pleased to present a dual exhibition featuring new works from artists Shai Dahan in the exhibition, Natural Selections and Joe Iurato in Salvation. Both exhibitions will be on display February 4th to February 25th. In honor of our artists, Vincent Michael Gallery will be hosting an opening reception Friday, February 4th 7PM to 10PM.

In his newest body of works Natural Selections, artist Shai Dahan has continued to explore the issues of survivalism within the animal habitat by addressing the effect of human’s behavior and disruption to the natural order and environmental conditions. In Natural Selections, Dahan has created a series of aesthetic paintings that exemplify this struggle and focus on wildlife’s two key traits of which they must depend on: Movement and Survival.

Dahan portrays the distress to the natural society of wildlife by combining elements of realistic portrayal and abstract motion. He takes his interpretation of this environmental conflict and unseemingly symbiotic relationship a step further by utilizing amusing hints of industrialism and manmade weapons.
Along the same lines, Joe Iurato explores another deep-seeded relationship for man: the struggle between belief amidst trials and hardship.

In his first solo gallery exhibition, artist Joe Iurato’s latest works in Salvation examine the ever-present bond between man’s faith and misfortune in modern times. With his illusive imagery, Iurato portrays the struggle between seeking solace in self, God, or society - everyone turns to something during times of adversity.

Coming off his recent success at Art Basel Miami with ArtWhino Gallery's "The Takeover" exhibition, the NBA supported "Art of Basketball" exhibition, and Primary Flight, Iurato set focus on developing a new body of work for his gallery exhibition, utilizing new methods and mostly found materials. For Iurato, Salvation is a deeply personal body of work, one that arose from the question: Is our faith, wherever it may come from, a road to greener pastures or is it merely a component of tragedy in disguise?

Exhibition Details What: Natural Selections & Salvation: Featuring New Works from Shai Dahan and Joe Iurato Where: Vincent Michael Gallery 1050 N. Hancock St. Suite #63 Philadelphia, PA 19123 When: Exhibit runs February 4th thru February 25th Opening Reception Friday, February 4th 7pm – 10pm More Information 215.399.1580 x. 704 / International – 1.877.291.1138 or contact@vincentmichael.com

About The Artists

Shai Dahan, founder of Abztract Collective, is a New York artist who currently resides in Sweden. Shai's work predominantly focuses on animals and their environment conditions, and how the repercussion of human tampering causes them to evolve into survivalism. Animals painted and illustrated with witty and humorous hints of man-made weapons, expresses Shai's hopes in letting the viewer see the hybrid effect of man's hands in animal society and its disruption on the natural order.

Shai Dahan: "Foolishly Loaded" 48" x 48". Wheatpaste, acrylic, markers, spraypaint, watercolor on plywood.

Joe Iurato is a New Jersey based artist, prolific in street art and mural installations and has shown extensively in New York City, L.A., Miami and Europe. Joe Iurato specifically signs his work :01. It’s not an alias to conceal his identity, though. It’s a reminder to himself, and one that he chooses to share, that a single second is the most powerful measurement of time. “It only takes a second to decide you’re going to move forward in a positive direction regardless of the obstacles or challenges you’re facing in life,” Joe says. “And from that decisive moment on, you should never look back. Know that life isn’t a race or a competition – you can’t lose unless you give up on yourself. When you get slapped around, get back up, wipe the dirt off and move forward with purpose and conviction. While you’re at it, make it your business to help others along the way.”

Joe Iurato: "Rubble" Spray paint and polyurethane on cardboard affixed to a reclaimed cabinet door

About Vincent Michael Gallery
Wanting to support and contribute to contemporary art, owners and avid collectors Elizabeth Gault, Armon Vincent and Andrew George established Vincent Michael Gallery in Philadelphia, PA. The gallery is a multifaceted space that exhibits diverse forms of art from both emerging and established artists. By incorporating the use of progressive technology, we strive to challenge contemporary art as well as our artists, and seek to create an open forum for on-going dialogue and community engagement.

Moderna - Tonight in NJ

Our good pal and featured artist Joe Iurato is part of a dope looking art show in Jersey tonight. If you won't be in front of your television watching your DVR'd Oprah episodes, then put down that "Gotta Have It" size Coldstone Ice Cream bowl down and slap on your freshest sneakers and head to the train station. It is a hop and skip away (if you are into skipping, although we don't recommend it in NYC). Head over and check out some art on what will soon be end of summer and you will be back in your house crying with Oprah over a Mudpie Mojo.

Friends With Knives @ Crewest Gallery

Crewest Gallery is having a fantastic show in August titled "Friends With Knives".
The event will feature some of Abztract featured artists including Joe Iurato, Shai Dahan and Papermonster along with other amazing talents such as Chris Stain, Broken Crow and even Blek le Rat (The Godfather of Stencils).

Below you will find the flyer and info. If you are in Los Angeles, we highly recommend making it to the opening reception on August 7th. The aretwork will be amazing.

-Abztract Fam

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Friends with Knives On view from August 7th through August 29th, 2010 Opening Reception: Saturday, August 7th, 2010 from 6-9pm

Los Angeles, CA – Having evolved from the first stencils recorded in human history, where hands were placed on cave walls and spit upon with watered paint pigments, to the now more multilayered, complex, political, and emotional stencils of today; stencil graffiti and stencil art is making its way into the art world as a growing genre that is captivating art lover’s and collectors world wide. To showcase this growing genre for art lovers and collectors alike, Crewest Gallery is proud to present Friends With Knives, a cutting edge stencil art exhibition curated by PaperMonster, featuring a collection of outstanding and intricately detailed works by world class stencil artists: Blek le Rat, Broken Crow, Chris Stain, Dave Lowell, E.L.K, Greg Boudreau, HAHA, Henry Quiara, Joe Iurato, Koleszar, Leckomio, Mefee, Nathan Phaneuf, PaperMonster, Peat Wollaeger, Scotch and Shai Dahan.

A broad range of stencil graffiti styles including photorealism, political, pop, abstract, and those focusing purely on beauty will be on display. Emerging and established artists will be on view side by side as a testament of the history, evolution and future of stencil art. Artists in this exhibit form a collective that defines the power and beauty of stencil art which continues to drive one of the fastest growing street art movements throughout the world. In attendance on Opening Night will be exhibiting artists Greg Boudreau, Henry Quiara, Koleszar, Nathan Phaneuf and Scotch. In the Featured Artist Room: Installation by Featured Artist and godfather of graffiti in LA, Chaz Bojorquez. Bojorquez’s symbol or “tag”, created in 1969, was a stylized skull called Senor Suerte inspired by Mexican folklore and especially by the cult of Holy Death, and is one of the first examples of stencil art applied to the street and it subsequently became an image for protection against death among the street gangs. Bojórquez was one of the first writers to employ special typographical characters, creating an original synthesis of psychedelic style, Fraktur and Chinese calligraphy. Also, special Chaz book signing event TBA, stay tuned for further details! About the Friends with Knives Artists: · Banksy in his unofficial biography famously said of Blek Le Rat, “Everytime I think I've painted something original I find out that Blek Le Rat has done it as well, only 20 years earlier'. Blek Le Rat often described as the Godfather of Stencil Art was the first to use stencils for silhouettes on the streets of Paris, he has been investigating the urban space for over 28 years and still continues to inspire urban artists all over the world. · PaperMonster’s vivid and intricate pieces explore the beauty behind the eyes and facial expressions of women. · Broken Crow's art features various animals and anthropomorphic humanoids in crazy colors and extreme sizes. Through painting they seek to reintroduce wild animals back into urban habitats, writing their own mythologies as they go. · Chris Stain’s work and its themes find a kinship with the American social-realist movement of the early 20th century. Kolezar experiments with things like color, detail and scale to challenge preconceptions of what can be accomplished with stenciling. · Nathan Phaneuf focuses on more minimal pieces that accentuate the women he photographs for his pieces produced using the underlying wood as the main skin tone and negative space for his stencils. · Shai Dahan is recognized for his talent of hand painting skateboards as well as creating his animalguns designs on the streets of Los Angeles and New York using stencils, wheatpastes and other mediums as well. · Peat Wollaeger (stenSOUL) is internationally known stencil artist famous for his signature EYEZ , raw colorful characters and stencil videos. · Dave Lowell works with a combination of multi-layer stencils and freehand spraying. · E.L.K is fast becoming well respected amongst his peers and in much demand nationally for his approach to photo-realistic stenciling. · By using multi-layered stencils of up to 60 layers HAHA’s work is a reflection of Austrailian popular culture. · Joe Iurato just launched a new series of portraits featuring a selection of musicians performing the famous song “Summertime” from Porgy and Bess. · Henry Quiara is an artist/designer of lowbrow, urban contemporary and counter culture art. · Greg Boudreau specializes in making the ordinary extraordinary. · Mefee, a true definition of an anomaly. Mefee works as a scarification artists providing surgical implants underneath the skin in which his skill with a scalpol is easily transfered into his stencil work creating precision cut pieces. · Leckomio’s works deal with street art and graffiti as a subject, as shown by B-boys or the hyper-realistic representation of urban landscapes tagged for sky to bitumen. · Scotch! continues to push for new techniques/ideas that people of all ages & genres can enjoy. Exhibiting Artists: Blek le Rat, Broken Crow, Chris Stain, Dave Lowell, E.L.K, Greg Boudreau, HAHA, Henry Quiara, Joe Iurato, Koleszar, Leckomio, Mefee, Nathan Phaneuf, PaperMonster, Peat Wollaeger, Scotch, Shai Dahan Artist Websites Chaz Bojorquez: http://www.chazbojorquez.com Blek le Rat: http://bleklerat.free.fr/ Broken Crow: http://brokencrow.com Chris Stain: http://www.chrisstain.com Dave Lowell: http://www.flickr.com/photos/davelowell/ E.L.K: http://myspace.com/elkstencils Greg Boudreau: http://www.gregboudreau.com HAHA: http://www.regantamanui.com Henry Quiara: http://www.artficionado.blogspot.com Joe Iurato: http://www.joeiurato.com Koleszar: http://www.koleszar.com Leckomio: http://www.stefanwinterle.de/ Mefee: http://www.mefee.org Nathan Phaneuf: http://www.nathanphaneuf.com/ PaperMonster: http://papermonster.wordpress.com Peat Wollaeger: http://www.stenSOUL.com Scotch: http://www.myspace.com/el_scotcho Shai Dahan : http://www.Abztract.com Important Dates: Opening Reception August 7th, 2010 from 6-9pm with Live music by DJ Phyz Ed. Artwalk Event August 12th, 2010 from 6-9pm with Live music by DJ Phyz Ed. Last Day for Exhibit August 29, 2010

Bios and images are available by request. Crewest 110 Winston St. Los Angeles, CA 90013 ph | 213-627-8272

Crewest is a gallery that supports some of the most talented underground artists from the West Coast and beyond. The gallery's focus is on urban & graffiti art created through painting, sculpture, digital, and print medias. All of the exhibits housed at Crewest deal with what is current, and significant within the realm of the urban art experience. Hours of operation are Tues. thru Thurs.: noon – 7pm, Fri. and Sat.: 12pm -8pm, Sun.: Noon – 6pm and Closed Mondays (except by appointment only). Visit the gallery online at:www.crewest.com. Curator: PaperMonster is a stencil graffiti artist who’s vivid and intricate pieces explore the beauty behind the eyes and facial expressions of women. Born in Puerto Rico, PaperMonster incorporates stencil and pasting techniques to create pieces of art on any surface by incorporating pop culture icons, Asian typography, patterns and texture to present vibrant emotions and stories. His work allows the audience to take his creations for pure face value or explore deeper into each piece. Visit PaperMonster online at: http://papermonster.wordpress.com .

Joe Iurato paints his own Sistine Chapel

So a few weeks back, we showed you the fresh Gonz stencil our homie and Abztract artist Joe Iurato did.  Well, besides busting out some crazy dope original art for the Rogue Status show we did in LA in early April, the dude has been keeping himself very busy.

Joe hit up DAY ONE Skateshop in CT and took on the challenge of painting upside down for the first time (straight up Sistine Chapel style).  The stencil work he did on their ceiling is of John Cardiel and Mark "The Gonz" Gonzales.  

Check out these action shots.  Joe tells us that he will be returning to DAY ONE SKATESHOP to add additional work to their ceiling adding more portraits every couple of months painting it live during the shops events until the entire ceiling is full.  

Props and kudos for not only taking on such an extreme challenge, but doing so by giving homage to some true skate legends.

Viva la Gonz! by Joe Iurato

For those who grew up skateboarding (or like us, getting our chins aquatinted with the local sidewalks), you would have probably heard, known or idolized Mark Gonzales (aka The Gonz).

The Gonz is a worldwide legendary street skater (and artist too). So we were stoked this morning to get this image in our inbox from our pal Joe Iurato (who we are finding out has stencil talent deeper than than the rabbit hole).

Joe busted out this Viva la Gonz image using a knife, paper and spray as a test for an upcoming mural he will be doing.

Fresh.

Joe Iurato ":01" video

This video was by Craig Copelin (Nilepoc Media), Abel Okugawa Collaboration video to promote the work of Joe Iurato.
Joe is a very talented stencil artist. Check it out and make sure to see more work by Joe at his Flickr page: Here.



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