Creative Slump No More

Show opens Friday, March 5th from 8pm-11pm
This March, Factory Fresh welcomes heliumcowboy artspace of Hamburg, Germany as we partner to presents the art of Boris Hoppek & Alex Diamond. Our two galleries will bring together German Artist Boris Hoppek & transient Alex Diamond’s work as they have received increasing international popularity in recent years. These artists have exhibited in solo and group shows in museums, galleries, festivals and art fairs in Europe as well as in the US. In a joint effort the artist will show new works on paper and Boris has promised an up the skirt installation.

Boris Hoppek, has been an acclaimed name in the Graffiti-world since the late eighties, more recently he has become an outstanding talent within the contemporary art scene. By thematizing sexuality, violence, racism and oppression in a very clean and accurate style, the artist isolates provocative themes for contemplation. Since 2004, the heliumcowboy artspace has exhibited his works in three solo shows and on diverse art fairs. In Basel and Miami 2007, Hoppek set up huge interactive cardboard installations at SCOPE, and today he is one of the most prominent European artists coming from a background in Street Art/Graffiti. For SCOPE Basel 2008, Hoppek was invited to convert the water taxis commuting across the Rhine into floating artworks, bringing his narrative potential away from the constrictions of a traditional booth scenario onto the water.

Alex Diamond is unseizable as a person and difficult to categorize as an artist, he is more fantasy than reality. His main issue always centres around his work and its presentation, but never around the personality of an individual. Alex Diamond appears always as a new and different creation of a role or character with every one of his shows. Not limited by a CV, a formative education or even a dedicated technique or style, Alex Diamond constantly develops a new specific presence for the “Artist behind the work“. Alex Diamond is an artist who apparently lives solely through the art he creates – and vice versa. He plays mind tricks with visual aids, pleasing at one moment, disturbing in the next. Independent from styles and techniques, he mirrors life and our constant fight for possession, superiority, survival and love in an almost nonchalant way. Having focused on his project Being Alex Diamond for the last year and a half (and of which also a catalogue has been published lately), the artist will now present a whole new body of drawings at Factory Fresh.
Runs till April 11, 2010

Show Opens Thursday, December 10, 7-10pm
Show Runs till January 10, 2010.

This December, Factory Fresh pulls out all the stops as we welcome The London Police and Galo as they return to New York to celebrate more than a decade in the game. Known for their iconic characters collectively these artist work have respectively graced streets and galleries in 35 countries and have been feature in numerous publications throughout the globe. The artists will be showcasing new canvas, featured films of the artist and installation works created site specifically for Factory Fresh.

This year has seen the return of Bob Gibson to The London Police after five years of touring with the band ‘MOSS’ and flipping burgers in a filthy Dutch snackbar. And so the original founding members are re-embarking on their quest to combine making artwork and travelling the globe to better themselves and spread artistic love through the world. The blueprint for this year was to produce solid back-to-basics black and white artworks collaborating the iconic LADS characters drawn by Chaz with the tight architectural and illustrative landscapes of Bob Gibson. To celebrate 10 years in the field TLP had shows in London (Stolen Space, April 2009), Amsterdam (Go Gallery, May 2009), and Los Angeles (Carmichael Gallery, Sept 2009) with their final show at New York’s Factory Fresh.

Italian stallion, Galo, packs a punch when it comes to covering things in paint – he has painted almost every surface imaginable to man or beast. His work has appeared on three continents, in galleries, museums, cafes and nightclubs, on walls and off. Life for Galo is just one big moving canvas. Welcome to the Galoverse…

In addition to the newly painted works created specifically for this show by each artist , The London Police and Galo will create a collaborative site specific installation for Factory Fresh. Despite the possible cold weather, plans are set for painting a large scale mural in the courtyard of Factory Fresh.

This November, Factory Fresh brings together four elusive artists who each work seamlessly in between the worlds of graffiti and streetart. These two art forms look identical to the untrained eye but in actuality are more like brawling brothers to those who are part of the movement. Artists Armer, Darkcloud, Goreb and Deeker are a few exceptions. Each of their work ranges on the street one day a large scale mural, another day carefully placed signs or paintings, sometimes even a junk sculpture is installed onto a crowded street. As a result these artists cannot be dismissed by any group of urban artists and have been validated by their acceptance from multiple ranges of critcs.

The Darkcloud image has been a constant staple in the urban art scene since 2003 and can be seen all over the east and west coast. Darkcloud is attributed with having more hand painted stickers up than anyone on the scene today. The meaning being unclear for most, it stems from the concept that angst is always following us. A visual representation of the darkness in our lives we are unable to escape. Darkcloud will be showing a mix of paintings on glass, metal, wood, and more. Also, prints may be available for the first time in his artist career.

Deeker is a rogue, pessimistic bastard who comes out and paints when the weather is at it’s worst. This bottom feeder lurks around the other three, drops hints of doomsday, tells tales of perpetual unemployment and generally depresses everyone. His work will consist of ghastly character paintings and painstakingly fine cut wooden words and botanical elements. The likes of which you can find hidden all around the streets of New York, if you look carefully.

GoreB’s work was first noticed in Dumbo in the summer of 2004 and people discussed his work in tones you might use to talk about a griffin or a chimera, a former math prodigy who’d been corrupted in his teen years by something called hobo freight art, then spiraled into a life of nomadic polymath street-art savanthood and touched down, for a few years, in New York. Goreb currently resides on the West Coast in Santa Cruz and has created new oil paintingsfor the show featuring collages of birds, black and white photos, and fonts with hints of older paintings underneath.

With GoreB and Deeker as mentors and occasional sidekicks, young Armer paints large, uncomfortable faces on both coasts. His streetwork is powered by the painterly and gestural satisfaction he gets from working on a grand scale and from the belief in American graffiti as a way to respect the past while fighting the present. This show gives Armer his first crack at gallery walls. Pared down to a self-retrospective, mixed media work will echo his presence in the street (color combinations he loves; how he processes and releases information) but also will chronicle a day/night in the life.

Opening Reception October 23rd, 7-10pm
Show runs till Nov 7th

Factory Fresh is pleased to announce the opening of its October Group Exhibition Grand Champions Forever, Never Say Die curated by John Breiner. This marks the third presentation of the ongoing Grand Champions curatorial project, having been envisioned and presented in 2003 as Grand Champions Forever, then again in 2004 as Grand Champions Forever and Ever. Initially the concept of the exhibition was to create a platform for a group of emerging artist to exhibit work. The commonality among these artists was simply Breiner’s realization that many of his peers had developed concise and mature bodies of work with draws to similar aesthetics. At this point the work was connected through artistic discourse but needed a space to expand this conversation. Having none, Breiner created an environment to display this fledgling ebullience thus fueling an already tenacious work ethic. The receptions for each Grand Champion show united the multidisciplinary work with music and celebration that embodied the lives of these young artists. Finally having a theatre the exhibition inherited the artist fervor and became the medium in it’s own right.

Five years have passed and it is astonishing that all of the artists involved have received critical acclaim and have reached great levels of success. Whether through fine art, photography, design or curation each of the original Grand Champions have developed into guiding lights and influential forces in their respective practice. It is with great pleasure and excitement that once again the Grand Champs have been reunited to celebrate tradition and the vibrant mélange of current work that has blossomed from this talented collection.

The Grand Champions are…
Maylis Atkins, James Blagden, John Breiner, Rich Browd, Andreis Costa, Denise Despirto, Brendan Donnelly, Mickey Duzyj, J.Elias,
Eric Elms, Michael Farmer, Gary Fogelson, Sam friedman, Ellis Gallagher, Matt Holister, Psychotropic Horizons,Taras Hrabowsky, Stephen Key, Mr. Kiji, Jordan Kleinman, Cat Lauigan, Sakura Maku, Josh Matta,
Louie Guy Metzner, Soner On, Peter Paquin, John Francis Peters, Patrick Rocha, Graham Shimberg, Jessica Smith & Joe Whiteley

Sponsered by: Asashi

Why is Factory Fresh’s only Solo Show of 2009 Tim Kent, a contemporary artist?

Read the exclusive interview by the Factory Fresh team members at http://www.factoryfresh.net/factoryfreshblog.html

Find out more September 17th, please RSVP TimKent@studiodouedari.com