Curated by Everard Findlay, Cut/Break features works by photographers Joe Curren, Chris Gentile, and Martyn Thompson. The exhibit is an examination of surfing as a transformative cross-cultural platform. Each of the artists has donated their work for the exhibition. All proceeds from the pieces auctioned will benefit SFOTE’s current ventures, the Laventille Bus Project, which will provide free, sustainable school transportation to children in an impoverished area of Trinidad.

The reception, which was held at The Gallery and The Yard at the Soho Grand on May 28th was hosted by Stella Schnabel and also featured screenings of short films by directors Richard Kenvin, Brutton Caillouette, and Jakob Daschek.

On July 24th, “This Eclectic Explosion” opened at the Tribeca Grand. The show, which will be up for three weeks, was curated by Peter Miszuk and features artists Laura Helms, Ryder E. Robison, Clayton Cubitt, Stephanie Halmos, Jonathan Bookallil, Keegan Singh, Chuck Guarino, Derrick R. Cruz, and Jen Kao. Miszuk wanted to “bring together a piece of the New York’s collective creativity.” By giving the artists the freedom to contribute whatever they’d like, the exhibit is intended to make you “feel like you went to someone’s house and they had an amazing collection of art that you sort of envied” says Miszuk.

The work of Alex Salinas reverberates along the lines of contaminating the image with ideas of the object by fetishizing it in a doll-like way. In doing so, Salinas camouflages the distance between the viewer and what is portrayed. This is the case in the black and white photographs that measure time and light through contrast and dispersion, giving the images a texture of void and taking them to the edgy point where they could break. The color photographs show gesture and composure, portraying endurance and presence on demand, juxtaposing glamour with experience, vulnerability, and even decease. Alex Salinas's exhibition is multilayered; it doesn't just deliver a fragmented image, but rather one that works as a depiction of a fragment as a whole.

Alex Salinas was born and is based in Antwerp, Belgium. As a child he came in contact with photography through his photographer-father. This evolved into a continuous fascination for "capturing a moment." He worked with Belgian fashion designers such as Veronique Branquinho, Haider Ackerman, Bruno Pieters and Les Hommes and brands like Delvaux, Women Secret, Eastpak, Levi's, Lee Jeans and Fabuleux Marcel.  His editorial work includes contributions to A Magazine, Dazed & Confused, Jalouse, Intersection, Arena H+ and Harpers Bazaar UK.   Part of his portfolio covers album and press photography for bands like Magnus, Millionaire, Vive la fete,  dEUS, Daan, Soulwax, 2 Many DJ’s, and Absynthe Minded.

Operating under many differing guises, photographer Erik Madigan Heck's work collects itself within maison d'esprit, a house created in 2004 for his varying projects and imagery. The persona surrounding his many aliases and collectively that of maison d'esprit has always been that of ambiguity and invisibility, characteristics that are truly understood and felt in his work.

Erik was born in Excelsior in 1983 into a family of a painter and avid art collector. After being raised in the United States he finally left for Paris at the age of 21, finding his way into the fashion world after photographing La Collection Blanche for the Parisian atelier Sandrine Philippe.

In 2007 Erik was rumored to have joined the highly controversial trinity collective, although this information still remains speculative. Erik currently resides in New York where he photographs 
and art directs for various publications and fashion designers internationally, as well as finds time to be editor in chief of the avant-garde bi-annual fashion and fine-art publication Nomenus Quarterly www.nomenusquarterly.com 

Fashion designer Craig Robinson and photographer Rudy Archuleta showcase their work in an exhibition of portraits of rock musicians. These intimate black and white photographs capture members of Interpol, Secret Machines, The Raveonettes, New York Dolls, Radio Four, Dead Meadow, and Jon Spencer, among others. The work highlights the creative collaboration between Robinson’s Fifth-Avenue atelier and its unique clientele.

Following in a long line of image-defining designers, Craig Robinson brings the craft of bespoke tailoring to the inseparable bond between sound and image in pop culture. By combining tradition and forward design, Robinson’s work shows how fashion is an integral part of shaping rock-and-roll legends.

Upon Rudy Archuleta's arrival to New York City, he quickly became known in the music world as an image defining photographer. His signature use of light and composition is steeped both in classical skill and rock-and-roll edge. He has since become an in-demand photographer for Rolling Stone, Vibe, Premier, New York Times Magazine, MTV Networks, and New York Magazine.

Polaroid photographer Jeremy Kost has been a fixture in the New York nightlife world, capturing the unguarded moments of some of the most colorful characters and notable faces.  By gaining the trust of his famous subjects, he has redefined nightlife imagery with his evocative brand of photographs framed in the nostalgic white borders of Polaroid pictures.

Not a Play Area (curated by Eric Shiner) is a departure from Kost's renowned celebrity and pop culture imagery, composed of images and conceptual pieces that demonstrate his true artistic passion—a keen ability to use his dynamic world as an artist’s pallet.  Kost’s images are inclusive, inviting the viewer to become a voyeur into the city’s gritty, after-dark playground by freezing a range of emotions such as poise, beauty, insecurity, jubilation, and sadness as they crossed his subject’s faces in a single instant.  In "Missing Myth," he engages the viewer with a clean image of a doe eyed, milky Disney queen Snow white, who is lustful yet pure, naive yet coy, and intense yet soft.  A modern day Warhol with his unique brand of pop art, Kost’s work speaks to a theme of playfulness, which evolves from lighthearted revelry into a realm of passion and depth brewing beneath the surface.

Jamie Isaia evokes mood and atmosphere in a color-saturated, expressive photographic style that suggests dream-like, otherworldly scenarios.  Though her images are thoughtfully scripted, they also reveal the unexpected and the spontaneous, resulting in a rich blend of performative elements rendered in a painterly photographic style.  In this exhibition, her talent for bringing together landscape, portraiture and fashion is also apparent.

Isaia’s first ventures into fashion and portrait photography have demonstrated how successfully her unique and subtle vision translates to the page.  Her work for iD, Italian Vogue, and W Magazine reveals a talent in ascendance within the sphere of fashion photography. She is also a regular contributor to Muse magazine and has ongoing collaborations with fashion designer Zac Posen.

Given the facelift that the city has endured over the last few decades, it’s hard to remember the eccentric decadence of New York’s underground scene in late 1970’s to early 1980’s. The island was a hotbed of creativity that thrived in every nook and cranny of the unexploited Lower East Side, SoHo, and the Bowery, and transgressed into such clubs as Studio 54, The Mudd Club, Danceteria, and the Palladium. Fortunately for us, icon and style maker of the era, Maripol was there to capture the era all in its unabashed glory through the lens of her Polaroid SX-70.

French born Maripol came to New York in 1976 and landed a job as art director for Fiorucci, the 59th street boutique that also gave exhibition space to the likes of Keith Haring and Basquiat. Though she was best known as Madonna’s stylist during her “Like a Virgin” days, Maripol’s varied career as a jewelry designer, film and music video producer, and stylist for indie films and commercials, led her to the people and places that she ferociously documented. Her unguarded, optimistic portraits capture both the sincerity and explosive nature of the scene.

At the end of the era, over 8,000 polaroids have been snapped. A glimpse of them is featured in Maripolarama, published by Power House Books. On May 19, 2006 at The Soho Grand Gallery, the public experienced this enigmatic world with a show of Maripol’s enlarged Polaroid Prints. A special thanks to Agnes B. for a great collaboration to make this happen.