In his new solo show Remakes, Kenzo Minami addresses the phenomenon of remakes, both in art and in our culture at large, through repetition-based works that resist the conventional grammar of design. Minami looks back on the past 10 years as a decade of remakes and repeats. As the beginning of a new century, the ’00s have been about wrapping up and reviewing the 20th Century so that we can finally prepare to begin a new phase in the 21st. Acknowledging the ubiquitous nature of archetypes that have been around since ancient times, Minami himself participates in reworking these same ideas in his paintings and prints, but with a consciousness that places the repetition at a remove. Devoid of the visual punctuation of a clear focal point, Minami’s works take the act of repetition to a new level: they are anti-design, anti-characteristic, anti-motif, anti-concept. This is his vision of the way the 20th Century should have ended — with an acknowledgement of a culture of repetition, post-post-modernism, post-referencing, rebuilding, and loss of originality. In Minami’s “remake” of the end of the 20th Century, the slow death and the state of continuous ending that we have experienced in the first decade of the 21st Century– without definition, ultimatum, or period at the end of the sentence– is no longer necessary.

Born in London in 1979, de Villeneuve now lives in New York. With photographic work most recently commissioned by Nanette Lapore and a photographic series on the life-serving inmates of ‘Angola’, the Louisiana State Penitentiary, de Villeneuve’s work is diverse with a signature style shot using a Hasselblad. She has also exhibited in group and solo shows in the UK and US. Her next exhibition will be at the Soho Grand Hotel, Manhattan, with a specially commissioned series capturing immobile star struck individuals amongst the crowds watching live music.

Her American mother, Jan, once at the vanguard of Britain’s fashion scene and one of the most celebrated models of the 1960s and 1970s, and photographer father, Justin de Villeneuve, who discovered and managed model Twiggy, gives Poppy blueblood lineage in the world of fashion and style. This illustrated by the fact that she was photographed by both Mario Testino and Juergen Teller before her 18th birthday.

The Observer has said of her work, ‘her documentary-style images of people stranded in airports, at the rodeo and in trailer parks, have a surreal quality reminiscent of the film director David Lynch.’

De Villeneuve’s editorial work is featured regularly in The Saturday and Sunday Telegraph magazines, The Guardian Weekend magazine, Dazed and Confused, Esquire, W magazine, Monocle, US Teen Vogue, Art review, British Vogue and more recently, American Vogue and Tokion. Her latest commission was for German coat company Wellensteyn: 40 people, and 40 stories. This took de Villeneuve to 40 cities in America over 13 days, photographing everyday people wearing Wellensteyn jackets. De Villeneuve has also just completed the first ad campaign for international clothing company, Nanette Lepore, as art director and photographer. This included the new fragrance campaign for Nanette Lepore and Elizabeth Arden.

GrandLife and Passionate Magazine were proud to present Danish artist Ditte Gantriis’ project “A Note on Cravings”, on display at Tribeca Grand Hotel from March 5th - 8th, 2009 coinciding with The Armory Show 2009.  The opening reception was held on March 6th, 2009 with music provided by DJ Lissie Trullie.

Gantriis draws inspiration from several 20th Century movements and other seedier sources to create an elegant and intensely erotic experience. The series introduces a new style of work for the artist, combining illustration and collage techniques. “A Note on Cravings” evokes Russian constructivism, Art Deco, and commercial illustrations of the 1950s. This was Gantriis’ first show in the United States. Gantriis’ work was featured in the debut issue of Passionate Magazine, an emerging-artists portfolio, launching at The Armory Show 2009.

The exhibit was also sponsored by Art Remix Projects, an emerging arts organization based in New York and Paris focused on new models for art production and the art market.

Tribeca Grand was proud to host an exciting exclusive film and video project in collaboration with VOLTA NY and Sketch Gallery during the Armory Show 2009.  Amanda Coulson, director of VOLTA NY, the darling of the Armory Show satellite fairs, commissioned Natalie Kovacs and Victoria Brooks to curate a 3-part project, entitled A New Stance for Tomorrow, including a site-specific screening program for Tribeca Grand:

A New Stance for Tomorrow - Screening Program Parts 1 & 2
The program was split into two parts, conceptually focused around the films of Charles and Ray Eames from the 1950s and 1980s and was screened daily in the Grand Screen at Tribeca Grand throughout the Armory Show.

A New Stance for Tomorrow – Part 2 Wildflowers of Manitoba mixed-media performative installation
The second major piece was displayed in Tribeca Grand’s Sanctum throughout the Armory Show and comprised an arresting mixed media work that incorporated film, performance and a domed installation by Noam Gonick and Luis Jacob. Wildflowers of Manitoba is both a utopian vision of an idealistic world and a model or vision of how things to come could be.

A New Stance for Tomorrow – Part 3 Soundscape and installation at VOLTA NY 7W
A New Stance for Tomorrow continued in the elevators at 7W – the site of VOLTA NY with a series of artists’ soundscapes and audio projects, including with Byron Broadbent’s Cine-Pod – a solar-powered cinema made from ‘smart glass’ – a switchable material that transforms from translucent to opaque with the start and end of a screening.

Following on from last year’s success, Tribeca Grand hosted VOLTA NY’s VIP Opening Reception on March 5th, 2009 with a special preview of A New Stance for Tomorrow. The event was co-hosted with the Guggenheim’s Young Collectors Council and VOLTA NY’s media sponsor, Art Review, and beverage sponsors, Grolsch beer, Basil Hayden and Mansinthe – Marilyn Manson’s own brand absinthe.  Trèfles a 4 Fleurs scented candles were provided courtesy of L’Artisan Parfumeur.

For his first solo show at the Soho Grand Hotel, Ruvan Wijesooriya shows a departure from his vivid explorations of subculture and enters a more demure, melancholic landscape. The images featured in the show deals with lost ideals, beauty and disappointment whilst maintaining the humor, curiosity and quirkiness that is ever-present in his book, All Night New York. In this book, James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem writes of Ruvans work:

“All of Ruvan’s pictures remind me of that feeling: That your life could be saved if you could get there right then. That you’re geographically fucked, and it’s all happening right now, somewhere else, without you. There is an enormous amount of intimacy in them, and promise, and intrusion…”

Ruvan Wijesooriya is known for exhibitions where his audience takes home the works. As inhibitions are dropped, image by image is peeled down from the exhibition walls until nothing remains. With this gesture Ruvan suggests that an image is never for him to keep, his subjects caught in some transitional moment that he claims no ownership over. This twist also points to the artist’s relationship to the image making process, featuring effervescent characters that fluctuate in and out of the image surface. Ruvan’s images are informed by the contemporary practice of a more hard-edged documentary look to fashion image-making that includes biographical elements. His close relationship to many of his subjects have resulted in intimate portraits wedged in-between the commercial and the arts, the autobiographical and the editorial.  However, unlike many of his contemporaries he does not rely on the personal drama of his subjects. Ruvan assumes the role of a mediator that allows for a subtle narrative to unfold within this series of images.

This is Ruvan’s first solo show in New York. He has had solo exhibitions in London and Barcelona, and participated in numerous group-shows worldwide.  In the last year he has completed commissioned projects for Paul Smith, The Museum of Modern Art, the TV show, Gossip Girl and more.

Shortly before Kurt Cobain committed suicide in 1994, Jesse photographed him in New York City. Kurt arrived 3 hours late and barely coherent, looking just as he appears in these photos. Recognizing a great visual opportunity, Jesse immediately scratched plans for the location shoot he had organized and chose instead to shoot Kurt in a studio environment. Because of Kurt’s tardiness, Jesse had only 15 minutes to shoot.

“Sometimes the best pictures are taken when I’m under enormous pressure - everything becomes intensified and the shoot energy is elevated,” says Jesse. The portraits are at once mysterious, as none of the images show Kurt’s eyes, and yet very revealing of Kurt’s strong and enigmatic character. Including images of various degrees of the life cycle of flowers, Jesse emphasizes the ephemeral quality of life as well as its beauty and decline.

Jesse has been shooting celebrities, flowers and other subjects since picking up a camera while earning a degree in economics at the University of Michigan. With no formal training, he decided to try photography as a career and was hired by legendary photographer Irving Penn who was intrigued by a shared interest in platinum prints.

Jesse has since photographed countless celebrities as well as still life for magazines such as Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Vogue, Bazaar, V Magazine, German Vogue, The New York Times Magazine, Interview, Spin and ID.

His advertising clients include Montblanc, Clinique, Estee Lauder, Motorola, Strenesse, Lucky Strike, and Levi’s.

Jesse was born in New York City, where he currently lives and works.

The color prints are archival pigment prints on Harman Gloss paper. The black and white prints are selenium toned monochromatic archival pigment prints.

To purchase prints, please contact info@jessefrohman.com

Prints courtesy of Industrial Color  IC Lab www.industrialcolor.com

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.

Featured in Italian Vogue, Sugar, Thrasher, Mass Appeal, among others, true downtown artist Harif Guzman has quickly established a name for himself in the art world. Guzman has exhibited his work in several cities throughout the U.S. and Canada. His photos and film are inspired by the streets of downtown New York and we are pleased to bring you his latest work.

Born in 1975 in Caracas, Venezuela, Guzman lived in various cities throughout his childhood. Los Angeles, Miami, Montreal, are only few of the places that he called home; eventually in 2000 he settled in downtown New York City. Guzman’s paintings aesthetically reflect his childhood interpretations of the various landscape and surroundings he’s experienced. His former career as a skateboarder enabled him to travel cross-country as well. After his travels came to a halt by a skateboarding injury, he transformed the people, places, and experiences of past travel into the mediums of acrylic painting and film.

The reception for Whatever Whenever was held on June 25th at the Church Lounge at the Tribeca Grand. Along with Guzman’s art, two Super 8 short films were also screened, “Moco” in color and “Man of Letters” in black and white. Clark Hassler also read from his writings of dark poetry

Ambriel Floyd is an artist and fashion designer whose work in screen prints and textile designs has led to an innovative approach to abstracted landscapes and environment portraits. To showcase her newest work, Floyd has installed 16 custom 64” x 27” art panels in the main atrium of the Tribeca Grand Hotel for viewing, along with pieces from her Fall 2008 ready to wear and accessories collections. The installation is part of a series of site-specific art projects the artist refers to as “Imaginary Line.” Pieces from the fashion line reference this theme, as well. Her work will be on view until the end of April.

Tribeca Grand Celebrated the Armory Art Fair with an installation by Jeremy Kost called “Not Yet Titled (Making Faces)”, 2008. The installation consisted of  four  14 ft X 16 ft screens with LCD projections that hung in the main atrium of the Tribeca Grand. Inspired by Bruce Nauman’s “Studies for a Hologram”.

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.