DaWire

Titus Kaphar, This place never felt like home There is no question that nuances of power are central to the work of Titus Kaphar.  However, in today’s world, to dis-empower, overpower, or empower is dépassé. To play with power is the name of the game.  To cut off the head of power, exploit it, expose [...]

Rae McGrath’s SUGAR JUNKIE; a Winnebago turned gallery turned school bus

One of the most enticing legacies of the tradition of writers and their multiple identities as graffiti artists, aerosol artists, street artists, or simply artists, is the spontaneous intensity of a particular type of art making. A certain “Live Art”, in dialogue with the moment. It is precisely this paradigm that Rae McGrath’s Brooklynite Gallery has engaged with for the last 3 years on Malcolm X Boulevard, not far from Fulton Street, in the Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Now at a crossroads, McGrath is looking to take this living art practice into new territory.[...]

Carlos “Mare139” Rodriguez, WU/StyleWriter, an illegal public sculpture in Wuppertal Germany.

One of the hardest working women in New York City is Martha Diaz. Dedicated to community empowerment through institution building for over a decade, her most recent project, The Hip-Hop Education Center for Research, Evaluation, and Training [H2ED Center], finds her in partnership with New York University. Launched in June 2010 at New York University’s Metropolitan Center for Urban Education [Metro Center] in the Steinhardt School for Culture, Education, and Human Behavior, The H2ED Center is the premiere institute formed to explore and advocate the potential of Hip-Hop education.[...]

How do you remain uncommercialized in an increasingly commercialized space? A very difficult question when it comes to the business of art.  Some lean toward shock value, the status quo, or cleverness, while others choose to continue to expand the boundaries of intellectual and creative integrity on behalf of artists and audiences. The Gallery at 1GAP (One Grand Army Plaza), an alternative contemporary art space, mediated by curator Isolde Brielmaier, offers up a site based on the latter.[...]

X.J. Vadera, X, 2010. Metal, acrylic, and pigment, 103/4 x 9 x 3/4”

Catch it while you can or else bring it to a gallery near you.

On a long stroll up the Upper East Side of NYC I decided to finally pop into ELSE, the current exhibition at the Tilton Gallery, co-curated by Derrick Adams and Jack Tilton. After just a couple minutes in the exhibition space the eccentric hood poppin’ sophisticated mind of Adams was clearly visible.[...]

As most of you may have noticed, to celebrate DaWire’s first year, this week we are revisiting articles that have made an impact in one way or the other. They are fan favorites, personal favorites or just plain great reads. Today we are featuring an article by Diana McClure on Murcia’s contemporary art scene, written after a trip made to the hosting region of Manifesta as a part of ARCO’s 2010 VIP Program.[...]

There are many ways to enter the work of Rafael Ferrer. His experiences are reflected in multiple mediums including painting, collage, drawings, mixed media, and sculpture. Abstraction, portraits, and text-based work mix and mingle to suggest the presence not only of a man, but also a spirit in search of freedom.[...]