The Thoughts In My Head by Lisa Levy

You know that feeling when you’re trying to pick out a greeting card and you imagine all the thoughts that the person on the receiving end is going to have to the point of being overwhelmed and lose sight of your own instincts, so much so, that you can’t go ahead and buy a stupid card? That’s how my brain operates, no matter if it’s focused on something that matters or not. My coping mechanism for managing this cacophony is humor.

About a year ago, I started writing these down these thoughts that I believe are true for me, but true also for many other people as well. In order to give these mostly humorous sayings some gravitas, I make them into oil paintings which I love to do. I enjoy sharing them and when I see people respond to the work, I feel reassured that I’m not the only crazy person on this planet!

Another big part of my inspiration for making these paintings comes as an outgrowth of performing psychotherapy on stage as performance art, internationally, for the last 10 years as Dr. Lisa, *S.P. (*Self-Proclaimed). I am passionate about connecting with people this way which is both hilariously funny and yet oftentimes deadly serious. I am always fulfilled by understanding the way people think and what is important to them. The motto for my show is, “Dr. Lisa is fixing the planet one person at at time.” The New York Times has written about it the show in, “A Shrink With Stage Presence’, as well as being dubbed, “Riotously Funny” by the London Times.

The color pallette is a set of 12 colors as defined by the 1969 Ellsworth Kelly Painting, Spectrum V. I choose a background color which I feel reflects the emotion of the statement. If someone wishes to get one of the paintings and interpret the background in a different color/emotion, I see that as a fair and honest interpretation of the art and will honor their request.

About Lisa Levy

I have an exaggerated need to emotionally connect with people in a direct way, which I believe is what drives my work. Growing up, I was very shy and isolated. I was afraid of my parents and struggled making friends. Although I always had a “best friend”, a lot of my routine interactions with people and relationships were fearful for me.

It seems that my work is a reaction to that part of my childhood. I use my work to try to make emotional, platonic connections as often as I can. Art is healing; I am now described as outgoing.

Lisa Levy Industries

Gawker Artists is pleased to announce the opening of Timeless, Placeless, a solo show of paintings by Malado Baldwin at Gawker Media’s NYC headquarters. Timeless, Placeless is comprised of real and imagined landscapes from Malado’s various travels and youth spent in west Africa. In her work lush colors, geographical forms, and art historical and cultural references combine to create a sense of nostalgia, mystery and grandeur. In Malado’s own words, “Psychedelic and modern meld with ancient terrain to become timeless and placeless. The landscapes of my childhood in Africa co-habitate with Chinese landscapes, Roman mosaics, Italian frescoes, cave art, and science fiction. I paint these strange places: rocky formations; striations, remnants, ruins, boulders, mounds, caves, domes, huts, and architectural spaces…..as localities that could be primordial; may be post-apocalyptic, and are as familiar as alien. Ideas of both destruction and resurrection play through a lens of vibrant color. I speak to the power of landscape to hold suggestive meaning beyond mapping or describing, into exaltation.” Timeless, Placeless will be on display through March and is open by appointment. For more information email artists@gawker.com.

PRESS RELEASE

New York City (July/Aug 2009): Gawker Artists presents MOM & POPism, an exhibition curated by Billi Kid reinterpreting James and Karla Murray’s latest book, Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York, in unique collaboration with many of today’s hottest graffiti and street artists.

Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York is a breathtaking visual guide to New York City’s cultural heritage, with special emphasis on the historic streets and ethnic shops that have defined its many neighborhoods. Meticulously photographed, its powerful images of time-worn institutions will be printed at close to life-size scale and installed on the Gawker Media roof, becoming canvases on which select graffiti and street artists are invited to leave their indelible marks. The result will be a unique impression of a New York City that seems to be fading with each passing day. Our cultural and economic landscape will be called into question, the role of art, particularly graffiti and street art, will be subject to reinterpretation.

Curated by Gawker Artist Billi Kid, MOM & POPism brings together graffiti and street artists to create new artworks on top of the Murray’s photographs. The collaborating graffiti and street artists represent some of the most notable artists in the street art community and the media at large. These include Blanco, Buildmore, Cake, Celso, Cern, Chris (RWK), Crome, Cycle, David Cooper, Destroy & Rebuild, Enamel Kingdom, Goldenstash, Infinity, Kngee, Lady Pink, Matt Siren, Morgan Thomas, Peru Ana Ana Peru, Plasma Slugs, Royce Bannon, Shai R. Dahan, Shiro, The Dude Company, Tikcy, Under Water Pirates, Veng (RWK), Zoltron and Billi Kid.

MOM & POPism closed on August 23rd. However, 3 walls from the exhibition are on display at Clic Gallery’s Broome and Centre Streets location in NYC until September 27th.

For more information please contact artists@gawker.com.

Gawker Artists presents Post Paper, a group show of collage works by Malado Baldwin, Molly George, Alison Mazur, Brian Stevenson and Stephen Zerbe, and the latest exhibition in the Art@Gawker series. Post Paper brings together a group of artists that combine and rework found materials to create new imagery with a broad range of themes including freedom, youth, beauty, consumption, sexuality, faith and identity. With their collection and reinterpretation of existing media, the artists present fresh and often humorous personal observations, commentaries on popular culture, and visual odes to memories and imaginary spaces.

All photographs by Kyle Dean Reinford.

To view all the Post Paper pics, visit the Gawker Artists Facebook page.

Sponsored by Jalopnik and Gawker Artists and presented by Art Cart NYC and Etta Place, Truck Yeah is free public festival to be held on Sunday, October 2nd at the Crown Victoria Bar in Williamsburg from 12-2 pm. A group of 10 trucks, including Tiffany Nicole’s Mobile Vintage Shop, Truck Farm, Rickshaw Dumpling Truck, Mud Truck, Coolhaus Ice Cream Sandwiches, and Green Pirate Juice Truck, will convene to celebrate the increased mobility and changing landscape of New York City. Art Cart NYC will exhibit work by Amia Yokoyama and Kennedy Yanko, El Camino ARTRV will show an installation by Stephen Zerbe, and Gawker Artists will present a Box Project by Adam Courtney. In addition, Etta Place will present Resident Artists, the The Lonely Goat Dance Company will perform, and BangOn! NYC will play music throughout the day.

JUNE 14 - JULY 14, 2011
IN COLLABORATION WITH @BARBARAKRUGER, GAWKER ARTISTS PRESENTS ISO DADDY, A CATALOG OF RANDOMLY PRODUCED ADVERTISING APHORISMS, GENERATED BY ADDICTIVE CONTENT. CURATED AND RECONSUMED BY DADDY, THESE HIJACKED EPIGRAMS AND ABSURDITIES WILL BE PRESENTED WITHIN GAWKER.COM (AND ITS SUBSIDIARY SITES) AD SPACE FOR ONE MONTH. THIS SPACE, OFTENTIMES FORMALLY ADOPTED VIA BY MONETARY EXCHANGE, WILL MOMENTARILY FUNCTION AS A SUBTLE RUPTURE AND REORIENTING OF THE VIEWER’S INTERNET EXPERIENCE.
DADDY IS AN INTERDISCIPLINARY ART COLLECTIVE DEDICATED TO THE STUDY OF USE IN CONTEMPORARY PRACTICE. BORN OUT OF AN INVESTIGATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RELATIONAL AESTHETICS AND CONSUMERISM, DADDY PRODUCES INDUSTRIAL AND COMMUNICATION DESIGN AND MARKET RESEARCH SCENARIOS THROUGH FINE ART PLATFORMS.

@BARBARAKRUGER IS THE UNVERIFIED TWITTER ACCOUNT OF ARTIST BARBARA KRUGER.

DADDY: JUST SAY IT ONCE.

Mark Mann: The Graflex Project @ Gawker

A while back, I bought a beautiful Graflex Super D camera from the 50s and immediately put it to work. Using instant film, I shoot interesting people in locations where they convene. With my Union Square Project, I set up a seamless white drop in the park and photograph the insanely diverse people who pass by; for Burlesque, I have gotten to know—and shoot—the extraordinary girls who perform this lost art in New York City; and most recently I brought the analogue charm of my Graflex to Gawker, where I photographed a cross section of the staff. Retouching, it should go without saying, is kept to an absolute minimum in order to keep the look and the colors authentic. Enjoy!

Photo Shoot Video
Mark Mann

Row 1: Anna North, Writer, Jezebel
Row 2: Erin Pettigrew, Marketing Director
Row 3: Julia Alvidrez, Office Manager
Row 4: Jennifer Lin, Gawker Artists Intern
Row 5: Matt Toder, VIdeo Producer
Row 6: Cyriaque Lamar, Assistant Editor, io9
Row 7: Nicole Issembert, Marketing Coordinator
Row 8: Ian Van Ness, Sr. Platform Engineer
Row 9: Julia Schweizer, Operations Manager
Row 10: Jory Stiefel, Designer
Row 11: Rose Annis, Assistant Copywriter
Row 12: Quinton Ma, Marketing Coordinator
Row 13: Roxanne Gelfer, Finance Manager
Row 14: Erin McGill, Systems Administrator
Row 15: Justin Cross, Interactive Designer
Row 16: Whitney Jefferson, Associate Editor, Video, Jezebel
Row 17: Jessica Coen, Editor-in-Chief, Jezebel
Row 18: Irin Carmon, Writer, Jezebel
Row 19: Megan Gilbert, Copywriter
Row 20: Mike Goldman, Sales Associate
Row 21: Kevin Prince, PR Manager
Row 22: Genevieve Dimmitt, Gawker Artists Curator
Row 23: Alex Cannon, Designer
Row 24: Kate Maxwell, Ad Ops Manager
Row 25: AJ Daulerio, Editor-in-Chief, Deadspin
Row 26: Nell Lawson, Account Executive
Row 27: Matt Buchanan, Afternoon Page Editor, Gizmodo
Row 28: Tommy Craggs, Sr. Editor, Deadspin
Row 29: Etele Illes, Designer
Row 30: Dodai Stewart, Deputy Editor, Jezebel
Row 31: Meredith Woerner, Senior Reporter, io9
Row 32: Daniel Morgan, Sales Associate
Row 33: Brian Moylan, Staff Writer, Gawker
Row 34: Sam Biddle, Jr. Reporter, Gizmodo
Row 35: Phil Vuong, Controller
Row 36: James Del, Account Executive
Row 37: Ben Rosen, Ad Ops Coordinator
Row 38: AJ Frucci, Account Executive
Row 39: Kaila Hale-Stern, Community Manager
Row 40: Lux Alptraum, Editor-in-Chief, Fleshbot
Row 41: Emma Carmichael, Video Editor, Deadspin
Row 42: Hamilton Nolan, Staff Writer, Gawker
Row 43: Ray Wert, Editor-in-Chief, Jalopnik
Row 44: Sam Ortega, Marketing Associate
Row 45: Tom Plunkett, CTO
Row 46: Nick Denton, Founder and Publisher
Row 47: Melissa Lorah, Gawker Artists Intern
Row 48: Adrian Chen, Staff Writer, Gawker
Row 49: Gaby Darbyshire, COO
Row 50: Meredith Katz, Sales Manager
Row 51: Greg Takayama, Product Manager

Malado Baldwin at OpenHouse Gallery for Middle Feat

On Sunday, June 12th, Gawker Artists partnered with Opennhouse Gallery to mount an exhibition of Malado Baldwin’s abstract landscape paintings during their exclusive one day event, Middle Feast.

Artist Statement
Psychedelic and modern meld with ancient terrain to become timeless and placeless. The landscapes of my childhood in Africa co-habitate with Chinese landscapes, Roman mosaics, Italian frescoes, cave art, and science fiction. I paint these strange places: rocky formations; striations, remnants, ruins, boulders, mounds, caves, domes, huts, and architectural spaces…..as localities that could be primordial; may be post-apocalyptic, and are as familiar as alien. Ideas of both destruction and resurrection play through a lens of vibrant color. I speak to the power of landscape to hold suggestive meaning beyond mapping or describing, into exaltation.

Artist Bio
Malado Baldwin is a New York based painter, filmmaker, and installation artist. Her video work is currently featured in Konstfestival/Audio Visual Loop Party at Magasinet, Falun, Sweden, and in the show Failed Entertainment at Land of Tomorrow in Louisville, Kentucky. Her paintings have recently shown in DECAMERON: David Cohen’s Decade of Exhibitions at The New York Studio School, NY; and in: The BRUCENNIAL 2010, NY, Rogue Gallery International Juried Show, NY, and Pairs, Perimeter Gallery, Cleveland, OH. Baldwin’s solo exhibitions include shows at the Dumbo Arts Festival (1999, 2000) and KeyHole Gallery (2005, 2006). Her work has been reviewed on artcritical.com, art21.com, hyperallergic.com and in Esquire Magazine. A graduate of Swarthmore College (BA, 1997) and The New York Studio School (MFA, 2006), Malado Baldwin is the recipient of the Buckingham Prize (2005), the Visual Arts Foundation Grant (2007) and a nominee for The Louis Comfort Tiffany Biennial Award (2008, 2010).

For further info, please email artists@gawker.com or mb@maladobaldwin.com.

Malado Baldwin

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Context
Winter 2011
Gawker Media Headquarters

New York, NY: Gawker Artists presents Context, a group show of works by Jason Shelowitz, Jon Shehee, John Transue, and Carrie Villines, and the latest exhibition in the art@gawker exhibition series.
Context is a survey of works featuring text, and exploring the various manners and medias in which text is used in visual art. Comprised of painting, photography, silk-screens, and digital work, Context showcases pieces that literally speak to the viewer.
Jason Shelowitz’s Subway Etiquette Posters are cleverly disguised as MTA service advisory bulletins, and voice common complaints and frustrations of subway passengers. To create this work, Jason surveyed 100 strap-hangers, asking their non-service related subway pet-peeves. He created posters referencing the top ten complaints and installed 400 throughout the subway system in April 2010, encouraging commuters to look out for them and collect before the MTA removed them.
Jon Shehee’s paintings and drawings incorporate fragments of poetry, slogans, conversations, and novels. Jon explains, “the patterns, lines, and images in these paintings function as disjointed, loaded objects that viewers are forced to put together, along with the painted text, to create their own meaning through the gestalt effect of each unified work. Contemporary advertising uses this effect to sell toothpaste and financial products, and I manipulate this effect to more elliptical ends, to create a personal, poetic experience that is emphatically different for each individual who sees the work.”
John Transue uses the Internet as his medium, documenting experiences using computers and representations of the web. New Age Addiction is a multi-platform investigation into social media dependence. Transue’s installation, which includes the debut of twelve new videos, places the artist at the center of the conversation as master healer. The web launch of New Age Addiction [http://www.newageaddiction.com] explores this modern affliction in its natural habitat, giving viewers the opportunity to participate in an Internet forum, call the help line or watch 3-D videos of potential side effects.
Carrie Villines’s photographs of the shreddings of her personal journal are non-traditional self portraits, documenting specific periods of her life. After the death of friend, Carrie decided to read, shred and dispose of her 26 years of journals “in an attempt to stop dragging the past around and control what would remain in the event of my own death. But what started as a destructive act turned into a reconstructive one. These photographs document the journals while enforcing a selective memory on my past and creating new narratives.”
Gawker Artists is a curated online art community and exhibition program promoting the works of artists of all media. Participating artists receive profile pages on Gawker Artists and are eligible to have their works published in the ad space on Gawker Media titles and included in Gawker Artist sponsored exhibitions.
For more information visit artists.gawker.com or email artists@gawker.com.