“BOMB POP” TO DROP AT BULLET SPACE, SATURDAY, SEPT 8, 2012 6:00 PM
Historic East Village Squat Cum Art Gallery to Host
Multi-Media Exhibition Through Oct 27
New York, September 6, 2012 -- "Bomb Pop,” an outburst of images, words, shapes and sounds, will be released under extreme pressure at Bullet Space, an arts center and former squat founded in 1985. Along with punk rock, park riots and Nuyoricans, the squatter movement helped forge the defiant character of the East Village. “Bomb Pop” is curated by a Bullet Space pioneer resident and writer/photographer Maggie Wrigley, whose images and stories dating back to the early 1980s have chronicled the changing landscape of the Lower East Side, and Michael A. Gonzales, a cultural critic who analyzes the dark side by way of Harlem, Baltimore and Brooklyn. Wrigley collaborated with Gonzales on a series uniting his words with her images for this multimedia exhibit will which also showcase the works of Andrew Chan, John Farris, Fly Orr, Mac Mcgill and Andy Wilhelm. “Bomb Pop” will open to the public with a reception at Bullet Space, 292 East 3rd Street between Avenues C and D, on Saturday, Sept 8, from 6:00 - 9:00 PM. All artists on display in “Bomb Pop” are expected to be in attendance on September 8.
“Bomb Pop” can be viewed after September 8 on Saturdays and Sundays from 3:00 - 6:00 PM, or by appointment by calling 212.982.9297, or by chance. The show will host a closing reception on Saturday, Oct 27, from 6:00 - 9:00 PM.
About the Artists
Andrew Chan
Chan is an Australian artist who has been based in New York since 1999. His multimedia work incorporates caricatures of people and objects set in distorted “city-scapes" and other locales. He describes his work as, ‘Riffing on medieval and religious imagery, as well as media and TV reportage of world events (wars, the economy, geopolitics) — the larger aspects of life creeping around the edges of the everyday.” Chan’s work has been featured in TIME, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and on CNN. More of his work can be seen at www.AndrewChanArt.com
John Farris
A legendary poet of the Lower East Side, Farris received a 2011 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award for his novel, The Ass’s Tale (Unbearable Books), published by Autonomedia. For “Bomb Pop,” Farris will display a set of line drawings and a series of bust sculptures fashioned with plastic grocery bags and masking tape. https://www.facebook.com/pages/John-Farris/317963541138
Michael A. Gonzales
Cultural critic Gonzales has written essays for New York Magazine, Wax Poetics, Vibe, XXL, Stop Smiling, Hycide and The London Telegraph. In addition, he has published crime and erotica fiction while his musings on literature and pop culture can found at blackadelicpop.blogspot.com
Mac Mcgill
McGill’s works in pen and ink have appeared in numerous newspapers, magazines and books including WW 3 Illustrated, High Times and The Progressive. He has exhibited at such diverse spaces as ABC No Rio, Exit Art and The Cathedral of St. John the Divine. The original drawings from his limited edition book, IX XI MMI, depicting his response to the events of 9/11, are part of the permanent collection at The Library of Congress. His work displayed in “Bomb Pop’ includes three pen and ink drawings and two works incorporating found/saved/remade objects. McGill is working on his first graphic novel, Songs for Katrina.
For more information on Mac McGill visit www.macmcgill.com
Fly Orr
Since the 1980s, Fly has been a squatter on the Lower East Side where she paints and draws comics and illustrations. She has self-published numerous comics and zines since the mid-1980 and her collection entitled CHRON!IC!RIOTS!PA!SM! was published in 1998 by Autonomedia (Brooklyn). PEOPs, a collection of 196 portraits and stories, was published in June of 2003 by Soft Skull Press. Fly continues to work on the ever-expanding PEOPs Project and is working on a book – Unreal Estate; A Late Twentieth Century History of Squatting in the Lower East Side. Her band Zero Content (est.1994) is currently recording a new album. To learn more about Fly Orr visit www.peops.org
Andy Wilhelm
Wilhelm is an artist living and working in Brooklyn. His abstract sculptures revel in the process of discovering new forms for material to be pushed into, and act as models for thinking about unnamable mysteries in the universe. Wilhelm is an Adjunct Professor at Cooper Union and is currently showing works at the Governor’s Island Art Fair. For more information about Andy Wilhelm visit www.AndrewWilhelm.com
Maggie Wrigley
Wrigley’s book, The Architecture of Change: Building a Better World, co-edited with Jerilou Hammett, will be published next year. A collection of Wrigley’s stories and photographs bearing witness to the ever-changing topography of the Lower East Side can be found at www.dirtparty.blogspot.com
About Bullet Space
Bullet Space is an act of resistance. The underground and alternative gallery was founded in the winter of 1987 in what was then known as the “6 O’Clock Squat.” “Bullet” first originated from the name brand of heroin sold on the block — known as bullet block. Bullet Space became a multimedia art and performance space, a “battlefield of ideas” for residents, associated artists, musicians and people of the local and global arts and activist communities.
In 2004 I discovered a wild crime novel called The Guards by Ken Bruen. Written in lean style that was poetically hardboiled, the book blew my mind. Along with American writers James Sallis and Jason Starr, both whom I'd discovered the year before, the Irish born Bruen soon became one of my favorite crime writers. Still going strong eight years after (finally) launching in the states, the prolific writer is constantly releasing quality product.
