Joan Brown Sadie Laska Chris Martin Katherine Bernhardt Otis Houston Jr. Dona Nelson Agathe Snow

“It’s amazing what you can do when you don’t listen to what ‘they’ say.” – Otis Houston Jr. (A.K.A. Black Cherokee)

“Baby, I’m not always there when you call, but I’m always on time. And I gave you my all, now baby be mine!” – Ashanti / Ja Rule

Damn you time! And the warships of fashion. I will be my own timekeeper and that way always ready! Be mine! Get physical. Get spaced out. Dismantled this place. Lost in thought and color, and stain, and mess, in construction, in color, in time, ON TIME. Lets get lost! These artists are not afraid to go way over there. Their art is the tether that allows for the trip. The artist can to lose it, to forget it, get beyond and through and away and follow objects back down to the ground, like a breadcrumb trail. The art is the evidence, the result and the fact of these explorations. No matter how far they go, these things are back here on time. We are lucky to have them all together, now in one place.

These artists make us bigger and braver people. Some of this work we know intimately. As students and colleagues of Dona Nelson, we have been intimately influenced (startled, intrigued, entranced) by her painting for over a decade. For ten years we have commuted past Otis Houston’s studio and stage under the Triborough Bridge. His daily practice teaches us what art is suppose to be. Five years ago, Agathe brought potatoes in a spare tire nest to CANADA. To this day she continues to make free sculpture for the next Pepsi generation. Come meet me in the belly of your Whale! Ms. Lily Ludlow introduced us to Sadie Laska who is a drummer and a painter. Her intensely physical paintings in sand and goo are made with brush, stick and sponge. They are from the streets: tar and gum. Cave with the lights off, drip drop. Katherine Bernhardt (who introduced us to Chris Martin) can’t be stopped still. Her strong and vulnerable paintings keep the faith (an now keep the time too). Make it! Make it YEs YEs! Joe Bradley asked us to look at the paintings of Joan Brown: where pattern meets painting and spirit is clearly in gear. We haven’t been the same since. Her insistence is on her own way, which reminds us of Chris Martin who paints whatever he likes better than most. His works are funk driven and lost and full of painting explored. Close your eyes and let’s go, keep digging, deep earth mining. Dig deeper, fry higher. Be Brave!

“If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, and yet make allowance for their doubting too! If you can wait and not be tired by waiting or being lied about, don’t deal in lies! Or being hated, don’t give way to hating, and yet don’t look too good nor talk too wise! If you can meet with triumph or disaster and treat those two impostors just the same!” – Dr. Bronner