Survival: the state or fact of continuing to live or exist, typically in spite of an accident, ordeal, or difficult circumstances. From the homeless man or woman utilizing their immediate surroundings for shelter and livelihood to the suburban family of four having to reinvent their lives to confront joblessness and foreclosure, survival, and our perception of it has become a national pastime. Is it a depression? a recession? or is it just a media obsession? These are questions Greg Haberny has wrested from his travels recently and his denouement can be found at “The Homeless Boys Social Club” at Like the Spice.

Life can take dramatic shifts as the foundation of our stability and security begin to crumble. Utilizing the medium of installation, Greg Haberny integrates the concept of homelessness into our periphery through his multi-faceted artistic vision. Mixing his knowledge of filmmaking with his capacity for art, Greg creates what might be considered film sets and like a storyboard, the strategic decisions and quiet psychologies steer the viewer to take notice of his intentions individually and, as a whole.

Mixing influences from Alfred Hitchcock to Terry Richardson, Haberny’s grasp, awareness and assimilation of cultural iconography remain true to themselves. His regeneration of vintage comics, pin-up girls of yesteryear and baby boomer advertising opens an inner dialogue which shifts our perceptions and creates stories with individual works which participate in a larger experience within the installation. He creates a makeshift, yet nearly cinematic representation turning the gallery into a movie, one to be inhabited, rather than passively viewed.

From his grandmother, an impressionist painter, and his father, a folk artist, Haberny, at an early age, was instilled with an understanding of technique and established a sensitivity to the artistic process. However, it was the work of Larry Clark that helped him understand how art could be more than just beauty, leading him to a world that welcomed controversy and strong personal expression. His later discovery of artists like Cy Twombly would open up his world into the abstract and Mark Kippenberger’s diversity helped him to identify with his own compulsive spirit. Film has taught him how such things can be directed and controlled.

Like the Spice Gallery is pleased to present Greg Haberny’s The Homeless Boys Social Club, an exhibition on both gallery levels with lower level installation and upper level curated show involving mixed-media paintings, drawings and sculpture.

Greg shows his work in the New York Area and throughout the United States as well as internationally. He is affiliated with such galleries as London’s POW and New York’s Priska C. Juschka Fine Art and his recent involvement with Phillips de Pury’s “Now: Art of the 21st Century” exceeded expectations. His work is part of many prestigious private and public collections.