New York, NY. Porter Contemporary is proud to present, A Rolling Stone, a group exhibition opening on April 5, 2012 with an artists’ reception from 6:30 – 8:30 PM. The exhibition will include works by artists Jason Bryant, JaH- HaHa, Naoto Hattori, Jennifer Murray, Adam Normandin, Johnny Romeo, and TWOONE.

“The exhibit is a celebration of 50 years of the Rolling Stones,” says Jessica L. Porter, Founder and Director of Porter Contemporary, “in addition to also being inspired by the proverb A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss.” The proverb has many meanings but one in particular is that those who keep moving are never lacking for fresh ideas or creativity. Porter Contemporary has selected nine artists who fit the meaning of the proverb and are celebrating these artists’ inspirations and dedication through, ‘A Rolling Stone’. The Rolling Stones themselves are examples of the proverb as they reinvented themselves numerous times over the past five decades to become music legends. The opening night for the exhibition will be one to be remembered as the gallery will be playing songs by The Rolling Stones all night long.

Highlights from the exhibition include new paintings by Jason Bryant inspired by the Rolling Stones’ song, Moonlight Mile, and their Sticky Fingers album. These works are a continuation of the merging icons series that has made Bryant’s work so popular. The exhibition debuts work by JaH-HaHa, a collaboration between artist Jeff Huntington and musician Jimi Haha, whose work features paintings of young Keith Richards and Mick Jagger on sheets of music. Jennifer Murray’s works were inspired by the proverb’s literal meaning of a rolling stone and allegorically uses stacks of animals rolling.

Listing Information:

What: A Rolling Stone, Group Exhibition Exhibition Dates: April 5 through May 26, 2012 Opening Reception with the Artists: April 5, 6:30 – 8:30 PM Where: Porter / Contemporary, 548 W. 28th Street, 3rd Floor, NYC

Gallery Hours: Wednesday 11 – 6 PM; Thursday 11 – 8 PM; Friday and Saturday 11 – 6 PM

General inquiries: [email protected] Press Inquires: [email protected]

About the Artists:

Jason Bryant’s paintings explore his fascination with film, skateboarding culture and the presentation of the self. He was born in 1976 in Wilson, North Carolina and lives and works in New York City. Jason Bryant received his BFA in Painting from East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina in 1999, before completing his MFA at Maryland Institute College of Art in 2004. He moved to New York and has worked with such artists as Kehinde Wiley and Bjarne Melgaard. He has received a wide array of press concerning his artwork including most recently Juxtapoz Magazine, NY Arts Magazine, American Artist, Volume XI of Studio Visit Magazine (cover) and Thrasher Magazine (U.S. and France). His new works for this show were inspired by the Rolling Stones’ song, Moonlight Mile, and their Sticky Fingers album.

JaH- HaHa is an artist collaboration between artist Jeff Huntington and musician Jimi Haha. Jeff Huntington received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC and went on to earn his Masters in Fine Arts degree from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Jimi Haha plays in the band Jimmie’s Chicken Shack and Jarflys. These artists have combined their talents and mutual interests into paintings featuring young Keith Richards and Mick Jagger on sheets of music.

Naoto Hattori was born in 1975 in Yokohama Japan and studied Graphic Design in Tokyo before moving to New York to study at the School of Visual Arts. He received a BFA in illustration from the School of Visual Arts in 2000. Hattori has won numerous awards from art competitions and has been published in a variety of art magazines.

Exploring themes of gender, sexuality, and sociopolitical power struggles, Jennifer Murray uses totemic animal characters to express her impressions of human life within the decaying and carnal confines of New York City. Murray recently completed a Masters in Humanities and Social Thought from New York University, where her concentration was post-colonial studies, gender politics, and metaphorical framing in sociopolitical discourse. Jennifer Murray’s works for the exhibition are inspired by the proverb’s literal meaning of a rolling stone and allegorically uses stacks of animals rolling.

Adam Normandin has recently been drawn to freight trains, industrial machinery and old tools. They are purely functional and have a “no-nonsense” existence that resonates with his own way of working. He finds freight trains particularly intriguing because they are travelers, relentlessly moving from one place to the next, year after year. All the layers of rust, numeric codes and graffiti give the surface of each train a unique character. Accumulated details reveal truthful and compelling stories, transforming an ordinary object’s nature into something full of history and inherent beauty.

Johnny Romeo is an Australian born painter currently working in Los Angeles who believes superheroes are the Greek gods of our time. Referred to as a bombastic neo-expressionist pure pop painter, his work deals with the way we construct our identities from the vast array of images that pop culture immerses us in. Johnny Romeo has had three sell-out exhibitions in Sydney (March 2010), Perth (June 2010) and Gold Coast (March 2011), selling over 80 works in 2010 alone. His work has appeared in countless magazines, newspapers, and billboards.

TWOONE, also known as Hiroyasu Tsuri, was born in Yokohama, Japan. At the age of 18 he moved to Melbourne, Australia where he now holds a Distinguished Talent Visa. He gained an early interest in art through skateboard graphics and graffiti culture. After moving to Australia be quickly became a prominent part of the local street art scene. TWOONE has been in a number of group exhibitions and has had many commissions for his murals. For this exhibition, TWOONE was inspired by the Rolling Stones song “Paint It Black.