+ THE DETAILS AT AHA:

1} Friday, May 15, 7-10pm – AHA Opening – CRASH/DAZE, Ewelina Ferruso, and Laura Lee

IN THE MAIN GALLERY

Ad Hoc Art is incredibly honored to present CRASH/DAZE, a stunning exhibition of never seen before works from each artist and featuring the first collaborative works from these legendary New York artists in over ten years.

A contemporary of Keith Haring and a modern-day master of this present day art form, CRASH has shot his metaphorica arrows and dizzying flashes into subway cars, walls, and galleries around the globe. His work celebrates the movements of an ever-changing world and is a lavish gift to the eyes as well as a bold statement in time and space.

A direct descendant of the Roman wall-scribes, CRASH has evolved his inherited gift back to its simplest form: “tagging,” leaving his name, with a Lichtensteinian twist. As artists have long left personal marks and signatures to authenticate their works, CRASH goes further, leaving only his name as a reduction of unadulterated form; or “refined” art.

Via his tenacity and talent, CRASH has successfully transitioned from the streets into the mainstream art world. His work, now exhibited globally, still possesses the vivid color and energy he produced initially on subways. True to his roots, CRASH maintains the lettering and image abstraction many writers feel are crucial to the art form.

DAZE began painting New York City subway trains, the canvas of choice for the serious graffiti artist, in the late 1970’s. Since moving from subway trains to gallery walls, he has exhibited in Paris, Stockholm, Tokyo, Florence and many others. His work is in public collections such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum Ludwig in Aachen, Germany, and the Brooklyn Museum, where he was also featured in the 2006 “Graffiti” exhibition. The Speerstra Family, The Coveri Family, and Eric Clapton’s are private collections containing DAZE’s creations. While experiencing mainstream success, DAZE still participates in traditional graffiti art venues and paints many large-scale murals in urban areas. For the sheer “love of the culture” he can be found collaborating with writers from all over the world. In DAZE’s paintings, references of the bygone era of subway painting combine with representational elements of urban characters and places such as Coney Island, elevated train stations, Times Square, and the lower east side. Many show a clear link to the Ashcan School of painting and the WPA artists of the 1940’s such as Reginald Marsh, Ben Shaun, Edward Hopper, Robert Henri, and John Sloan.

This is an opportunity of a lifetime and should not be missed.

• IN THE PROJECT ROOM – Ewelina Ferruso

Ewelina Ferruso’s family immigrated to the US from Poland when she was just 3 years old. Always equipped with a pencil and paper, that dreamy space of endless possibilities was where most of her time was spent.

Later, Ewelina discovered a true treasure within herself:childhood. Her fascination for the energetic creative state she experienced at a young age led her to create her first collections of paintings entitled “Onion Soup”. Onion Soup is a reflection of a girl’s vivid imagination and how she thrives in a world where the act of creating comes naturally.

As she continues to paint, Ewelina is chronicling her own lifelong spiritual growth. Her greatest intention is that the energy she has put into each piece will also connect to the lives of others and cause some things of greater magnitudes to occur.

• IN THE ALCOVE – Laura Lee -“In Transit”

When Laura Lee dreams at night, she tends to dream that she’s on a journey somewhere. She’s always in the process of going from one place to another, driven by wanderlust and solitude. Her recent works on paper are about this continual search for what we are all looking for in our lives. This internal and external exploration shows how we all strive to discover more, become more, and allow the journey to transform us.