Over the last few weeks, KET, Vor138, Rubin415, Bisco Smith and others treated nine5 gallery’s white walls as blank canvases. Last night, ANIMAL joined the party to check out the finished work at the “Group Ink” show. The finished art, dubbed “uncurated, unregulated, and unsellable” by the gallery press release, was a bright congregation of tags and colorful indoor murals.
“It’s not only a mix of style-wise, it’s a mix geographically,” Rubin415 told us. “We have artists from Japan — Shiro. Me bringing in Scandanavia. Bisco — both East Coast and West Coast flavor. We have the Bronx and Boorklyn. For a gallery that doesn’t usually work with street art and graffiti artists, I think it’s nice.”
“My piece is by the entrance,” Shiro said. “The title is Hip Hop Sweet Science, Girls Go Hard. This is like cheering for girls in hip hop. I know everybody in this show, I feel like I’m home.”
KET’s installation was a multi-layered tribute to victims of violence around the world, covered in messages of peace. “They are but a fraction of the people that die as a result of war and oppression every day. A few are even artists,” KET wrote on his Instagram.
The back room of the gallery was dedicated to a small group show of gallery nine5’s artists. Check out the slideshow above for more show highlights, like Jessica Lichtenstein’s anime-inspired panels. One of our favorites is Frack Is Wack, a Steve Ellis homage to Keith Haring’s famous mural “Crack Is Wack.”
“Group Ink,” group show, Jun 25 – Jul 30, nine5 Gallery, Manhattan (Photos: Aymann Ismail/ANIMALNewYork)
