View the Gallery: (5 photos)
"Air conditioned by Satan" and "For Your Safety Please Do Not Climb on the Big Noodle" were just a few of the colorful expressions greeting gallery guests at last night's New Image Art opening. The phrases were part of the photo collaboration "Now I Remember" by Neck Face, Jerry Hsu, Todd Jordan, Curtis Buchanan, Jen Reynolds, Tino Razo and Kevin "Spanky" Long, where the artists collaged together images taken on their cell phones and BBMed to each other over the last four years. Razo explained "These photos started as personal jokes between the crew and just keeping in touch with each other." Breasts, butts an Art Basel VIP card in a compromising position, a pancake shaped like a swastika, and portraits of the artists in various scenarios including a very bearded Tino Razo in a purple lace bra occupied two large walls at Cafeina, nestled behind a lively restaurant of the same name, in the Wynwood Gallery District.
New Image Art, Marsea Goldberg's Los Angeles gallery focusing primarily on street and skate art, opted for a curated exhibition this year to mark their presence in Miami rather than join the art fair hustle. The show, also featuring works by Os Gemeos, Judith Supine, Cleon Peterson, Skullphone and Albert Reyes, was a representation of their laid back California aesthetic. The opening crowd, clad in sweatshirts and flannels, was a welcome departure from the main fair's moneyed, silicone set. For two short hours during the opening I was transported back down to earth with a little humor mixed in, which in the end was the goal of the exhibition. As Razo put it, "If people leave our show without summoning the slightest little giggle, well then we have greatly failed."
