Contributed photo | www.westernexhibitions.com
Contributed photo | www.westernexhibitions.com
Michael Pellew’s never-ending love affair with pop music and rock-and-roll returns to Western Exhibitions with over 200 drawings of album covers from his favorite artists presented as cassette tape inserts, free-standing paintings of rock stars, and drawings of Pellew interviewing stars about cassette tapes and classic rock.
The show, Pellew’s second solo at Western Exhibitions, opens on Friday, April 29 with a public reception from 5 to 8 pm, and runs through June 18, 2022. Gallery hours are Tuesday-Saturday, 11 am to 6 pm.
When asked about his current fixation on cassette tapes, Michael Pellew answered, “this is how I listened to music as a kid.” This spawned hundreds of drawings replicating album covers in cassette format, 8 by 4 inches, folded to fit into clear plastic cases. These album covers reflect Pellew’s musical catholic tastes: a LOT of heavy metal, hair metal, classic rock, post-punk, goth, new wave, grunge and pop artists abound. Pellew provides a thesis statement on the inside cover for a speculative compilation album titled METAL MASSACRE: “Welcome to Metal Massacre, you’re all gonna see different album cover designs that I made fresh out of google and goddamit you will be ready for the goods.”
Mingling throughout the gallery are near-life-sized cut-outs –acrylic paintings on mdf – of five of Pellew’s favorite musicians: a wider-than-wider David Byrne from the “Stop Making Sense” era, Michael Jackson in a tuxedo, Alice Cooper with his signature spooky eye make-up, and a bouffanted-up-to-there Amy Winehouse. Prince and Taylor Swift join the party as wall paintings.
In five pencil and marker drawings done in his classic cartoon-figures-with-word-bubbles style, Pellew presents himself interviewing an array of pop music personalities including Bruce Springsteen, Britney Spears and Robert Plant, among others, asking them about their tours, favorite cassette tapes and influences. When he asks Taylor Swift if she is classic rock, she replies “My first three albums are Classic Rock. In 2008, I was opening for Styx, Genesis and Boston.” In the drawing, Thrash Metal Legend Interviews, Pellew sits down with Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, who is peppered with “What bands are you avoiding right now?”
Comical vignettes interrupt the interviews with Pellew’s pop culture heroes: Diana Ross makes repeated appearances throughout, furious about her dead cat while Paris Hilton and Gwyneth Paltrow attempt to console her. Cameron Diaz, from her mansion in Canarsie, shares that she hates hair metal. Kim Kardashian plays Slayer on a boombox. Pellew’s friends stop by to do their laundry. Parental advisory stickers pop up everywhere as do drawings of demo tapes by dozens of artists, even Stephan Jenkins from Third Eye Blind.
Michael Pellew Jr, (b. 1979, Brooklyn) is a founding member of LAND Gallery and Studio, a nonprofit program in Brooklyn that works with adult artists with developmental disabilities. As a young child, Pellew began making drawings of buses and trains, and continued to hone his artistic skills by copying cartoon characters from the 1980s. Self-proclaimed the “Godfather of Art,” he is a prolific illustrator and humorist, constantly working on his line of greeting cards, album covers, narrative art books, wooden sculptures and large drawings. Since 2005 Michael Pellew has been included in exhibitions at Western Exhibitions in Chicago, MADmusée in Belgium, and in New York at MOMA’s Cullman Education Building, The Gallery at Ace Hotel, Christian Berst Art Brut Gallery, and the Outsider Art Fair. His works have been acquired by collectors, actors, musicians and fellow artists, including Spike Lee and Mos Def. Pellew has been featured in the Huffington Post, VICE Magazine, Disparate Minds, Art News, W Magazine and PAPER magazine, who dubbed him their “favorite artist.”
View the show on our website here
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In Gallery 2
April 29 to June 18, 2022
with
Raquel Albarran, Carlo Daleo, Garrol Gayden, Kenya Hanley, Byron Smith, and James Rosa
Western Exhibitions is thrilled to present Bed-Stuy to Chi: Artists from LAND Studio & Gallery, a group show of artist from one of favorite progressive art studios, LAND Studio & Gallery. Founded in 2005 and located in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, LAND is a unique nonprofit day-habilitation program that teaches life skills through the modality of art, nurturing the talents of participating artists, while integrating individuals into the community of contemporary art. Bed-Stuy to Chi, a companion exhibition in Gallery 2 to fellow LAND artist Micheal Pellew’s solo show in Gallery 1, features drawings and paintings by Raquel Albarran, Carlo Daleo, Garrol Gayden, Kenya Hanley, Byron Smith and James Rosa. The show opens on Friday, April 29 with a public reception from 5 to 8 pm, and runs through June 18, 2022.
Raquel Albarran (b. 1987) is a Puerto Rican-born artist living and working in Brooklyn, New York. Preoccupied with toes, noses, and encapsulated forms, Albarran’s art is full of juxtapositions and playful explorations of life, illness, and objects begging to be squeezed. Albarran’s drawings and sculptures reflect her delight sense of mischief, humor, and energy. Albarran describes the fantastical and sometimes bizarre pairings in her work are as an endearing “mix of light and dark”. She warns viewers that there will be “a lot of amputations going on” in her upcoming exhibitions.
Carlo Daleo (b. 1961) was born in Elmhurst, Queens. After a short stint living on Long Island, he moved back to New York City’s Bushwick neighborhood in Brooklyn with his family in 1964. Daleo has been attending LAND since its inception in 2005. He is a talented draftsman, painter, writer, animator and voiceover artist. Daleo started making art at the age of five following two pop culture tragedies: the unfortunate car accident injuring Jan Berry and the death of Walt Disney. Daleo decided he wanted to continue the legacy of Disney and other cartoonists like Hanna-Barbera and DePatie-Freleng. Daleo’s interests and aesthetic influences are incredibly diverse, including Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Soupy Sales, New York City cultural institutions, newscasters, and local librarians.
Garrol Gayden (b. 1960) has been an artist at LAND since 2005. Inspired by a childhood trip to New York City’s historic Coney Island, Gayden’s saturated images often start with layers of figures, landscapes, and words related to the amusement park. The famed Spookarama is a favorite. Interwoven between these landmarks, however, one will find phrases related to Gayden’s life, family, and fellow artists. “I write the things I see,” Gayden says, “It makes me feel a whole lot better.” His unique line quality is bold and sculptural, alternating from simple hatch marks to a complicated orchestra of tangled, yet descriptive lines. This fusion results in highly detailed and deeply personal compositions that have been featured in numerous exhibitions, including the Paris Outsider Art Fair, London’s Jennifer Lauren Gallery, and The Coney Island Museum.
Kenya Hanley (b. 1975), one of LAND’s founding members, has devoted countless hours a day to assiduously drawing his two great loves: food and reggae musicians. Hanley’s meticulously organized images, often color-coded and labeled, pay homage to the food he grew up eating, the sweets he tries to stay away from, and the music he so lovingly listens to. Hanley has been featured in multiple Outsider Art Fairs in New York City, Belgium’s MADmusée, and Tokyo’s UTRECHT design store. His work has been the subject of an exhibition at the flagship J Crew store on Madison Avenue and has since become part of J Crew’s corporate collection. His art also figures prominently in The Museum of Everything in London, England. Hanley has been reviewed in VICE Magazine’s Creators Project series, Art Forum, and Disparate Minds. In 2017, Hanley’s work was featured in his first book, Tasty Reggae, published by All-You-Can-Eat Press.
Byron Smith (b. 1963) is originally from North Carolina and now lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Smith’s drawings and paintings are often gentle, celebratory, and intriguing depictions of women. Sourcing his images from fashion magazines, Smith exaggerates his model’s features. His figures have long, bold eyelashes, polished nails, and plump and puckered lips.
James Rosa (b. 1965) is a Brooklyn-based artist and documentarian. Rosa draws inspiration from his environment. His drawings, paintings, and collages begin with simple outlines of found objects. They grow into intricate compositions of narrative and abstract worlds. These illustrations of Rosa’s colorful inner life and environment often include houses, faces, flowers, rats, circles, and teeth. Throughout his work, Rosa’s use of harmonious, saturated colors binds his pieces together across subject matter and style. Each individual story and arrangement acts in relation to the work before it.
View the show on our website here
Download press release
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