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Brad Troemel On View: Selections from the Troemel Collection

Exhibition dates: February 21 - March 28, 2015

Reception for the Artist: Saturday, February 21, 6-8 pm // Did you know I’m an emerging art collector? I am! I collect many things, but art is unique. By paying for something we love, collectors ensure the future production of more things made in the image of our purchased work, propelling artists’ careers through dynamic cycles of reflection, production, and exhibition. As the artist gains a higher profile the value of the work purchased escalates, validating the artist as well as us early adopters for having the insight to take a risk on the unforeseen talent others didn’t immediately recognize. Through hard work, innovation, and entrepreneurism everyone’s effort becomes jet fuel in the flight of culture. I present for the first time in a gallery not an exploration of my own creative pursuits, but a look inside the mind and archive of Brad Troemel: the collector.

These days when it comes to emerging art you have to know what you’re getting yourself in to. Let’s just say we’re not in Kansas anymore-or Soho for that matter! Think of me as a book smart “Samantha” and former world class folk style wrestler, but most of all think of me as an empathetic disruptor; I’m an insider who knows some of the biggest changes in the industry actually come from within. Sure, we’ve all heard of the “starving artist” and yes, we’ve all heard of the emerging “art star,” but I’m asking you to take a ride on the CTA. Not the Chicago Transit Authority-I’m talking about celebrity-turned-artists, a developing arts economy I have invested in personally and hold as the centerpiece of this display hosted by Zach Feuer Gallery.

At this point you’re probably asking, “What are CTAs all about?” That’s where I come in: The celebrity-turned-artist is an individual who has entered art making after being famous in another career field and is attempting to make it big all over again. Frustrated with the stagnancy or corruption of their native industry, the celebrity turns to art for a shot at the type of unfettered self-expression their previous industry never allowed. Their work is what I call a “super good,” a commodity concept you’ll be familiar with if you know about super foods. Most emerging art is like pasta-a food full of carbohydrates for immediate energy usage that can quickly metabolize into unwanted fat if the initial burst isn’t properly put to use. Instead, celebrity-turned-artist work is like the superfood wild rice, which has been proven to protect against prostate cancer. Simultaneously an art object, a memorabilia item, and a hyper-intimate autograph, CTA works (and super goods as a whole) are a highly potent bundle of commodities nestled within themselves, able to be extracted individually or allowed to appreciate in value simultaneously as a diversified portfolio.

Whenever someone asks me I always tell them my motto is “If I own it, it’s mine,” and that’s the truth. An accurate understanding of property lends itself not to believing in indefinite protectorship but to the potential for alteration without consequence, you can only change what is truly yours. This is why so many of the pieces featured in On View: Selections from the Troemel Collection, have been displayed in intimate conversation with other selections from the Troemel collection, so as to excel beyond the ordinary and into the extraordinary as super goods themselves. Art is only the beginning. I hope to show the breadth of my work as an investor and collector of culture at large through this select display of cutting edge surveillance and personal defense technology; physical crypto currency, precious metals, and rare coins; rare collectibles and couture fashion. Through this liberty-drenched exploration of property, we all can gain a glimpse into understanding ownership as an oft unforeseen but powerful creative act in its own right.

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Ari Marcopoulos’ latest publication Impala published by the indie French publisher Red Lebanese derives it’s named from the undercover police cars spotted in and around Flatbush; his neighborhood in Brooklyn. Pictures of the ubiquitous stripped down cars are interspersed with local basketball games and street shots taken on Marcopoulos’ loop as he navigates the city.

Dashwood Books is proud to be the exclusive US and Japanese distributor of; IMPALA by Ari Marcopoulos published by Red Lebanese, 2014 distributed by Dashwood Books softcover/ first edition / 300 copies / 100 copies available in the US Price $35

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In the fall of 1983, a new gallery Spiritual America opened at 5 Rivington Street to little fanfare. Their inauguration featured Richard Prince's now-iconic image of a young Brooke Shields. The third exhibition was a group show, Pop, including Jeff Koons, Louise Lawler and Cindy Sherman. In between these two projects, Peter Nadin hung a series of fruit paintings, Still Life, which half gallery is pleased to be re-presenting. The pictures from 1979-1983 vary wildly in their style (some impasto, some surrealist, some incorporating text) and follow an apostolic succession – in the secular sense – dating back to de Chirico, Picasso, Cézanne, Caravaggio and countless masters before them. Nadin cites William Blake's Nobodaddy and Lewis Carroll's Boojum snark as the closest articulation of what he was experiencing then, both personally and creatively. In retrospect, Nadin views the chronology of his still life paintings as a reflection of his psychological regression at the time. What began as a polite set of interiors, literally flew out the window, crashing into the landscape and ultimately commingling with language from his poetry. Tanam Press published a compilation of his Still Life poems in conjunction with the December 1983 show. More recently, Peter Nadin has exhibited at Gavin Brown's enterprise, Family Business and The Horticultural Society of New York.

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Some things make a "tic tac" and some things don't. I don't think an object can be an onomatopoeia but it can sure be itself. If it fits under the seat in front of you, well that's just an added bonus. This Friday, February 6th, from 7 - 9 PM please join us for the opening of a show of new works by Allison Katz and Eva Lewitt. Malraux's Place 253 36th Street 6th floor Brooklyn, NY 11232 XO XO S