Adam Lucas

Earlier this fall, ST.ART founder Kamilla Sun traveled to Kathmandu, the capital and largest city of Nepal. On a voluntary mission — with money raised through a crowdfunding campaign to procure art supplies — Kamilla taught young Napoli students how to transform their school’s drab, dingy walls into vibrant, colorful ones.  

The “Start With A Dream” project, explains Kamilla Sun, “aims to teach the little builders of the future how to imagine, dream bigger and create.”  The vast majority of Nepal students live in poverty and have had little exposure to the arts.

Renowned NYC-based artists Jason Naylor, Sonni Adrian and Adam Lucas created simple mock-up mural designs that the students easily recreated for their school’s walls under Kamilla’s guidance. Other artists who contributed to the project include Agata Wojcierowska and Natasha May Platt aka Surface of Beauty.

Pictured above are the student participants in front of their collaborative mural, “Dream,” as designed by Jason Naylor, and — below that  — the mural as painted on NYC’s Lower East Side by Jason Naylor and Surface of Beauty.  Several more images — all created by the young Nepali students — follow:

Designed by Sonni Adrian and painted collaboratively by Nepali students

Young artists pictured with ST.ART founder Kamilla Sun

Designed by Adam Lucas and painted collaboratively by Nepali students

Completed mural

Designed by Agata Wojcierowska and painted collaboratively by Nepali students

Completed mural

And you can watch Kamilla talk further about the project and view the youngsters in action here:

All images courtesy ST.ART founder Kamilla Sun

{ 0 comments }

Currently on view at GR Gallery, one of our favorite Downtown art galleries, is Geometric Heat, a tantalizing exhibition showcasing the works of four international artists who share an inventive approach to geometric abstraction. The painting featured above, From the Top on Down, was fashioned by NYC-based Adam Lucas, known to many of us street art aficionados as Hanksy. Several more images we captured on our recent visit to Geometric Heat follow:

Italian artist Marco Casentini, On the Streets, Acrylic and glaze on canvas

Berlin-based Daniel Rich, Palestine Meredian Hotel, Baghdad, Acrylic on Aluminum Dibond

Czech artist Jan KalábDark Purple Ameba, Acrylic on canvas

Wide view with  Marco Casentini (side) and Adam Lucas (back wall)

Located at 255 Bowery, GR Gallery is open Wednesday – Sunday | 12 to 7pm. Geometric Heat remains on view through August 18.

Photo credits: 1-4 Lois Stavsky; 5 Ana Candelaria

{ 0 comments }

nda-mural-art-market-surplus-nyc

This past weekend, the now-abandoned Essex Street Market at 140 Essex was the site of Market Surplus, an exhibit featuring ten huge striking murals in a range of styles — from meticulously rendered photorealistic to brightly colored expressionistic. Largely site-specific, they were the perfect homage to a soon-to-be-demolished historic Lower East Side building.  While visiting late Sunday afternoon, I had the opportunity to pose a few questions to its curator, Adam Lucas aka Hanksy.

hanksy-mural-art-market-surplus

This is quite impressive. When did you begin working on it?

It all started a week and a half ago.

That’s quite remarkable. It must have been quite an intense week and a half! What moved you to curate it? 

Essex Crossing has been committed from early on to bringing public art projects to this neighborhood. Awhile back, they tapped me to help them accomplish this. When they offered me this building as a site for this exhibit, I took the opportunity to curate Market Surplus.

sonni-

It seems like so much effort for a weekend event. It’s wonderful, but I wish it weren’t over so quickly!

Large murals like these generally have long lives.  But I actually like the twist on permanence. Bringing these kinds of murals indoors for this transitory exhibit turns the notion of permanence on its head.

How did you decide which artists to engage?

I reached out to artists I know and like — who were in town. And some of the artists recommended other artists.

faust-market-surplus-calligraphy

There are quite a few references to the neighborhood in these works.

Yes. Among them is NDA‘s painting of Luis and his son Felix of the Luis Meat Market that is housed at the Essex Street Market.  A key mission of the exhibit was capturing the spirit of the Lower East Side.

I love the variety of styles and sensibilities featured here. Each is distinctly wonderful!

My intention was to present a range of styles. That was one of my criteria in selecting artists.

bk-foxx-surplus-market-mural-art-nyc

With Market Surplus behind you and now part of the history of the Lower East Side, what is next?

In two weeks, my work will be featured in a pop-up show at the Krause Gallery here on the Lower East Side. Later in the summer I will be painting a mural for the L.I.S.A Project. And there is much more to come!

It sounds great! And congratulations on this weekend’s exhibit.

Images

1. NDA

2. Adam Lucas aka Hanksy

3. Sonni

4. Faust

5. BK Foxx

Photo credits: 1, 2, 3 & 5 Lois Stavsky; 4 Karin du Maire; interview conducted and edited by Lois Stavsky

{ 2 comments }