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Street Art takes a step from the street to the canvas with the exhibition “Artful Crimes” at the Mark Hachem Gallery from June 22 until July 6, offering a novel and surprising experience in terms of the exhibition’s title and the artist’s signature.
The title of the exhibition “Artful Crimes” instills a sense of apprehension and astonishment, setting a thematic tone divided into two series of works: “Black Market” and “Bosta.” Both series employ Street Art as their expressive medium. However, they are distinct in both style and language.
What is Street Art? The contemporary art movement emerged towards the end of the last century. It is commonly recognized as public-space art, showcased on the streets and walls, employing a diverse array of forms such as graffiti, spray paint, installations, and posters. It is an art of liberation and democracy with a subversive character, conveying its dissenting message to the public outside of museums and galleries.
The exhibition’s “Black Market” series appropriates the subversive style of Street Art to depict an extreme world and to represent, in a narrative and figurative language, the disturbing universe of Malpractice — a realm of drug mafias, prostitution, dubious deals, and the black market. This sordid and fringe environment is portrayed in a canvas where characters, seen from the back with their heads close together, seem to conspire and entrench themselves in their sinister machinations. This world, driven by the singular struggle for survival, is also symbolized in another work by the oppressive atmosphere of a hospital in a post-trauma operating room.
The narrative approach in this first series is decidedly objective, aiming to unveil, anecdotally and with a certain fascination, the scars of a forsaken humanity whose violence is amplified by vivid and primary colors.
The second series, “Bosta,” is whimsical and light. It bears some resemblance to the Street Art of Jean-Michel Basquiat with its graffiti-style writing, composed of complex and heterogeneous elements. It presents an enigmatic code, charmingly playful and colorful, that alleviates the darkness of the first series, infusing it with cheerfulness and levity.
One can’t help but be taken aback by the artist’s signature, “Die Famous,” tinged with black humor and self-deprecation, a sardonic wink to the pursuit of fame and celebrity, prompting an exploration into the true meaning of artistic endeavor.
The signature notably reveals a shared identity born from the close collaboration between the American artist Morrison Pierce, and the Lebanese-Finnish artist Yasmina Nysten, both of whom are painters in the United States, driven by the same passion for Street Art. This is a two-handed adventure, propelling them to adopt the same techniques of spray paint or acrylics used on walls onto canvas, and most importantly, to jointly create on the same canvas for a dynamic duet.
This joint endeavor is about living the challenge of painting in unison, in a sort of ego-surrender and trust, to preserve one’s identity while staying responsive to the partner, to fit together, complement each other, and surprise one another, allowing the subconscious to function as an illuminating element in a beautiful energy of exchange. The aim is to project one’s guts, style, and talent onto the canvas for an enjoyable experience, to combine two languages and create harmony. This experience is waiting to be discovered at the Mark Hachem Gallery until July 6, 2023.
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