Mixed Media Artist Vito Bonanno

Rising art star Vito Bonanno is a nationally recognized artist with autism spreading the word through his art that autism is a creative and magical gift. Bonanno is best known for his unique storyboard, grid-like artwork filled with colorful characters, objects and ideas that act and interact in striking ways. He is considered an outsider artist whose work is highly coveted by collectors and art aficionados worldwide. His style is edgy with a graffiti-esque, urban vibe. Bonanno's art has been exhibited in countless art exhibitions and shows, and he has participated in a myriad of art competitions and contests.

Bonanno was diagnosed with PDD/Autism just before his 4th birthday. Language delayed, his parents and teachers developed strategies that tapped into his high visual acuity, utilizing storyboard styles to relay academic and social information to Vito. He was also encouraged to draw in storyboard format to express his feelings. The storyboard grid remains prominent in his work today and is a poignant reminder of a boy who was trapped in his mind, but through the tireless work of professionals and undaunting support of his family, has been given the opportunity to develop into a highly functioning, young man who has learned to take the information trapped in his head and transform it into art that contains the essence of his life, feelings, thoughts and dreams.

He remembers it was his dreams that motivated him to draw. “My disability helps me remember things like my dreams, but it also doesn’t let me forget - so both good and unpleasant things remain in my head always and I have to live everyday with all that stuff in my head," explains Bonanno. "Some of it I will end up obsessing about, so drawing these things helps me get this stuff out of my head for a while.”

"Vito Bonanno’s art contains the essence of his life, feelings, thoughts and dreams, coupled around objects or topics that 'get stuck in his head', including traffic lights, grids, ceiling fans and graffiti. His work is image and concept driven and may incorporate any media which will fuel this expression. Using spray paints, gouache, India inks, oils, acrylics and so on, he works on paper, canvas, or whatever support may suit. Most of the characters or topics he draws are important to his life and embedded in his personal philosophy. His work has been described as raw, unfiltered, unedited, truthful, comedic, irresistible, bold, playful and charming, much like the man himself. He has found a way to tap into the intensity of focus and insight afforded him through Autism Spectrum Disorder to unleash a formidable creative power and vision." - Elizabeth Peterson, Director of Akus Gallery at Eastern Connecticut State University.

Miami-based Street Artist 'Ahol Sniffs Glue' Sues Retailer American Eagle Outfitters

Miami-based urban art star David Anasagasti, known better by his street art name Ahol Sniffs Glue, is suing American Eagle Outfitters alleging that the teen apparel brand used his work in a global advertising campaign without permission. Anasagasti filed a lawsuit last week in the United States District Court, Southern District of New York accusing the retailer of stealing two copyrighted images depicting his signature art – rows and rows of droopy eyes that appear half asleep. The South Florida native is among the most well known of the local street artists for his soaring urban murals with expansive fields of drowsy eyes, which can be found adorning numerous walls and hotspots throughout Wynwood and the rest of Miami.

The beloved Miami-based street artist has a raw yet instantly recognizable style. His work involves disparate themes from mass media, popular culture and marginalized pockets of society. From a young age he started on a path toward art-world notoriety with persistent sketches in his notebooks. “I did these whole civilizations of characters,” he says. “One day, I just decided to take their eyes and make a pattern out of it.” Drawing inspiration from the urban environment and systems of society which dehumanize its inhabitants, his deceptively simple, yet complex renderings portray the veneer of our everyday surroundings and the dull, job-related conflicts often encountered in a dysfunctional workplace.

The question is, did American Eagle rip off Ahol’s street art? The suit claims that American Eagle brought models to Wynwood for a photoshoot, and at that point, the company allegedly used the artwork in a variety of ways, integrating the images into their advertising campaign in several countries last Spring. The lawsuit also said that the retailer recreated the eyes on a wall for the grand opening of an American Eagle store in Medellin, Colombia. Anasagasti claims in his suit that the brand is using his art in their stores, as well as online and outdoor billboards without his permission. The artists’ agent is Gregg Shienbaum of Gregg Shienbaum Fine Art, the owner of one of Miami’s contemporary art galleries located in the Wynwood Arts District. “Ahol is not painting for a corporation,” said Shienbaum. “He’s painting because he loves it.”

The lawsuit said, “Given that he hails from the counter-culture world of underground street artists, Mr. Anasagasti’s reputation as an artist has been founded, in part, on a public perception that (he) doesn’t ‘sell out’ to large corporate interests.” Even though Anasagasti registered the copyrights after American Eagle launched their advertising campaign, he is suing for unspecified damages, as well as profits from the infringement.

Shienbaum said, “the eyes are decidedly anti-corporate. They represent the working class, who struggle and are good people,” he explained. “They may look a little droopy, a little sad, but it’s his way of saying, ‘You may be down today, but you’ve got to keep going.’”

Art Party at Isolda Mora Noli Gallery in Boca Raton

Join us for an evening of art and culture with artist Isolda Mora Noli at her gallery in Boca Raton on Thursday, July 24th from 5-9pm. The artist is showcasing her newest works of art while entertaining collectors and guests in her beautiful space by Mizner Park - located at 144 South Federal Highway in Boca Raton, Florida 33432. Enjoy an evening of art, cocktails and hor d'oeuvres with the artist in her gallery and outdoor courtyard while enjoying music, creative people and great atmosphere.

Isolda Mora Noli is an international artist whose father is the famous sculptor, architect and art professor, Jose Guillermo Mora Noli (1923-1981). He is the founder of the school of Cylindrical Constructivism, known as 'Cylindrismo', and is known as the father of modern Panamanian sculpture. Isolda has continued her father's legacy, her work is held in private collections all over the world. Her paintings are influenced by two main things, Cilindrismo and Nature, she focuses on raw form and natural design. Isolda's work is published in high profile art and design magazines from New York, Palm Beach to London.

The artist will be opening another location in the coming months, so stay tuned for more information about her new gallery space. Isolda's art event is being held to showcase her newest collection of paintings, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting a local charity. 

Brazilian Twins Os Gemeos Collabo with GOL/9ine

The famed São Paulo-based street art duo Os Gemeos collaborated with GOL/9ine to transform a Boeing 787 into a flying work of art. They just recently finished painting this beauty, which is the Brazilian national team’s plane for the World Cup this year.

The urban duo created a colorful masterpiece, taking their signature yellow characters into the skies. The full-service plane will be flying for the next two years taking the team around the country this summer and to each of their games for everyone to see. This project is a great example of the local support & celebrations being done for the FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

Since the late 1980′s identical twin brothers Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo have been working under the name Os Gemeos, which means “twin brothers” and stands for “one world, one voice” among other associations they make. Painting graffiti on the streets of their native São Paulo, they first emulated the styles coming out of New York City, but slowly the pair discovered their own style and approach to their work. Today Os Gemeos’ signature characters with their yellow skin and colorful clothing appear on public walls, and gallery and museum installations around the world. Subjects range from family portraits to commentary on São Paulo’s social and political circumstances, as well as Brazilian folklore. Their graffiti style was influenced by both traditional hip hop style and the Brazilian culture.

Os Gemeos are no strangers to large-scale works, their colorful images adorn buildings in cities including Berlin, Lisbon, New York, Moscow, Athens, Krakow, and in their native Brazil they’ve even painted whole trains – after successfully persuading the authorities to let them do it. In 2009 when they came to Miami during Art Basel, they created a masterpiece in Wynwood on NW 2nd Avenue. Os Gemeos collaborated with Nina and Finok, two Brazilian artists they have worked with many times before, so it was a relatively easy and comfortable process to decide what to paint.They discussed all the details and made a lot of sketches before coming to the final composition. We see Os Gemeos’ characters in the back of a truck floating in the ocean that springs from Nina’s wide-eyed girl’s hair, while Finok’s half-man, half-boat waits on the beach.

NYC-based artist Sanford Biggers' Solo Exhibition at David Castillo Gallery

An LA native working in NYC, Sanford Biggers creates artworks that integrate film, video, installation, sculpture, drawing, original music and performance. He intentially complicates issues such as hip hop, Buddhism, politics, identity and art history in order to offer new perspectives and associations for established symbols. His solo exhibition ‘3 Dollars & 6 Dimes’ at David Castillo Gallery is on display now through July 25, 2014. The work presents new mixed media painting, installation and performance. The artist destabilizes linear notions of history, identity, and spirituality with a syncretic visual language culled from slave narratives, hip-hop culture and Afrofuturism.

In his Quilt series, Biggers appropriates antebellum quilts from the American South and renders them with acrylic, spray paint, silkscreen, embroidery, and fine art paper. The result depicts aggregate symbols from the Underground Railroad and sacred geometry, particularly the mandala. The mandala also constitutes the structure of the artist’s 16 x 16 foot dance floor, a site of implicit performance upon entering David Castillo Gallery. The dance floor invites ceremony and celebration in an environment of histories made new, including that of the art object itself.

The mandala is often posited as a doorway between heaven and earth. Interspersed throughout the gallery are cloud sculptures suspended at varying heights, creating depth and atmosphere for the floor and wall artworks. This heaven, however, is not that of manifest destiny. Biggers’ buoyant clouds are twisted from chicken wire and stuffed with raw cotton, referencing the plantation system and the sky under which its slave laborers fled.

3 Dollars & 6 Dimes is rich in the totality it represents: a three hundred and sixty degree cartography, a circular mandala, an embrace, the wisdom that comes from contemplating the interconnected past, present, and future. “I was born underwater with 3 dollars and 6 dimes,” Erykah Badu sings. 3 Dollars & 6 Dimes invites viewers not merely to ground themselves in the historical realities that have shaped American economy and culture, but to return to the water, the origin of all life, and a state of untarnished knowledge.

Sanford Biggers was born in Los Angeles, CA and lives and works in New York, NY where he is also an Assistant Professor at Columbia University’s Visual Arts program and a board member of SculptureCenter and the CUE Foundation. In April 2014, he participated in Carrie Mae Weems Live: The Blue Notes of Blues People at The Guggenheim New York and was recently included in the Americana exhibition at The Perez Art Museum Miami.

David Castillo Gallery opened in 2005 under sole ownership after transforming a dilapidated warehouse in Miami, Florida into a 5,000 square foot gallery – exhibiting mid-career and emerging artists, both international and local. The gallery’s focus is on conceptual curatorial models as they relate to art historical, cultural, and personal investigations of identity. David Castillo Gallery recently announced that it will be moving from it’s longtime Wynwood location at 2234 NW 2nd Avenue in Miami, FL 33127 to its new location on the 400 block of Lincoln Road. “This is where I wanted to be,” said David Castillo. “It will be similar in size, but in the heart of the Beach. I love it there.”

Banksy: The Unauthorized Retrospective at Sotheby's S|2 Space

Sotheby’s goes ‘Street’ with a Banksy exhibition as preparations are in the works for an unauthorized Banksy show curated by Steve Lazarides in Sotheby’s S|2 space. Located at number 31 St. George Street (directly behind Sotheby’s) it is perfectly positioned within the heart of Mayfair. The highly anticipated exhibit opens June 11th and runs through July 25, 2014 in London. Guests will be welcomed by a stuffed rat sporting a backpack and a spray can, the rodent is designed to symbolize the creation-cum-alter ego of Banksy, the anonymous street artist turned art-world superstar. Banksy is not involved in the show, which is being named an “unauthorized retrospective.” It was assembled by his former agent Steve Lazarides, who first met Banksy in the 1990s in their home town of Bristol in southwest England.

It’s a sign of his status that Sotheby’s is behind one of the largest-ever Banksy exhibitions, a display of kissing policemen, placard-wearing chimpanzees and smiley-faced riot police spanning much of the artist’s career. Some of the works originally sold for as little as 50 pounds ($84). Now, prices range from 4,000 pounds ($6,700) to more than 500,000 pounds ($840,000). Lazarides took a paint-filled fire extinguisher to the gallery’s white walls to make it look less like an alien environment for graffiti art. But, he conceded – “it’s completely paradoxical for me to be here, for the work to be here. It’s in a space it almost shouldn’t be and viewed in a way it was never intended,” he said. “But I think that’s part of the fun.”

There will be 70 paintings, prints and sculptures on display – owned by Lazarides and other collectors. The works display Banksy’s subversive, if not always subtle, yet brute humor. Winston Churchill sports a Mohawk haircut; genteel pensioners play lawn bowls with fizzing bombs; a ballerina breathes through a gas mask; a hungry child with an empty bowl wears a Burger King hat. Several early works feature police officers, the bane of Banksy’s existence as a young street artist. For others, he’s altered existing paintings: Van Gogh’s sunflowers have withered and died; flying saucers disrupt a maritime scene. Some of the works on display have not been seen in public for years, including the rat, in a glass case bearing the words “Our Time Will Come.” – Banksy installed it in 2004 in London’s Natural History Museum as hundreds of visitors and staff walked by.

Banksy works have fetched as much as $1.8 million at auction, so it’s no surprise that several of his outdoor works have recently, and controversially, been stripped from walls and sold for high prices. None of the pieces in the London show were originally street art, and Sotheby’s contemporary art chief Cheyenne Westphal said all have been endorsed as genuine by Pest Control, Banksy’s authentication service. “Works that are on the street don’t get certificates,” she said. “They’re there to be enjoyed, they’re there to be seen but they’re not there to be resold again.”

As his career has bloomed, Banksy has left his spray-painted mark worldwide, from the streets of New York to the Israel-Palestine separation wall. As for big gallery shows like this, Lazarides said, “He hates it.” Lazarides, who parted company with Banksy several years ago, takes a different view. “The show being here at Sotheby’s is almost a validation of the whole scene,” he said. “When we were doing this 15 years ago, everyone told us this was impossible, no one would buy the work, it was a fad, it would disappear. “People tend to forget that (Jean-Michel) Basquiat and Keith Haring were graffiti artists first. This is just following on from a rich tradition.” The exhibition opens at Sotheby’s S|2 Gallery in London on Wednesday, June 11th and runs to July 25.

Gallery Talk and Closing Reception on May 30th 2014 at Artopia Art Center in Wynwood

Gallery Talk and Closing Reception at Artopia Art Center in Miami for Remembrance To Pervis Young Tribute on May 30, 2014 from 7-10pm.

Join us for a Closing Reception on Friday, May 30^th at Artopia Art Center that honored Pervis Young with a tribute event on April 25th coinciding with the 4 year anniversary of the artist’s passing. Artopia served as the studio for Pervis Young. Young was one of the most prolific artists of our time, he was the catalyst of Miami’s art scene paving the way for Miami to become one of the world’s greatest art cities. Young's work was often a blend of collage, constructed materials and painting, utilizing found objects and discarded materials to create his masterpieces. A self-taught artist, Young gained recognition quickly with a collectors' following.

The Remembrance to Pervis Young exhibit was on display at Artopia Art Center from April 25 to May 30, 2014. It kicked-off with a spectacular opening reception, Young's family attended the event and a tribute was created highlighting Young’s career, which spanned more than four decades. The closing reception will include light refreshments and a gallery talk with the resident artists of Artopia who knew Young and were inspired by him. Read the write up that was featured in the Miami Herald about the April 25^th opening event.

Also view the work of Artopia’s well-known resident artists Joe Chirichigno, Bayunga Kialeuka, Brett Sauce, Isolda Mora Noli and Mark Cherry, with a special exhibit by Artopia’s rising art star Masplata. Guests will enjoy mingling and talking with the artists while having an opportunity to view the most sought after works by Pervis Young. The gallery offers an affordable selection of artwork for sale by a wide range of artists and a variety of styles.

The Collection at the gallery is comprised of artwork by an array of artists from the US, Latin America, Cuban masters to contemporary emerging painters and sculptors. Artopia has forged a new framework for understanding the momentous changes in Miami's cultural life over the years. The gallery promotes cultural development in the art community by supporting innovative visual art projects and cultivating the early careers of many emerging artists, bringing them to the forefront of the art world.

Artopia sadly lost another well-known and beloved resident artist during the course of the Remembrance Tribute to Young. Artopia’s resident artist Justine Alexander died unexpectedly last week, she was an internationally recognized artist. The gallery will pay its respects with a memorial for Alexander at the closing reception on May 30, 2014.

Artopia Art Center is located at 1753 NE 2nd Avenue in Miami, Florida 33132. The gallery is nestled in the heart of Miami’s famed Wynwood Arts District. Artopia’s staff of industry experts have extensive knowledge and experience of art and are available to visitors and collectors during gallery hours, Tuesday thru Saturday 12pm - 7pm. Contact the gallery at (305) 374-8882 or online at Artopia Art Center.

Media Contact: Kat Wagner (786)571-6112 or kat@themiamiartscene.com