"Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars" opening at Munch Gallery, NYC this week!

I am excited to announce an exhibition that I am a part of, opening this week in NYC. I am showing new work alongside sculpture by Derrick Cruz and an audio installation by Luke Kranker.

The opening is this Thursday, December 5th, from 7-9 pm and will be up until December 23rd.

Munch Gallery is located at 245 Broome Street, between Orchard and Ludlow.

For more information, please see the Facebook event page here or email info@munchgallery.com.

If you will be around NYC next week, I'd love to see you there!

DIGITAL 18:05:80 // A Sculptural Tribute to Ian Curtis of Joy Division

My good friend and fellow Occulter collaborator Derrick Cruz's new project: DIGITAL 18:05:80 is entering it's final week of fundraising on Kickstarter.

Some of you may have seen Derrick's previous entry in to this series, Half a Person, a stunning bust of Morrissey. This new project, a sculpture of Joy Division's Ian Curtis in cold-cast porcelain is even more, well, monumental. For those who can't contribute the full amount, there are incredible incentives at lower amounts. I, for one, can't wait to see the final piece.

More in-progress photos and a direct link below:

See more pictures and contribute here.

Stella Natura: The Light of Ancestral Fires 2012

It's been nearly five months since Stella Natura and I'm only just now ready to post about it. I think part of the reason that this post has been so late in coming was the dread of knowing that I would need to verbalize the experience somehow.

There isn't a lot that I can add that others haven't already said better (Stefan Raduta--incredible photographer and all-around good dude--comes to mind). Three days spent in the Sierra Nevadas with friends old and new rejuvenated me in ways that I hadn't realized I needed. It was a surreal, wonderful experience (sleeping in the ferns, getting lost in the woods at 2am, the sounds of an all-night Manowar sing-along drifting from a nearby camp). I was blown away by the music, seeing many of the bands live for the first time, the setting transformative.

Music is the main attraction for people, sure, but there seems to be a more vital undercurrent, something much deeper than the appeal of three nights spent in the woods and seeing amazing performances. It moves something inside of me, the same part of my spirit and intellect that is inspired by DIY punk and hardcore at it's best, some sense of people coming together to actualize something greater. 

I think maybe this attempt to build something foundational is part of what Adam Collins-Torruella and his colleagues and collaborators are trying to create here. It was a weird (and I mean this in the best sense of the word) congregation of people from various traditions and interests, and I think it will be incredible to see what is created in the coming years by the common ground and meeting place that Stella Natura is providing. I can hardly wait until this September.

Ash Borer

Blood Axis

Changes

Fell Voices

Menace Ruine

Hail / Sterling Sisters

Waldteufel

Servile Sect

HELL

Wolvserpent

Many thanks the Ash Borer/Servile Sect peeps for being my home base, to Aluk Todolo for sharing a van, and most especially To Adam and his crew. See you next Mabon.

Occulter presents: "Black Beach" at White Box NYC Tonight!

Hi Everybody,

I hope that your Summer is ending on a posi note!

Just a quick note--I have work included in the Occulter exhibition "Black Beach" that opens tonight(!) at White Box in NYC. Both the opening and closing receptions are going to be super-rad dance parties--I hope that you can make it! 

The details and the press release are below:

BEACH BOX: WHITE BOX  Summer Series

 August 15 - September 2, 2012

WEEK 1

 BLACK BEACH: An OCCULTER Group Exhibition

 Curated by Derrick R. Cruz 

 August 15 - 22, 2012

 Opening Reception: Wednesday, August 15 | 6-10pm

 DJ Sets by Pendu NYC + Live music

 Closing Reception: Wednesday, August 22 | 6-10pm

WHITE BOX is pleased to kick-off its new Beach Box Series with Black Beach, the first group exhibition by New York City artist collective OCCULTER. Black Beach will run August 15 - 22, 2012 with an opening event on Wednesday, August 15th from 6:00 - 10:00 p.m. and a closing event on Wednesday, August 22nd from 6:00 - 10:00 p.m. Both events will be hosted by Agency Antares and will feature live musical performances curated by Pendu NYC.   

Five OCCULTER artists will be featured in Black Beach: Nadav Benjamin; Jeremy Dyer; Derrick Cruz; Jonathan Goldstein; and Gabriel J. Shuldiner. Each artist will present large-format works spanning the scope of digital constructions, mixed-media paintings, sculpture and site-specific installations. Smaller works will be presented in a "Consumables Shop" as limited editions at the WHITE BOX CAFÉ UNIVERSAL.   

In Black Beach, OCCULTER members introduce a cohesive installation of tenebrous works as a call to worship at a pantheon of amorphous symbolic traditions they themselves simultaneously construct and explore. Each work displays an attempt at understanding consciousness or the incorporeal, with history (aesthetic, religious, political or otherwise) as a tool, not a guide. The installation as a whole evokes a self-reflective spirituality that reluctantly seeks community while concurrently providing escape.   

Contrasting the contemplative allusions in the artworks, on opening and closing nights, Black Beachwill transition from a space of observation to one of participation, as a set of energetic musical performances curated by Todd Pendu of Pendu NYC fill WHITE BOX. In true Pendu form, the space is bound to become a "community dance party".     

Those wishing to attend the opening and closing events are encouraged to RSVP to rsvp@occulter.org at least two days prior to each event.  

The artists will be present at the opening event on Wednesday, August 15th from 6:00 - 10:00 p.m.Black Beach will be open to the public August 16 - 22 during regular WHITE BOX hours. WHITE BOX hours are Monday to Saturday, 11:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m., Sunday, closed.

For more information, contact info@whiteboxny.org.

"Not Kansas" at RayKo Photo Center

This is just a quick note to let you know about a show that I'm in that opens this coming Thursday, July 19th at RayKo Photo Center in San Francisco. RayKo is an amazing space and I'm excited to be a part of this show, alonside some incredible photographers.

I will be in town for the opening, so San Francisco peeps--please get in touch!

Here are the details:

Not Kansas: Photographers Explore Their Own Worlds

Featuring work by: Alison Carey, Chris McCaw, Germán Herra, Curtis Wehrfritz, Christopher Colville, Jeremy Dyer, Robin Robinson, Tomiko Jones, Lisa Atjay and Tami Bone.

Opening Reception: Thursday, July 19th, 6-8pm

Exhibition dates: July 19th – August 31st

RayKo Photo Center Gallery

428 Third Street

San Francisco, CA 94107

415-495-3773 (ph)

http://www.raykophoto.com

If you are in town, I hope to see you there!

Haemál at Verve Gallery

I have been selected by Verve Gallery of Photography in Santa Fe, New Mexico as their on-line featured artist, with an exhibition currently on view here. 



I will also have work on view at the gallery during Misha Gordin's exhibition, Shadows of the Dream, which opens this Friday.



The opening is from 5-7pm this Friday, June 15th.


The gallery is located at 219 East Marcy Street in Santa Fe, New Mexico.



I hope that those of you in the area can make it!

In Memoriam: Bill Wooldridge

I got the news earlier this week that Bill Wooldridge had passed away. Anyone who came through the punk scene in Tucson in the late 90s through the 2000s will remember the big scary-looking bear of a man standing at the back of the room at Skrappy's, grinning as he picked up kids who fell down in the pit. Strangely enough, it's his voice that I remember best, soft-spoken and gentle, laughing quietly after making a goofy joke.

Bill and Kathy built a community in Tucson in a more fundamental and important way than I think any of us will ever be able to fully grasp, even before they opened Skrappy's. I have spent so much time in their home--learning photography by shooting bands in their living room and eating at their table (Potlucks! Vegan Thanksgiving!), not to mention the countless hours spent at Skrappy's through its various incarnations. While Kathy is more immediately recognizable as the face of Skrappy's for many people (our punk rock den mother!), Bill was at its heart. For so many of us, they were surrogate parents, opening their home to anyone who needed it and providing a safe place for people with nowhere to go.

I have never met anyone quite like Bill, and I am better for having known him. My thoughts go out to Kathy, Eli, Dusti and Heather.

A memorial is scheduled for today at 2:30 MST at Skrappy's. A Chip-In has been organized here to help Kathy and her family with Bill's final expenses. Please contribute, if you are able.