Ramis Barquet Chelsea Gallery-> Rashaad Newsome: Standards solo exhibit

"Five Stars" "★★★★★"

Review of Ramis Barquet Chelsea Gallery-> Rashaad Newsome: Standards solo exhibit:

Rashaad Newsome is just a fantastic artist who is producing fine and well thought out work that is socially and politically relevant. The press release offers some wonderful insight to the deeper meaning of Newsome's work. Both the art and the video definitely accomplished what they set out to do. And like a cherry on the top of a sundae, there was a killer coat of arms in the back room of the gallery through a set of silver (or possibly platinum) gates which changed the common usage of the gallery space from an exhibit place into a mysterious landscape in which you are a guest and you should feel privileged to get access. The symbolic magnitude of this show is way to echoing and far reaching for me to cover in this short review. The general feel for the show is not about emotion or even trying to evoke any kind of reaction. It was educational and a clear personal formulation of idea's. I was impressed that it didn't come across at in an arrogant or posh manner but instead the work was well grounded in the real world. I just realized this review is really vague...so to cut my confusing rambling short: I liked the show and I think you will too.

Press release of Ramis Barquet Chelsea Gallery-> Rashaad Newsome: Standards solo exhibit:

Rashaad Newsome: Standards
October 22 – November 25, 2009

Reception: Thursday October 22nd from 6–8pm

Ramis Barquet Gallery is pleased to present Standards, Rashaad Newsome’s first solo exhibition. The show will feature new collage, sculpture and video.

Newsome’s work examines the visual language of power and status, juxtaposing high and low references to challenge received notions of social protocol and hierarchy. In his own words: “My works dismantle power structures, one shiny block at a time.” Sampling heavily from hip-hop and Pop culture, Newsome selects and appropriates a disparate array of visual components, restructuring them into recognizable statements and symbols. In so doing, he challenges established ideas of cultural ownership, and illustrates an acutely contemporary understanding of the way socially specific signifiers convey meaning.

In his collages, Newsome creates powerful status symbols using pieces of cut paper taken from discarded music magazines and auction catalogues. Skillfully appropriating the historical language of blazoning, Newsome acts as the herald of a new generation of fictional armigers, drawn from the world of hip-hop and black youth culture. Gold chain, chrome rims and video girls replace lions, unicorns and coronets; Newsome fashions the coats-of-arms of a bling-centric culture, elevating “ghetto” imagery to the highest status level.

This same language is present in The Conductor (Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi) and The Conductor (Primo Vere, Omnia Sol Temperat), the first and second parts of an ambitious 6 part video installation that sets Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana against a video montage of expressive hand gestures, extracted from popular rap videos, and a musical background of hip-hop beats. As Orff’s iconic oratorio opens with O Fortuna, a closely edited sequence of bejewelled gestures appears to conduct the music.

Rashaad Newsome was born in New Orleans, Louisiana where he received a B.A. in Art History at Tulane University before studying Film at Film Video Arts in New York City. Newsome has exhibited nationally and internationally at venues including; The Kitchen, NY; The Project Gallery, NY; Fondation Cartier, Paris; The Veletrzni Palace, Prague; and K.U.E.L., Berlin. Recent Commissions, awards and lectures include: “Shade Compositions 2009” (LMCC Downtown Dinner), 7 World Trade Center, NY; 2009 BAC Community Arts Regrant; 2009 Harvestworks Van Lier Grant; 2009 Summer/Fall Artist in Residence Program, Eyebeam Art & Technology Center, NY; 2009/2010 Smack Mellon Artist Studio Program, Brooklyn; 2008/2009 Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace Artist Residency Program, NY; 2009 BAC Community Arts Regrant, Brooklyn, and New Music Greats, New Museum of Contemporary Art, NY; Rema Hort Mann Foundation Visual Arts Grant, New York, NY.

For more information or images contact Ana Vallejo at avallejo@ramisbarquet.com.
Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 10-6 PM.

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Artist Statement — Rashaad Newsome

My works dismantle power structures one shiny block at a time. Using the equalizing force of sampling, I craft compositions that frequently surprise in their associative potential and walk the tightrope between identity politics and abstraction. I draw heavily from Hip-Hop and Pop culture in general as the base units for these amalgams, referencing music videos and such cultural icons as “Bling” jewelry, Vogueing and “Ghetto” expressions. All of the touchpoints of my work exist in a relative system that depends on recognition and context to establish power - the language of hip hop culture is often very self-referential. In all of the work cross-cultural parallels abound. Using various media I pick apart power structures and recombine them, eliciting emotional and visceral responses that can be universally recognized and felt.

Collage/Sculpture:
My work in collages and sculptures arose from my study of 14TH to 19TH century European architecture, and specifically the use of ornamental coats of arms. During my study, I observed that Heraldry is essentially a way of creating an image by combining different symbols that represented social, economic and warrior status. I applied this discipline of creating heraldic images to the hip hop community – first determining what would be their representative social, economic and warrior related symbols. Using symbols from popular black youth culture I began recreating historical heraldic images.

Video:
“The Conductor (Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi)” and The Conductor (Primo Vere, Omnia sol temperat) are the first and second part of a 6 part video installation. Both digital video loops are made up of footage from various hip-hop videos. All the footage is digitally enhanced and re-edited to track the motion of the hands of the artists. The audio is a composite of sounds consistently heard in the music of artist and producers deemed Hip
Hop music greats from a survey conducted with local New York radio stations Hot 97 and 105.1 These sounds are then weaved in and out of Carl Orff’s “Carmina
Burana”. The seeming fluidity of the image belies the painstaking nature of the production process: over 5000 individual video frames have been enlarged and repositioned to create the moving image.

Rashaad NewsomeArt Show website