Net, Orange Peels, Black Thread
by Veronica Ryan
Unveiling 2 October 2021
Hackney Town Hall
Hackney, England

Thomas J Price and Veronica Ryan have been commissioned by Hackney Council to create two new individual public artworks celebrating and honouring Hackney’s Windrush Generation, the first permanent public sculptures to do so in the UK.

The artworks will be unveiled on 2 October 2021 (Veronica Ryan) and 22 June 2022 (Thomas J Price), and will be installed in two different locations at the heart of civic and community life in the borough, including outside Hackney Town Hall. The works will serve as a permanent expression of solidarity with the Windrush Generation, a recognition of the hugely significant contribution they have made to life in Hackney and the UK, and will symbolise the ongoing commitment from the borough to provide refuge and welcome to worldwide migrants.

Veronica Ryan will create a series of large marble and bronze sculptures representing Caribbean fruit and vegetables. Speaking of her inspiration, Veronica Ryan said: “I have memories of going to Ridley Road Market with my mother as a child to buy fruit and vegetables, fabrics, and sewing materials. Little did I know, those early experiences would become essential material for my practice as an artist. I remember as a toddler during the 1950s the difficulties my young hopeful parents from Montserrat dealt with, navigating a new country and often inhospitable circumstances.”

History of the Hackney Windrush Commission

In August 2018, Hackney became the first local authority in the UK to pass a comprehensive motion regarding the Windrush Generation, pledging to oppose the criminalisation of Windrush families, calling for an end to the ‘hostile environment’ policies and for support for those who have been affected by them. This announcement follows the Council’s decision to review the role of statues and the naming of landmarks, street names, parks and other public spaces to ensure they best reflect Hackney’s diversity and history of fighting racism.

The announcement was made on Windrush Day 2020, and follows an extensive consultation process that began in 2018. Following an initial shortlisting process, the final decision to commission Thomas J Price and Veronica Ryan was made by a panel including Hackney residents, Windrush campaigners, artists, architects and local councillors including Cllr Carole Williams – Hackney’s Windrush lead. The panel was chaired by Mark Sealy, Director of Hackney-based gallery Autograph ABP, with approval from Mayor Phillip Glanville.

The project, produced in partnership with Create, is part of the Council’s wider Windrush Engagement Programme which started in 2018. Working directly with over 3,000 Windrush elders and their descendants on intergenerational activities in areas of arts, heritage, sport, health and education, the programme has given African Caribbean elders a voice and reconnected younger generations with their heritage.

More information: Hackney Windrush Commission

Fri Sept 24, 2021
8PM – 10PM
St Johns in the Village
Tickets $10 for Live Stream
and $20 in person

Performers
David Del Tredici
Marc Peloquin

This event will also be livestreamed on Youtube. See below for tickets. You will be able to watch this event live, or at any time after broadcast.
Tickets Live : EVENTBRITE LIVE
Tickets live stream EVENT BRITE LVESTREAM

Aaron Copland proclaimed David Del Tredici “that rare find among composers – a creator with a truly original gift. I venture to say that his music is certain to make a lasting impression on the American musical scene. I know of no other composer of his generation who composes music of greater freshness and daring, or with more personality.”

Del Tredici forged a new compositional path, neo-romanticism, a response to the atonality of the 1960s in which he came of age. Speaking for himself, he has said: “Music is not a religion, nor is it a duty. It is an entertainment. All that a composer really does is realize his own particular musical fantasy with a certain selection of notes, rhythms and timbres.”

The composer credits Marc Peloquin with reviving his interest in the piano and the two men have worked closely these past twenty years. Peloquin, whose career is focused on living composers, is in the process of recording Del Tredici’s complete works for solo piano, some of which, including S/M Ballade, have been composed specially for him.

This concert is supported by Roger Shapiro Fund for New Music.

From: David Del Tredici event

Village Trip Festival

HAPPENING NOW!
More than 30 events and over 50 performers at venues across the Village. A nine-day festival– Saturday, September 18 through Sunday, September 26, 2021 –celebrating the glorious community of Greenwich Village and all it has given the world.Come be part of it – join the fun, support local businesses.Because, as we know, it takes a village.

More info: The Village Trip

Friday SEPT 24, 2021 at 7:30PM
SHARP 5 CD release event!
Westbeth Community Room
55 Bethune St, NYC 10014

$20 suggested donation

SHARP 5 Quintet
SHARP 5 is a newly-formed Brazilian Jazz band, and they are releasing their new recording, Shine a Bright Light, on September 20 on Valley Jazz Records! SHARP 5 includes musicians TERI ROIGER on vocals, PETE LEVIN on piano (Gil Evans fame), JOHN MENEGON on bass (Joe Lovano fame), JEFF SIEGEL on drums, and Brazilian percussionist NANNY ASSIS (perc. guitar & vocals).

SHARP 5 is a group of extraordinary musicians who embrace the passion of collaboration, engaging in the music of Brazil as well as the heartfelt emotion of American classic jazz. The nuance the group brings to the stage empowers the rhythmic and melodic expression that will take the audience on a magical journey through time, space and beyond.

In musical terms, Sharp 5 represents the raised 5th in a chord, which creates a unique sound in the evolution of American music. The group is all about creating new sounds and putting a positive vibration into the universe. The band members have all had extensive experience/careers as creative artists.

The combined experience of these five musicians creates a unique balance of the past, present and future. Their diverse repertoire includes original compositions (Menegon & Siegel), music by King Crimson, Kenny Barron, Peggy Lee, Abbey Lincoln, plus Gil Evans’ influenced arrangements of unique standards, and joyful Brazilian-flavored music. The experience of recording with this group has allowed everyone involved to explore their own personal relationships and history with the music. The friendship, interaction and empathy they feel comes through in the music they create, allowing freedom of expression and an opportunity to share their life experiences.

Vocalist TERI ROIGER has recorded with the likes of Kenny Burrell, Jack DeJohnette, Gil Goldstein, etc. and has forged a unique career as a bandleader. On keyboards is PETE LEVIN, who has worked extensively with Gil Evans, Jimmy Giuffre, Paul Simon, Annie Lenox, Miles Davis, The Levin Brothers). Bahia native NANNY ASSIS is a Brazilian percussionist, vocalist & guitarist, who has recorded with vocalist Janis Siegel (Manhattan Transfer) and many others.
Bassist JOHN MENEGON is a well-known composer, arranger and bandleader who has worked extensively as a sideman with the likes of Dewey Redman, David “Fathead” Newman, and more recently Joe Lovano. Drummer JEFF SIEGEL is an in-demand sideman as well as a bandleader who has worked with Kurt Elling, The Levin Brothers, Ravi Coltrane, etc.

Point of interest: Pete Levin’s long association with the Gil Evans Band had him rehearsing extensively with Gil in the Community Room at Westbeth!

BIOS

TERI ROIGER (vocalist, lyricist, songwriter, pianist, educator)
“Teri has an intuitive laid back sense of time reminiscent of Abbey Lincoln and Betty Carter but with her own uniqueness.” JACK DEJOHNETTE (legendary jazz drummer & NEA Jazz Master)
Teri is a jazz vocalist, but also plays piano, composes music, and writes lyrics. She has performed and taught masterclasses throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico (San Miguel), Panama, and Europe. The depth of her experiences and love of jazz is apparent when she brings her talents to live performances, the recording studio, and through her moving lyrics and compositions. Teri has been sharing her knowledge and inspiration with her diverse students for over 25 years. Her recordings have all met with critical acclaim, as have her live performances at festivals and top New York jazz spots (Birdland, Kitano, Dizzy’s, Mezzrow, Jazz Standard, Café Bohemia). Teri’s latest release “Ghost of Yesterday: Shades of Lady Day” shines a new light on the many facets of Billie Holiday, the vocalist who provided the initial spark for Ms. Roiger’s commitment to a life in jazz, and was chosen by jazz critic Scott Yanow as one of the top 30 jazz releases in 2017. Her recording “Dear Abbey: The Music of Abbey Lincoln” also met with great critical acclaim, as did her first two recordings, “Misterioso” (featuring Jack DeJohnette, Kenny Burrell & John Menegon) as well as “Still Life” which featured two of her original compositions, the title song winning 3rd prize in the jazz category of ISC (Int’l Songwriting Competition).
“Teri is made for those who still understand the meaning of the term the real thing.” Stanley Crouch (Author & Cultural Critic).

PETE LEVIN (keyboardist, composer, arranger)
In a diverse music career spanning several decades, keyboardist/arranger PETE LEVIN has performed and recorded with hundreds of Jazz and Pop artists, including Paul Simon, Annie Lennox, Miles Davis, David Sanborn, Lenny White, Wayne Shorter, Jaco Pastorius, Robbie Robertson and John Scofield – receiving critical accolades for his work during a 15-year association with the legendary Gil Evans, and his 8-year stint with jazz icon Jimmy Giuffre. His recent activity includes touring with his brother Tony Levin in their band “The Levin Brothers,” always met with enthusiastic audiences and high critical acclaim.

JOHN MENEGON (bassist, composer, arranger)
“New York bassist JOHN MENEGON is in the line of George Mraz and Michael Moore; a harmonically sophisticated bassist with technical facility who swings hard when it’s called for.” Kirk Silsbee, Downbeat!
MENEGON began his career as a musician in Montreal. After having worked for several years on the Canadian jazz scene, Menegon moved to New York City to study jazz at Long Island University. John has been composing and arranging music throughout his career, and the ten years he spent as bassist for two legendary tenor saxophonists, Dewey Redman and David “Fathead” Newman, provided a solid foundation for Menegon to continue his explorations as a bandleader. Having spent over a decade performing, touring, and recording with each of them, these jazz legends have taken John around the world, playing at jazz festivals in South Africa, Argentina, Turkey, Brazil, Mexico, Europe and the U.S., and have been a major influence in his playing and compositions. Menegon currently plays with jazz legend Joe Lovano as well as leading his own band. John has released five CDs as a leader, including “I Remember You” (a dedication to Redman and Newman) with a four-star review in Downbeat, and his latest “Quartet East: Blew By Blues,” a dedication to Charlie Haden.

NANNY ASSIS
Singer, guitarist, drummer, percussionist, songwriter and Bahia native NANNY ASSIS is a master of Brazilian Jazz, Afro-Brazilian music and other popular and folkloric sounds from his homeland. Music is the mirror of his inner expressions. He was born in the northeastern Brazilian city of Salvador, Bahia, in 1969. Bahia is one of Brazil’s first cities, with predominantly African influences. Salvador is the birthplace of some of the country’s most remarkable music creations. That, in part, explains why Nanny has music running through his veins, making him an outstanding singer, a terrific drummer/percussionist, and a talented songwriter.

JEFF “SIEGE” SIEGEL
Drummer/composer/educator (New School, Western Connecticut State University, SUNY New Paltz) currently performs w/Jeff “Siege” Siegel Quartet & Sextet and The Levin Brothers (Tony & Pete). Additional performances and/or recordings w/ Sir Roland Hanna, Dave Douglas, Ron Carter, Kenny Burrell, Ryan Kisor, Kurt Elling, Ravi Coltrane, Wadada Leo Smith, Arthur Rhames, Mose Allison, etc. He is endorsed by Canopus Drums, Beato Bags & Vic Firth Drumsticks.

COVID RESTRICTIONS: Masks are required for the unvaccinated & recommended for the vaccinated.

GALLERY AT HUDSON PARK LIBRARY
October 2 – October 30, 2021
Mon – Fri 10am – 6pm
Saturday 10am – 5PM
Sunday Closed

OPENING RECEPTION
Saturday October 2, 2pm – 4pm
No refreshments will be served due to Covid restrictions.

GUIDED TOUR LED BY THE ARTIST
Saturday October 9, 2021 at 2PM
Works can be purchased directly from the artist.

The works on display were produced since the artist moved to Westbeth in 2014.

They are all done from life, incorporating the sitter’s works or relating to the subject’s life and environment.

Several sitters are represented in a series of works offering more varied insights than the ‘traditional’ definitive image portraiture offers.

Robert Bunkin is a painter, curator, art historian, and educator with an MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University.

Michael Moss’ group plays LITTLE ISLAND!

Date: Wednesday Sept 8 at 6 PM in the Glade.

MY NEW BAND, ROOTS TO SHOOTS – we will be performing FOR THE SECOND TIME at
the new magical park called Little Island on Wednesday, September 8th at 6 pm at The Glade!  

*Performance is FREE but you need timed entry tickets for this event.

For timed entry Tickets:  https://littleisland.org/timed-entry-reservations

Musicians:
Michael Moss (tenor and soprano saxes, flute)
the legendary Warren Smith (vibes, drums)
Adam Lane (bass)
Michael Wimberly (djembe, African percussion, piano)
Ismael Baiz (cajon, bongos),

Special Guest Bobby Harden (vocals)

September 12 – October 9, 2021
Opening Reception Sunday September 12 2PM – 5PM

Hours: Wednesday – Sunday 1PM -6PM

Curator Dr Bruce Weber

The Sculptors Guild celebrates the re-opening of the Westbeth Gallery.

Curator
Dr. Bruce Weber received his Ph.D. in art history at the Graduate School of the City University of New York, where he studied with his longtime mentor Dr. William H. Gerdts. A leading scholar of American art. Dr. Weber has served as a curator at several museums, and as the director of research and exhibitions at a leading New York gallery. He has curated many exhibitions of historical and contemporary art. Among other topics he has written on the art of William Merritt Chase, Robert Frederick Blum, Marsden Hartley, Yasuo Kuniyoshi and Stuart Davis, and has organized shows on such diverse topics as the apple and rose in American art, silverpoint drawing and contemporary figurative sculpture. In recent years he has been researching, lecturing and writing on the art of the historical Woodstock art colony, including such sculptors as Raoul Hague, Alexander Archipenko, Wilhelm Hunt Diederich and Tomas Penning.

The Sculptors Guild
The mission of the Sculptors Guild is to promote, encourage, and support sculptors and sculpture through personal interaction, professional development, exhibitions and community outreach.

The Sculptors Guild was founded in 1937 and is one of the oldest artist-run organizations in New York City. The founders were at the forefront of American Modernism rejecting the staid conventions of traditional figurative art. Their primary objective, as stated in an early exhibition catalogue was: “to unite sculptors of all progressive aesthetic tendencies into a vital organization.”
More info soon.

Author: Martin Dawber
Forward: Karen Santry
Book Cover: Karen Santry

To smoke out the images in this exciting book, Martin Dawber has become a kind of Pied Piper eliciting, with astounding digital pitch, the cutting-edge visions of hundreds of fashion illustrators around the world.

Encountering his artists in the light of monitors, at the foot of fashion runways, on the streets of Paris and in the pages of little-known magazines, Dawber found fashion art alive and well, albeit changed. HIs subjects do not portray fashion in beautiful isolation as was common in the 50’s and 60’s, they transpose it – with seamless integration – into contemporary lifestyle.

Coffee at Starbucks, skateboard ramps, Shoe Fest at Bergdorf’s, and even the bedroom, all provide a new stage for the daily interaction of fashion and lifestyle. Make no mistake, though, what Dawber captures is anything but mundane. His ability to dictate new trends by showing us images we see every day but in a startling new way amazed me from cover to cover.

Line, like the baton of a skilled maestro, he takes the viewer throughout The Big Book of Fashion Illustration making drawing a central theme. Whether the artist is using a Number 4 pencil, or a Wacom tablet line is tantamount. Throughout history, the skilled use of line has always been one of the most effective artistic methods used to convey emotion. Dawber employs this time-honored technique to delight and surprise us juxtaposing high fashion and tears, heartbroken women face to face with gorgeous, well-dressed, men, bored sprawling youths on skateboards, and angry bad boys flying around the hood like a pack of hornets, to name a few.

In the ongoing and ruthless competition between fashion illustration and fashion photography, the confluence of hands-on materials, the latest digital programs, and the best use of attitude, character, and–of course–style (which always comes from within) are what wins.

And the artists in this book are winning. All born of a generation deeply influenced by comic books, gaming, music videos and cartoons, the multi-vantage points enliven the illustrations, inviting viewers to participate as opposed to keeping them at a distance behind the velvet ropes. Page after page, sexuality is brazenly flaunted, often turning the viewer into a voyeur. This is fashion illustration at its best, incorporating every weapon of seduction. Hang on to your hats and wallets – these formerly endangered artists are out to get you!

What’s more, these illustrators come from many cultures and countries. Any reader attempting to identify the roots of each illustrator will be happy to find that East has been busy meeting West creating a truly inclusive global representation of fashion illustration.

Karen Santry, Associate Professor Illustration
Fashion Institute of Technology, New York NY
Executive Vice President, Fashion Art Bank Inc. (USA and Japan)
Westbeth Artist’s Housing since 1990!

Karen Santry on Westbeth website