PRIMARY FLIGHT ROCKET-LAUNCHED BLUE PRINT FOR SPACE AT ARTCENTER/SOUTH FLORIDA; VOYAGE TO CONTINUE IN THE STREETS OF WYNWOOD

Murder Dance After-Party at Shore Club Featured DJ Sets by Shepard Fairey,Video by Peanut Butter Wolf, Live Graffiti Painting and Celebrity Appearances

MIAMI (December 4, 2009) – Kicking-off non-Basel festivities, ArtCenter/South Florida (“ACSF”) rocket-launched Blue Print for Space, an explosive exhibition curated by South Florida-based art collective Primary Flight, on Wednesday, December 2 (800 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach). More than 800 guests packed the 1,028 square-foot community gallery throughout the evening, including exhibiting artists Ron English, Jim and Tina Darling, Blackbooks and Santiago Rubino. Hipster tunes were bumping on the ones and twos while Leblon Cachaca kept the complimentary caipirinhas flowing.

Beats™ by Dr. Dre™ and Monster showcased one-of-a-kind Beats Studio headphones tricked-out by Primary Flight artists Tes One, Retna and Santiago, which will be auctioned on www.primaryflight.com in benefit of ArtCenter/South Florida's arts education programs. Blue Print for Space is on view until January 2, 2010, and is free and open to the public.

Taking it back to the streets, more than 100 Primary Flight artists will now continue creating live murals and installations throughout Miami’s Wynwood Arts District. Typoe, Retna, Ewok, Dolla, Blek Le Rat, Fake is Good and She Kills He are among the visionaries appropriating public and private outdoor surfaces, day and night, through December 6, 2009. Primary Flight’s base camp is located at Wynwood Social Club (2501 N.W. 2nd Ave) but artgoers should walk the streets for an authentic taste of the work in context. Key locations include:

• Spinello Gallery - 155 Northeast 38 Street, No. 101 (Santiago Rubino)
• Margulies Collection - 591 Northwest 27th Street (El Mac, Retna)
• Eazy Street Gallery - 3501 Northwest 2nd Avenue (Tristan Eaton, Jeff Soto)
• Bakehouse Art Complex - 561 Northwest 32nd Street (Depoe)
• Electric Pickle - 2826 North Miami Avenue (Aiko)
• FoCi Art Fair - 3000 North Miami Avenue (Askew, Shepard Fairey, Revok, Reyes)
• Wynwood Social Club - 2501 N.W. 2nd Ave (Jim Darling, Galo, The London Police, Kenny Scharf)

Primary Flight’s lead curator, Books IIII, said, “This evening is testament to the fact that graffiti is alive and well in Miami. It doesn’t get any more real than this. Primary Flight looks forward to taking this show on the road.”

About Primary Flight

Primary Flight is a collaborative curatorial organization dedicated to the production of site-specific, street level, mural installations. Since its inception in 2007, Primary Flight has brought together over 100 of the world’s most influential Street Artists to install their work live in the streets of Wynwood, and for the first time, in Miami Beach at ArtCenter/South Florida. These projects provide a catalyst for burgeoning arts communities.

Primary Flight's Blue Print for Space at the ArtCenter for ArtBasel

World’s Largest Street Art Mural Installation Expands for Art Basel Miami 2009

Miami-based Street Art collective Primary Flight announces the addition of a gallery show, Blue Print for Space, that will take place in conjunction with its annual event in Miami’s Wynwood Art District during Art Basel Miami Beach. South Beach’s ArtCenter/South Florida will host the noteworthy event.

MIAMI, Florida – After all the frenzied art enthusiasts have disappeared, and temporary exhibition

sites have been dismantled, Miami residents are left with a lasting souvenir of the international art phenomenon under the umbrella called, “Art Basel.” Miami-based collective, Primary Flight, is responsible for the expanse of colorful concrete installations throughout the Wynwood Art District. The organization has succeeded in developing community and bequeathing the city of Miami with a priceless collection of Street Art.

Since its inception in 2007, Primary Flight has hosted site specific, street-level, outdoor mural and performance art projects in Miami’s Wynwood Art District during Art Basel each year. This global arts and community collective project combines an international selection of top galleries with an exciting program of street exhibitions, parties, and crossover events featuring music, film, architecture and design. Primary Flight’s annual event in Wynwood is the world’s largest, multi-site, street-level mural installation. In just three years, Primary Flight has grown quickly from 15 to over 100 artists, the majority of whom travel to Miami for Art Basel. Founders of the street, stencil, graffiti, and skate art movements headline the annual event. Artists collaborate on strategically located walls throughout the Wynwood Art District. Maps outlining the installation are circulated, providing patrons with an opportunity to view street works in process.

Notable participating artists have included Augor, Bask, Blek Le Rat, Boxi, David Choe, Crome, Cycle, Michael De Feo, Dare, Depoe, Dolla, Ellis G, El Mac, Ewok, Frerk, Logan Hicks, Andy Howell, Kofie, Lady Pink, The London Police, MSG, Kenton Parker, Retna, Revok, Reyes, Risk, Santiago Rubino, She Kills He, Chris Stain, TCP, Tes One, Typoe, WK Interact, Marc C. Woehr and Agustina Woodgate. Primary Flight is a launch pad for some Street Artists, and a homecoming for others, such as Shephard Fairey and Ron English, both of whom transitioned from Street Art to the Fine Art arena.

Shepard Fairey comments, “There is an immense pool of talent that travels to Miami for the art fairs and many of them prefer to share their work with a broad audience on the street. The Primary Flight project is an ambitious endeavor to allow artists to create murals on sanctioned street spots. I was fortunate enough to be provided with a great wall near the Scope show and I not only received great feedback about my mural during the art fair, but continuously ever since. With the recent increased interest in street art from the fine art world, it is great that Primary Flight has created a program to legitimize and broaden the audience of Street Art.”

The 2009 edition of Primary Flight is sponsored in part by Miami’s Margulies Collection. Curator Katherine Hinds said, “Primary Flight brings a dynamic and exciting dimension to the Miami art scene and we are very pleased to serve as one of the sites for this year’s Street Art installations. Many Contemporary artists have drawn on the urban landscape for subject and inspiration, Basquiat, Walker Evans, Barry Mcgee to name a few. The artists in Primary Flight add a new voice to the urban genre in a big bang of painting, poetry and pavement.”

This year, Primary Flight broadens its reach with the addition of Blue Print For Space, a collection of contemporary Street Artists and Graffiti Writers, hosted by ArtCenter/South Florida. The art exhibition that complements to the Wynwood installation will showcase over 25 of today’s most active and unique street artists. Blue Print For Space proposes that these “Street” artists’ works are not just thought provoking or visually pleasing, but are also the voice of a contemporary generation.

During Art Basel, ArtCenter/South Florida will serve as the venue and co-organizer for a gala opening, panel discussions, book signings, private viewings and additional collaboration for artists. Event sponsors include MTV Latin America, The Margulies Collection, Majestic Properties, Lombardi Properties and Miami Spaces.

Primary Flight founder, BooksIIII, commented, “The Street Art movement has become a standard, reaching out to almost every city across the globe, empowering any person with an interest to ‘get up’ in the street with an unofficial license to do so. This year’s exhibition at ArtCenter/South Florida will be a transition from the street to the gallery, but will nonetheless maintain the same edge and voice that wails in the street each and every time we go to sleep.” Through this annual project, Primary Flight provides a basis for dialogue and interaction among a diverse group of social players: world-renowned artists, property owners, gallerists, collectors and community residents. The unique and exciting Street Art that is left behind has become a Miami attraction, providing a destination for tourists, film crews, fashion photographer and art lovers.

ABOUT PRIMARY FLIGHT: Primary Flight is a collaborative curatorial organization dedicated to the production of site-specific, street level, mural installations. Since its inception in 2007, Primary Flight has brought together over 100 of the world’s most influential Street Artists to install their bodies of work live in the streets of Wynwood. These projects provide a catalyst for burgeoning arts communities. Two books about Primary Flight events are scheduled to be released in the summer and winter of 2009, through Ginko Press Publishing.

Blue Print For Space @ ArtCenter/ South Florida

The worlds largets street art mural installation expands for Art Basel Miami 2009

Miami-based Street Art collective Primary Flight announces the addition of a gallery show, Blue Print for Space, that will take place in conjunction with its annual event in Miami’s Wynwood Art District during Art Basel Miami Beach. South Beach’s ArtCenter/South Florida will host the noteworthy event.

MIAMI, Florida – After all the frenzied art enthusiasts have disappeared, and temporary exhibition sites have been dismantled, Miami residents are left with a lasting souvenir of the international art phenomenon under the umbrella called, “Art Basel.” Miami-based collective, Primary Flight, is responsible for the expanse of colorful concrete installations throughout the Wynwood Art District. The organization has succeeded in developing community and bequeathing the city of Miami with a priceless collection of Street Art.

Since its inception in 2007, Primary Flight has hosted site specific, street-level, outdoor mural and performance art projects in Miami’s Wynwood Art District during Art Basel each year. This global arts and community collective project combines an international selection of top galleries with an exciting program of street exhibitions, parties, and crossover events featuring music, film, architecture and design. Primary Flight’s annual event in Wynwood is the world’s largest, multi-site, street-level mural installation. In just three years, Primary Flight has grown quickly from 15 to over 100 artists, the majority of whom travel to Miami for Art Basel. Founders of the street, stencil, graffiti, and skate art movements headline the annual event. Artists collaborate on strategically located walls throughout the Wynwood Art District. Maps outlining the installation are circulated, providing patrons with an opportunity to view street works in process.

Notable participating artists have included Augor, Bask, Blek Le Rat, Boxi, David Choe, Crome, Cycle, Michael De Feo, Dare, Depoe, Dolla, Ellis G, El Mac, Ewok, Frerk, Logan Hicks, Andy Howell, Kofie, Lady Pink, The London Police, MSG, Kenton Parker, Retna, Revok, Reyes, Risk, Santiago Rubino, She Kills He, Chris Stain, TCP, Tes One, Typoe, WK Interact, Marc C. Woehr and Agustina Woodgate. Primary Flight is a launch pad for some Street Artists, and a homecoming for others, such as Shephard Fairey and Ron English, both of whom transitioned from Street Art to the Fine Art arena.

Shepard Fairey comments, “There is an immense pool of talent that travels to Miami for the art fairs and many of them prefer to share their work with a broad audience on the street. The Primary Flight project is an ambitious endeavor to allow artists to create murals on sanctioned street spots. I was fortunate enough to be provided with a great wall near the Scope show and I not only received great feedback about my mural during the art fair, but continuously ever since. With the recent increased interest in street art from the fine art world, it is great that Primary Flight has created a program to legitimize and broaden the audience of Street Art.”

The 2009 edition of Primary Flight is sponsored in part by Miami’s Margulies Collection. Curator Katherine Hinds said, “Primary Flight brings a dynamic and exciting dimension to the Miami art scene and we are very pleased to serve as one of the sites for this year’s Street Art installations. Many Contemporary artists have drawn on the urban landscape for subject and inspiration, Basquiat, Walker Evans, Barry Mcgee to name a few. The artists in Primary Flight add a new voice to the urban genre in a big bang of painting, poetry and pavement.”

This year, Primary Flight broadens its reach with the addition of Blue Print For Space, a collection of contemporary Street Artists and Graffiti Writers, hosted by ArtCenter/South Florida. The art exhibition that complements to the Wynwood installation will showcase over 25 of today’s most active and unique street artists. Blue Print For Space proposes that these “Street” artists’ works are not just thought provoking or visually pleasing, but are also the voice of a contemporary generation.

During Art Basel, ArtCenter/South Florida will serve as the venue and co-organizer for a gala opening, panel discussions, book signings, private viewings and additional collaboration for artists. Event sponsors include MTV Latin America, The Margulies Collection, Majestic Properties, Lombardi Properties and Miami Spaces.

Primary Flight founder, BooksIIII, commented, “The Street Art movement has become a standard, reaching out to almost every city across the globe, empowering any person with an interest to ‘get up’ in the street with an unofficial license to do so. This year’s exhibition at ArtCenter/South Florida will be a transition from the street to the gallery, but will nonetheless maintain the same edge and voice that wails in the street each and every time we go to sleep.” Through this annual project, Primary Flight provides a basis for dialogue and interaction among a diverse group of social players: world-renowned artists, property owners, gallerists, collectors and community residents. The unique and exciting Street Art that is left behind has become a Miami attraction, providing a destination for tourists, film crews, fashion photographer and art lovers.

ABOUT PRIMARY FLIGHT: Primary Flight is a collaborative curatorial organization dedicated to the production of site-specific, street level, mural installations. Since its inception in 2007, Primary Flight has brought together over 100 of the world’s most influential Street Artists to install their bodies of work live in the streets of Wynwood. These projects provide a catalyst for burgeoning arts communities. Two books about Primary Flight events are scheduled to be released in the summer and winter of 2009, through Ginko Press Publishing.

Splinter/Fuse

Splinter/ Fuse is ArtCenter/South Florida’s annual exhibition of newly juried artists. This exhibition will feature the work of: J. Kevin Foltz, Jules Lusson, Hugo Moro, Tere Pastoriza, Franklin Sinanan and Robert Wilson. The works will examine transition and metamorphosis. All the participants are using figurative narratives to create imagery that suggests the causes and process of change. The title of this show is meant to mimic this process; developing a scrutiny of adaptation whether it be personal, physical, structural, or social.

Examples of this can be seen in Robert Wilson’s fragmented antique top hat. This image harkens back to a time of fastidious dress and social protocol splintered it becomes constricted and abstracted by the grid’s modernist framework. Hugo Moro’s investigations of the changes and repetitions in the architecture of our own ArtCenter complex brings forth the historic curve of the banister in our 810 Lincoln Road building into the newer space of the gallery’s soffit structure echoing a connection between the old and the new. Franklin Sinanan’s literal interpretation of change is shown in expressionist representations of one’s appearance, ranging from dependency and abuse to enlightenment. Tere Pastoriza creates delicate drawings that mimic the feminine mystique. The changing figures are familiar yet strange floating in white space. Jules Lusson uses ferries and jellyfish to represent life and death. Her symbols ebb and flow like a dance between those two worlds. Lastly Kevin Foltz’s use of text, color and collage deconstruct the sacred image of the Buddha, a moniker of transition, harkening to a sense of something both old and new. All artists have used this relationship of a transitional narrative as motivation, looking toward their own themes and surroundings as contributing causes for transformation.

SHE LIKES MUSIC AND HE MAKES IT SHAKE

ArtCenter/South Florida opens “The Flying Carpet” at Lincoln Road Art Walk – September 5, 2009

MIAMI BEACH, FL (August 13, 2009) – ArtCenter/South Florida (“ACSF”) presents The Flying Carpet, an exhibition born of the playthings that fuel the arguments of married artists Pip and Duane Brant. From September 4 to October 11, 2009, viewers will be invited into their whimsical world of sewing-sound-machines, flying carpets and more at ArtCenter/South Florida (800 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach).

Opening night on Saturday, September 5 from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. coincides with the Lincoln Road art walk, which debuted August 1 and takes place the first Saturday of every month. In addition to The Flying Carpet showcased in the main gallery, more than 40 local artists, ACSF’s #810 and #924 Lincoln Road studios, art spaces and Maya Tapas & Grill in South Beach will open their doors to share photography, painting, installation, video, mixed media, glass works and culinary delights. For more information, please call 305.674. 8278 or visit www.artcentersf.org.

“The Flying Carpet is a great opportunity to celebrate the work of two of South Florida’s most innovative and engaging artists," said Jeremy Chestler, ArtCenter/South Florida's Executive Director. "This is a very sophisticated show and is also one that should be accessible to the public at large, and serve as an introduction for many viewers to installation and sound art.”

Pip Brant’s carpet is comprised of a found oriental rug, embroidery, silkscreen, brass ornaments, wood, car parts, electric motor, laser light and rheostat controllers. The original floor covering first entered Pip’s life in the early 1980s in Wyoming, and served as both a warming barrier for household treading and a place for newborn goats to gain their footing. When moving to Miami, she wrapped the rug around her piano, and it was even once tossed in an alley, falling prey to neighbors’ trucks. The many adventures of Pip’s carpet were just taking shape when she had an epiphany: she would create an impotent “flying carpet” that only shakes and lights-up when foot pedals are engaged. Its temporary home for the month of September will be at ArtCenter/South Florida.

“Hanging on to objects is a stupid fault,” states Duane Brant. “Then, motorizing, embroidering and electrifying can bring this malady to a new level. The end result is an altitude of transformation that can no longer function as a useful item, and a ridiculous contraption that can evolve into ‘art.’”

Duane’s installation pieces are dubbed “sew organs” or interactive acoustical sound machines. In addition to the flying carpet, ArtCenter’s audience will be invited to play with these instruments that combine vintage sewing machines with shellacked, wooden acoustic forms that are electronically connected to organs, cellos or old radios. Each sewing machine has its own exclusive tone that is distorted by the volume and shape of the wooden forms, with foot pedals that can manipulate the variable tempos, fortes and pianos.

The sewing machine comes from a historically-significant lineage of machinery, rooted in sound production and as an icon depicting social status. Some sewed with their mothers; others made low wages; moreover, some people used sewing to avoid other kinds of servitude. Duane’s sew organs have adopted roles of their own, at once creating clutter in the home and provoking arguments with Pip, as well as inspiring creation and musical experiments.

Duane and Pip Brant met in 1972 at the University of Montana in Missoula, MT, where they earned their art and teaching degrees. They taught art on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in northeastern Montana and later moved to Wyoming, where they built goat barns, a house and a studio. During and after graduate school, the Brants were members of a collaborative art group named “Kunstwaffen.” This group was active for 10 years, producing interactive projects like Cattle/Text Interaction and Screwed Earth. The environmental and gender issued aims of this collective still inform the sensibility of this pair of artists.

The couple now focuses on individual works but collaborate when each other’s skills are needed. They have exhibited internationally in the Czech Republic, Ireland, Hungary, Great Britain and Santa Domingo as well in the United States.