TTK

Artist Featured in Upcoming Show

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TTK

Bio

"Who is TTK?" Since first bursting onto the scene in 2004, Mike "TTK" Harris has left everyone who has seen his work asking that question. TTK is a double threat, painting on canvas as well as sneaker customization. His amazing accuracy with a paint brush and his ability to transfer his imagination in vivid detail onto any canvas has gained him a worldwide following. TTK began at the age of 6, when he saw the movie that would change his life. "Beat Street" introduced him to hip-hop music, culture and art, and showed him how they can be fused together. TTK also cites comic books as one of his earliest influences, specifically comic book writer and illustrator Todd McFarlane. He was also heavily influenced by his older cousin, whom he looked up to as a brother. TTK credits him as the first person to put a pencil in his hand and teach him how to draw as well as how to lace his Pumas up correctly.
    Armed with a newfound love for art and hip hop culture, Mike Harris transformed into "TTK". He drew, sketched and tagged on every surface he could find. He didn't receive formal art training until high school where he studied fine art and learned how to paint. After graduating and entering college, TTK's bright future was put on hold by the birth of his daughter. Needing a job so that he could properly support her, he joined the Navy. After working on a submarine everyday for 2 years, spending weeks and months at a time underwater, he was able to come home. Upon returning in 2004 he was told about the new movement in the art and fashion world, sneaker customization. Being a huge sneaker collector already, this was perfect for him. After checking out what the current sneaker artists had to offer, he decided to try it out."I could do this and I can do it better". Eventually he created his own signature style, which is his affinity for combining colors that are not usually associated with each other, and his ability to recreate any picture or photo with amazing detail.
  Since then TTK has won the Custom Kicks Showdown sponsored by Finishline and Reebok, the Hartford, Connecticut division of the Funk Flex Sneaker Battle, and he was featured on the History Channel show, "The Works". He has traveled the country making appearances and displaying his work at various trade shows and has gained fans as far as South Korea, where he was also comissioned to work. He has done custom work for music artist Cormega, r&b soul singer Dwele, and Natalie aka the Floacist from the r&b group Floetry as well as special projects for Cornell University, Timberland, and clothing line Hood Prep. Summer of 2009 was his busiest yet. TTK. He painted a mural at New York radio station Hot 97's annual summer concert Summer Jam June of that year,  as well as a live art installation at the New York location of the Sneaker Pimps national tour. He was also invited to be apart of the Casio G-Shock "Shock The World" event where he put together work for Kanye West and the VP of time pieces at Casio. He has also been interviewed by The Source magazine and Slam magazine as well as Hot 97 radio host Lisa Evers for her show "Street Soldiers".
Who is TTK? He is an artist, a brand, a movement. What's next for this rising star? Only the sky's the limit....

TTK
WWW.GOTTKGO.COM
twitter.com/gottkgo
www.go-ttk-go.blogspot.com
myspace.com/gottkgo

ERIC ORR

Artist Featured in Upcoming Show
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Eric Orr
NYC artist

Eric Orr is an American artist raised in the heart of New York's South Bronx.  He was one of the first graffiti artists of the early 80s to substitute typography in art, using a symbol, character or icon as a moniker.  The icon, known as “robothead”, was inspired by the space age and the robotics era.  The robot head has become the visual identity associated with his artwork.

Eric’s work is recognized internationally and held in private collections in Europe, Asia-Pacific and North America.   He has been featured in numerous exhibitions in art galleries on both coasts of the US and has given live painting exhibitions in North America and the Asia Pacific.

Eric began his career as a graffiti artist in 1978.  Fresh out of high school graduation, he was influenced by the desire to enhance his urban environment and project a voice to New York City authorities. By drawing in the subways and street environments of the Bronx, he could use his character as visual language. Through to 1983, he continued to study at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) and the Art Students League.

In the mid 70s, Eric found his passion in art through experimentation with colour and texture.

He was recognized early on by his peers and mentors as a gifted artist. His creativity and ability to work across diverse forums would ensure his future success, from writing in his neighborhood and the New York City subways, to entry into international exhibitions at fine art galleries, and providence from the highly esteemed Sotheby's and Christie's auction houses. He has designed for music recording labels and clothing and apparel lines, and has curated the touring of customized games industry merchandise produced by many of the world’s great street artists.

His affinity with nature has also led him towards creating 3D ecological artforms and using found objects as a canvas. More recently, he has applied his life experience to working with artists and youth in transformational environments within communities.

In 1982, Eric’s style and recognition lead to a meeting with American artist Keith Haring who had been recognized on the New York scene for his "graffiti" and "pop art" images. The two had a fond appreciation of each other’s work and quickly became friends. In 1984 Haring and Orr collaborated on a series of drawings in the New York City subways.   The black panel spaces provided a strong backdrop on which to achieve bold drawings in white chalk that were easily identifiable by commuters riding the subway. The drawings stretched from the number 6 Pelham Bay line in the Bronx to the 4 and 5 subway lines to Brooklyn Bridge in Manhattan. Haring’s iconic “radiant baby” and Orr’s “robot head” became part of New York City subway history.

In March 1985 this historical collaborative series was included in a group show at the Librizzi Gallery.  One of the drawings would later go on to be part of a moving image presentation for Keith Haring's "Future Primeval" show at the Queens Museum in 1990.

With the application of his robot character, Eric became a featured artist in the Daily News "Fashion sketches" during '84.  His comic art icon "Maxwell Robot" appeared in numerous local publications in New York.

Eric continues to draw on his own past and acknowledge other artists whose raw creativity in the gritty streets of New York fuelled the emergence of the hip-hop culture and graffiti artform that has now spread worldwide. In recognition of their contribution to the street art movement and to contemporary art, he continues to incorporate in his artwork the symbols of Jean-Michel Basquiat (crown), Michael Stewart (MS), Keith Haring (triangle for those in the creative arts community who died of AIDS) and other pioneers of New York’s urban cultural expression.

Paralleling his art world in the NYC street culture, Eric was part of the formation of the hip-hop music recording scene in the late 70s.  His design talent saw him producing work for DJ and community leader Afrika Bambaataa (often considered the first rapper ever), the brand logo for the Strong City Records label, and legendary hip-hop artists of the 80s such as Jazzy Jay, Don Baron, Busy Bee, Nu-Sounds, Ultimate Force, Masters of Ceremony and Tony D moving into the 90s with the Diggin' In The Crates (DITC) crew lead by Lord Finesse.

Orr took time out of his career in the 1990s to raise a family, returning to become a full time artist in 2003.

Having been brought up in the Bronx, and having seen the plight of children in their need for more nurturing surroundings, Orr says, “I like to work with youth in communities, to assist them to explore their own cultural identity so that they will have the freedom to express this in creative and productive ways for their own careers.” 

JAMEL SHABAZZ

Artist Featured in Upcoming Show

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Jamel  Shabazz

Bio 02- 2010

 Jamel shabazz says his work is focused on the human experience, which is clearly supported by the titles of some of his two dozen solo exhibitions: “Men of Honor”, A Time Before Crack”, “ Back In the Days”, “When  Two Worlds Meet”, and “ Decisive Moments,” which have been shown from Canada to Argentina, Korea,  Italy, England, France and Germany,  as well as throughout the United States. An even longer list of group showings at the Brooklyn Museum,  the Bronx Museum of the Art and other locations, bears such titles as: “Glimpses in Time”, ‘” Posing Beauty”,  “ Black Style Now”, “ Bebop to Hip Hop”, “ Under One Grove”,  “ Street Art, Street Life” , and “ 1968 – Then and Now”.

 Four monographs of his work has been published: Back in the Days, The Last Sunday in June, A Time Before Crack, and Seconds of my Life. And he has collaborated on countless others.

Shabazz studied at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and is a retired member of the New City Correction Department, he has mentored  both teens and adults in his style of street photography and he is a member of the photo group Kamoinge and  is a teaching artist with the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation. This varied and diverse background has prompted Ken Johnson to call him, “ the best kind of photojournalist: one driven by curiosity about other human beings,”  as he continues meticulously documenting life both in New York and globally.

JOE CONZO JR.

JOE CONZO JR.
Artist Featured in Upcoming Show
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Joe Conzo Jr.
bio
  In an article published on October 4, 2005, The New York Times proclaimed photographer Joe Conzo Jr. as “The Man Who Took Hip-Hop's Baby Pictures.” The scope and magnitude of his visceral camera images had finally been acknowledged by American mainstream media.
Born and raised in the Bronx, “Joey” acquired a flair for photography at the age of nine while attending the Agnes Russell School on the campus of Columbia University; later, advancing those skills at the School of Visual Arts in New York. He grew up at the heels of his grandmother - a dynamic leader and passionate activist within the minority community of the South Bronx - the late Dr. Evelina Antonetty. His father, Joe Conzo Sr., was long-time confidant and historian for the late “King of Latin Music” Tito Puente. Exposure to these “politically and culturally charged” worlds had a profound effect on how he viewed his environment through the lens of a camera.
  However, Joe Conzo Jr. really came of age as a young man and as a photographer at a turbulent period in New York City’s urban decay. He was part of a generation that refused to be silenced by the choke of flame-engulfed South Bronx tenements and a disparaging educational system. Their defiant voices gave rise to a cultural movement known as Hip Hop. And at its early stage, Joey passionately embraced the role of photographer within the phenomenon.
  Most of those images from the 70’s and 80’s caught on b/w film by Joey, have traveled in one form or another to parts of Asia, Europe, and the Americas. They are regarded by genre experts and academians as an important visual record of key pioneers to the modern Hip Hop movement, and integral to any serious discourse on the subject. His first book “Born In The Bronx: A Visual Record of the Early Days of Hip Hop” (2007), a collaborative effort with noted New York musicologist and curator Johan Kugelberg, has received world-wide acclaim. In 2008, a collection of his early Hip Hop photographs became part of a permanent archive housed at Cornell University. The images are located right next to its copy of The Gettysburg Address document.
  Like most modern photographers, Joey has undergone the transition to digital. His stills continue to reflect the four main tenets of Hip Hop culture which are Mc'ing (often called rapping), DJ’ing, graffiti writing, and breakdancing. He has traveled throughout the USA on-assignment, as a lecturer, and as an exhibitor. He has crossed the oceans to England, Japan, Korea and other parts of the world where the global impact of Hip Hop music, culture, and dancing has become undeniable. His images have appeared on HBO and VH1, in the motion picture film CB4 (starring Chris Rock), in publications such as VIBE, Complex, Hip-Hop Connection (Europe), Urban Hitz (Australia), Esquire and Wax Poetics. His works also appear in the books “Hip Hop Immortals” (2003), “Yes, Yes, Y’all” (2002), and have been displayed at the prestigious Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York.
Currently, Joey has a second book of photographs in progress, and a third in the planning stage. In mid-January, he will be travelling to Amsterdam (The Netherlands) to give a presentation of his work.

CONTACT:
Joe Conzo Jr., photographer
jconzo@aol.com
www.joeconzo.com
(cell) 1-646-662-8958
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JAMES "KOE" RODRIGUEZ

Artist Featured in Upcoming Show
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James “Koe” Rodriguez  
bio
James “Koe” Rodriguez has worn many hats in Hip-Hop culture, but perhaps the one that fits best is “visionary.”  With a history in Hip-Hop that dates back to his first Rapper’s Delight single, Rodriguez has cemented his stay and name in the culture ever since.  “I married Hip-Hop as a kid and never found a reason to divorce it,” concedes Rodriguez.  The Jersey City native’s creative works have appeared in published books, domestic and international publications, TV and film, and gallery group shows.  In addition, Rodriguez has acted as a photojournalist who interviewed and captured such notables as: The Cold Crush Brothers, Rock Steady Crew, Jay Z, Chuck D, Chris Tucker, John Singleton, Brett Ratner, Afrika Bambaataa, Walt Frazier and Lady Pink, to name a few.
In 2005, Rodriguez, in conjunction with Jan Larsen’s XPO Art Gallery, curated his first group photo exhibition in Brooklyn, New York entitled 3 The Hard Way.  The exclusive show featured the works of internationally renowned New York photographers/authors, Joe Conzo, Ernie Paniccioli and Jamel Shabazz.  3 The Hard Way proved to be a landmark gallery event as it represented the first time all three photographers displayed their timeless works under one roof.  That year, Rodriguez would go on to pen a powerful afterword in Shabazz’s highly acclaimed book A Time Before Crack before heading to Paris, France to help promote the film, Just For Kicks, in which he appeared.  Rodriguez’s other film credits include: Big Pun: The Legacy, Way of the B-boy and Mixtape, Inc., Planet B-boy, Bomb It! and All Out War (unreleased).
In addition to past and present lifestyle work with: Nike, Adidas, Sony, and Viacom, Rodriguez’s latest project is a compelling documentary film on legendary photographers, Joe Conzo, Ernie Paniccioli and Jamel Shabazz entitled 1 LOVE.  He is also working on his first book, tentatively titled, All For The Love with Brooklyn native, John “The Greek” Tsevdos, which documents the pair’s visual memoirs of the late 80s and early 90s New York graffiti movement.  Rodriguez concludes, “Independent of being a multi-disciplinary artist and an entrepreneur, I take pride in the fact that I’ve not only participated in true Hip-Hop culture, but helped in its advancement and preservation for nearly 30 years.”  Rodriguez lives and works in New Jersey and still owns his Rapper’s Delight single.

Francisco Molina Reyes II

Artist Featured in Upcoming Show
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ABOUT THE ARTIST
Francisco Molina Reyes II is a
Nuyorican visual artist, born in the
Bronx and raised in El Barrio, NYC.
He began studying photography
formally with Harlem documentary
photographer Shawn Walker, as part
of a Work/Study Internship @
Hunter College in 1973. From
1975 to 1980, he lived and worked as
a "street photographer" in the South
Bronx where he received a grant to
develop a Basic B/W Photography
Workshop at the United Bronx Parents "Escuelita".
During a twenty-year period, Francisco spent part of that time photographing Latin music artists and performances at concert halls and clubs throughout New York City. His photos have appeared in various publications, including Latin New York Magazine, FAMA, Latino News, New York Latino, Newsday,The Daily News and El Diario/La Prensa in New York City. He also served as Music Editor for Latin NY Magazine (1980-82), before relocating to pursue a career in Film and Broadcast Television. Photos from Francisco's collection were published in the journal Black Renaissance Noire (Spring 2008), and have become part of a permanent display at The Point (located in the Bronx) titled "From Mambo to Hip Hop" (2009). Several images taken during his service with United Bronx Parents, Inc. have ecome part of the El Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños (Hunter College) archives (2009). His work- in-progress "The Exile of Innocence" (B/W prints from the 70s-80s) previewed at the BronxArtSpace Gallery next to the works of celebrated photographer Lisa Kahane - "Lapses of Memory" (2010). Another collection of digital photographs titled "Nuyorican inParadise" is up for a 2010 BRIO Award. Also, in the works, is a joint collaboration with photographers Angel Franco, Joe Conzo, Ricky Flores, David Gonzalez and Edwin Pagan to be held at the LongwoodGallery in the Bronx, NYC (2010). Francisco currently lives in the Bronx.

(Updated 4/09/2010)

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