BORBAY Showcasing His Artwork this Thursday In NYC At Big Lobby Art
BORBAY, the New York City based artist that was once dubbed Time Out New York’s “Most Creative New Yorker”, will be showcasing a gallery of some of his awesome paintings this Thursday at the Big Lobby Art gallery (more information appears below). You may recall that we showcased some of his amazing portraits of some of Hip Hop’s biggest names, including Eminem, Diddy and Kanye West to name a few, here on our site.
Recently Serial Optimist sat down with BORBAY for a pretty interesting interview that will help you get an idea of his creative process and influences. Some excerpts appear below.
On creating pieces using newspaper as a medium:
On December 4, 2009, my wife’s birthday, I broke my leg during an ice hockey game. This lead to a volumetric amount of solitudinal (coined) couch-time. Each day started out with the New York Post, but now, instead of simply reading the paper, I began to see the paper. On one spread, “Bloomberg bans Salt”, “Priest Rapes Boy”, “JC PENNY $99 Sale”… absurdity. Sensational meets Incendiary meets Consumerism… beyond that, I’d find myself texting on my iPhone and watching a 51” plasma. It occurred to me, one day I’ll be explaining to my kids (Jason Jr. and Jason Jr. II) that Lord Poppington used to read the news on newsprint. So, I began playing around with taking all of these concepts and putting them in one place. It started in an exploratory fashion with “NY Post and The Gang on Christmas”. From there, I began to refine the process — you can see the progression from my “Self Portrait ” (January 2010) to “Diddy” (February 2011) to “Adam Kesher Theroux” (March 2012). Time plus repetition plus experimentation equals understanding.
On being named Time Out New York’s “Most Creative New Yorker” in 2009:
When I was in high school, I’d have a great race, but would be crestfallen when I was I didn’t make the paper. My Dad taught me a valuable lesson, “When you do something newsworthy, it is often ignored. Other times, you’ll have a mediocre race, and they’ll print your picture. Learn to take recognition and appreciate it when it comes, because it’s out of your hands.” This was reinforced years later when Denzel won the Oscar for Training Day… he really won it for Glory and Malcolm X, but it was his time. As for Time Out, certainly a beautiful (and marketable) recognition, but I’ll never let anything effect what really matters — the hard work I do each day, week, month and year in the studio. Without the work, you are nothing.
On the kind of music he likes to listen to while he creates:
If I’m listening to music, it’s hip-hop. Most of the time, however, I watch long form TV series or movies on repeat. On the easel, I have collage elements and paint conspiring to form a single image… once you commit to the composition, you spend a lot of time with it, so it’s nice to have someone taking their own journey alongside you… my buds Don Draper, Dexter Morgan, Sawyer; selling brands, cutting up bodies and saying sonofabitch for hours on end — we toil together.
Pretty interesting stuff. Make sure you check out Serial Optimist for the full interview. If you’re interested in attending BORBAY’s gallery this week, and we highly suggest that you do, here is the full information below:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEW YORK, NY – March 20, 2012 — On Thursday, March 29th, 2012, Time Out Magazines Most Creative New Yorker and creator of the #KingsOfHipHop Borbay will unveil his “Kick-Ass Actors in Kick-Ass Roles” paintings at Big Lobby Art’s opening reception. Produced by Streetwater Arts and hosted at Openhouse Gallery, (where you Watched the Throne), this pop up exhibition will feature a sizzling set of artists in Manhattan’s most exciting experimental space.
SHOW TITLE
Big Lobby Art
SHOW DATES
Opening Reception: Thursday, March 29, 2012, 6-10:00 PM
Open Gallery: Friday, March 30, 2012, Noon-7:00 PM; Gallery Talk: 7-10:00 PM
Open Gallery: Saturday, March 31, 2012, Noon-6:00 PM
SHOW LOCATION
Openhouse Gallery
201 Mulberry St, New York, NY 10012
RSVP
Please RSVP by email: jacquelyn@streetwaterarts.com or bridget@streetwaterarts.com
EXHIBITING ARTISTS
Atto Kim, Andrew Newbold, Brad Huck, Chris Vivas, Gil Seo, Inbu Pyo, Jason Bencivenga, Borbay, Jeremy Holmes, Jin Hong Kim, Jinwon Chang, John Sabraw, Jon Coffelt, Luminous Lish, Megan Biddle, Nick Norwood, Rebecca Kyrouac, Sean Mullens
BORBAY’S WORKS ON DISPLAY
Source: Serial Optimist, BORBAY
