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bluetan presents: 'Ultisols' exhibition at Index Art Center

We are thrilled to announce our upcoming exhibition, Ultisols, at the Index Art Center in Newark, New Jersey. We hope you can join us at our opening reception on January 17th. bluetan collective presents: Ultisols Joseph O'Neal Brandon Fonville Joe Strasser Geoff Henshall Steve Chellis Index Art Center 237 Washington Street Newark, NJ 07102 www.indexartcenter.org index.gallery@gmail.com Gallery ph. 862-218-0278 Reception: Saturday, January 17, 7 - 10PM Exhibit on view through February 11 Ultisols [uhl-tuh-sawls, -sols] a highly weathered leached red or reddish-yellow acid soil with a clay-rich B horizon (subsoil). We as artists have a conscious and visceral bond to the environmental surroundings of our youth. This connection still affects our use of color, composition, and at times the overall language of our work. Ultisols represents that place where nature and nurture meet, acting as a metaphorical idea of where the conscious mind meets the innate or subconscious mind. We see the act of creating as an excavation of the meta/pataphysical ether in an attempt to uncover personal and universal meaning. The works in this exhibition are tokens from this excavation; i.e. an archeologist bringing a bone back to the lab. In this case the bone (our work) is not the object of desire but rather an invitation for the viewer to embark on their own excavational journey. This unearthing manifests itself in an array of distinct expressions throughout our collective: Geoff Henshall's reflections on youth, love and friendship; Brandon Fonville's photographs emphasizing place and change in a growing city; Joseph O’Neal’s poetic non-objective forms and wordplay; Joe Strasser’s urgent application of material; and the ambiguous taunting of Steve Chellis’ paintings and drawings. These brief examples articulate Ultisols: the exposed soil meeting the air; mirroring the artists' inner excavations coming to fruition. Though varied in intent and outcome, as a whole the work in this exhibition is effective in its ability to translate the myriad of experiences of our varied group in the light of a connected reality. http://bluetan.com

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new photobooklet/zine in the bluetan shop: http://bluetan.bigcartel.com/product/woodhull-brandon-fonville WOODHULL Brandon Fonville A photo series from the Winter of 2012/2013. 5.5" x 8.5" laser printed 24 pages, staple-bound hand numbered edition of 50 published by bluetan collective, November 2014 PREVIEW

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Steve Chellis Four Barrel Art Dept 375 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA 94103 July 3 - August 4, 2014 Opening Reception July 10, 2014 10pm

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TRACES at 7 Dunham gallery presented by ARMCHAIR/SHOTGUN

Location: 7 Dunham 7 Dunham Pl Brooklyn, NY 11211

Steve Chellis, Study for Primer, 16" x 20" BROOKLYN – Armchair/Shotgun, a Brooklyn-based literary magazine, will host a group exhibition at Williamsburg art gallery 7Dunham from May 4 to May 11, with an opening event on Saturday, May 3 from 6:00 to 9:00 PM. The show, titled “Traces,” will feature the work of seven visual artists whose work has been published in the pages of the journal. Armchair/Shotgun, which also publishes poetry and short fiction selected anonymously and interviews with established writers and artists, prides itself on choosing work exclusively on its own merits without regard to biography, credentials, or past publication. This commitment has resulted in the mix of new and experienced artists appearing in “Traces.” Steel Stillman, a New York photographer, exhibits works from his series “Incidents,” excerpts of which were featured in Armchair/Shotgun’s inaugural issue. Taking as their foundation snapshot-like images from the last 40 years—to which Stillman adds hand-drawn black shapes—these pictures rewrite the past from the perspective of the present and construct an abstract documentary of a world that no longer exists, if indeed it ever did. The effect is often eerie, making the viewer uncomfortably aware of the frailty of his or her own memory. Painter and sculptor Sono Osato combines found objects and paint in layered constructions that often resemble a river bottom laden with half-buried relics including animal bones and fragments of clocks, typewriters, and old tools. She describes a sacred voice, muffled but defiant, crying out in a “groping for light and air.” Osato has worked and exhibited extensively in San Francisco and New York galleries and museums as well as in Berlin, and now divides her time between the American coasts. She is exhibiting her large diptych Silent Language No. 6, a detail of which appeared in Armchair/Shotgun No. 2 alongside an interview with Osato. Soft, ghostly landscapes characterize Massachusetts artist Adina Bricklin’s work. Her drawings and rubbings in graphite on black paper, which she describes as “translations of photographs,” slip in and out of view in a tantalizing, dreamlike dance. Frank Lentini’s paintings “live as though they teeter in and out of existence,” he says, echoing his feeling that his own existence is in flux. Through his subtle and colorful canvasses, he seeks to communicate the sense of his private thoughts, at once “whimsical and crude,” in the hope of engendering a return to an unmitigated, child-like sense of wonder. He has had a number of solo and group shows and is based in Brooklyn. Steve Chellis revels in the physicality of his craft while taking full advantage of its psychological possibilities, saying “The paint is very real. The image is a lie. I let them fight it out.” His highly narrative paintings, which often incorporate found images, can induce an inexplicable dread—one wants to hear the end of the story so one can stop being scared of it. A member of the bluetan collective, Chellis lives in North Carolina. The “Object Physicality” series by Jen Plaskowitz explores the relationships among the physical body, the emotional self, and the external environment in haunting silver gelatin prints. Plaskowitz previously traveled to Israel and Palestine to document human behavior at pilgrimage sites, for which she was granted a residency at the MacDowell Colony. Photographer Andrew Wertz explores the small and mid-cities of the rural Northeast and Appalachia, where layers of history build up in tenuous relationship. Drawing on both formal training under Pablo Delano and a life including years of warehouse work and cross-country travels in a pick-up truck, Wertz composes with a sensitive eye. The subtle palette of beiges and soft violets in the photographs selected for this exhibition has a surprising intimacy that contrasts with the sense that his subjects—architectural and human alike—may not welcome the scrutiny of outsiders. more information: 7 Dunham

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'Autumn Bowl' print release

In celebration of the end of a particularly rough Winter we are offering a print from Brandon Fonville's 'Last Day of Autumn', a series described as "A roll of film shot just before the bulldozing of New York City's well-loved Winter hideout, the Autumn Bowl, in late 2010". This 11"x 14" print was recently featured in the 'Skate Related' art show at the Ace Hotel New York and these are the remaining prints from the edition of 30 that was available through the hotel's gallery. Each print includes the 2012 zine featuring the series this image was pulled from. Brandon Fonville untitled (Autumn Bowl) 11" x 14" Type-C Print signed and numbered edition of 30 $15.00 purchase

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CMYK Exhibition

We are pleased to announce that Joseph O'Neal and Joe Strasser will be participating in CMYK a small group exhibition opening tomorrow Friday April 4th at Littlefield in Brooklyn, NY.

CMYK The monthlong exhibition will present a collection of found art, abstract expressionism, illustration, photography, street art and computer art, all inspired by elements of Spring. Experience the relationship these different styles and identities create, as they stand, speak and live side by side. Location: Littlefield 622 Degraw st Brooklyn, NY 11217 artists: Victor de Matha Johanna Guevara Jonathan McIntosh Joseph O'Neal Jason Potvin Joe Strasser & Dustin Yang

Joe Strasser, In the Bardo Plane, 16" x 20"

Joseph O'Neal, fort, 40" x 30" more information: Littlefield NYC

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Chapter 237 Closing Reception

Please join us for the closing reception of Index Art Center's inaugural exhibition Chapter 237 at their new space.

Joseph O'Neal, for joan, Installation view featuring Installations from: Joseph O'Neal Gianluca Bianchino Lily Koto Olive Matthew Gosser Kevin Merkel William Oliwa Hannah Craft & Oculus Art Collaborative Tomorrow Saturday January 25th from 6 - 9pm Index art Center 237 Washington avenue Newark, New Jersey 07102 indexartcenter.org Star Ledger article on the re-opening of Index Art Center and Chapter 237 exhibition:

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Steve Chellis on cover of this months Chess Life magazine

We are pleases to announce that Steve Chellis' painting The Game is Rigged is featured on the cover of this months Chess Life Magazine.

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Forty Nights at Sea

We are very happy to announce the release of Forty Nights at Sea a 32 page hand numbered and signed zine by Steve Chellis. Our latest zine offering Forty Nights at Sea by Steve Chellis, takes a pragmatic approach to drawing. The pictures present the same scene with an emphasis on different areas and quadrants; creating a systemic yet intriguing series on the act of drawing and compositional studies.

In Chellis’s words: “I’m a painter. A painter who happens to be an artist. Sometimes I am wary to call myself an artist. This is because I’m not exactly sure what an artist is anymore. There are the elements of art that I embrace such as transformation, timelessness, and particularity. Artists used to be workers like everyone else. Just like the mason, the farmer, or the blacksmith. Now days they are fools, pranksters, and con-men. I’ve played the part and have grown tired of playing cat and mouse.”

Chellis on Forty Nights at Sea: “Forty Nights at Sea was a drawing exercise that I embarked on during the summer of 2013. The task was to do a different drawing of one scene forty times over. Like most things related to drawing I end up where I thought I would. Not that that's a bad thing. It’s rather quite interesting.”

$8.00 Forty Nights at Sea Steve Chellis 5.25" x 8.25" laser printed color zine 32 pages, stapled published by bluetan signed and numbered edition of 30 published November 2013 plastic wrapped with stickers preview Purchase

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Cover The Wall opening this Friday

bluetan members Joe Strasser and Joseph O'Neal will be exhibiting in COVER THE WALL at 7Dunham opening this Friday October 18th in Brooklyn, NY. From 7Dunham: Earlier this year, while we were just on the horizon of cold weather, I grabbed a drink with Gessica Lesser. We tossed around some ideas and talked about the previous show that she curated at 7Dunham. A few drinks in and we'd come up with a slew of ideas for future shows. One of which was Cover the Wall Based off of The Cheaper Show, which I'd seen a few years before through Jeff Hamada's Booooooom.com. What if we had a show with shit ton of art and made everything under a certain price point? I'd watched and read enough about their show that I knew those ideas were something I wanted 7Dunham to tap into. I guess part of the idea behind it was to eliminate the focus on money, although advertising a low price brings into focus the ethics of expensive v. inexpensive art and if it's prices accurately reflect the value. But really that's not the point. The point is to welcome all sorts of people into a space where, collectively, we can celebrate not only art, but the artists themselves, and hopefully continue to cultivate a supportive and fun community, all the while exposing people to different things, whether artists to different buyers or viewers to different art. There are so many faults in our systems. We see the pure beauty as well as the corruption and often we hope for a more ideal world. For a night, for a weekend, we want to eliminate some of the shit and have a damn good time celebrating art and it's community.

Joseph O'Neal Onassis Study II pencil, oil stick on paper 15.5" x 12.25" (with frame) 7Dunham Friday, October 18th, 2013 7pm - 10pm 7Dunham Pl, Brooklyn, NY 11249 (map) http://7dunham.com/

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Last Breath New work by Steve Chellis May 28 - June 30, 2013 Artist Reception June 1, 2013 7pm - 2am Gallery Twenty-Two 1500 Central Avenue Charlotte, NC

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bluetan titles are now available at Petrella's Imports, a classic New York City newsstand now operated by artists at Canal & Bowery in downtown Manhattan. The newsstand sells artist-made zines, photo books, postcards, alternative publications and more. Read about the project HERE & HERE. Not in the city? Check out the bluetan shop

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Great interview and article with George Spencer up on New York Times' Fort Greene local section: Fighting to Make Art There's still a few Brooklyn Boxer Zines in the store. Get one while they're still available.

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Single Fare 3 at RH Gallery

Brandon Fonville and Joseph O'Neal will have some work in Single Fare 3 opening tonight at RH Gallery.Come on out for a fun evening. Hope to see you there.

From RH Gallery: NEW YORK – January 31, 2013 – Michael Kagan, Jean-Pierre Roy and RH Gallery are pleased to announce Single Fare 3. This third annual open-call exhibition invites artists to make work on a tiny, innocuous piece of plastic: the New York City Metrocard! The exhibition opens at RH Gallery on February 13th, 2013 and will be on view through February 22nd. Over one thousand artists working across disciplines including painting, drawing, sculpture, photography and video will submit art on Metrocards to the exhibition. RH Gallery’s entire 3500 square foot space will be consumed by tiny works of art reflecting a network of artist communities in New York and beyond. With last year’s edition bringing lines around the block, the expanded third edition show is sure to be a sensation. All works will be sold beginning at the reception on February 13th open to the public, from 6-9pm. The first hour from 6-7pm will offer collectors their first choice works for $200 each, following which all works will be sold for $100. Beginning on February 14th, works will be available for purchase at the gallery through February 22nd as well as online at www.single-fare.com.

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Put a Bow On It opening tonight

Kraine Gallery 85 East 4th st. New York, NY 10003 Joseph O'Neal will be participating in Kraine Gallery's Holiday event Put a Bow on It. This is a great chance to get a piece from internationally collected artists at a very reasonable price. From Kraine: "A holiday party for the friends and artists of Kraine Gallery! Just in time for the holidays, Kraine Gallery presents Put a Bow On It 2012, a collection of small works all priced under $300. Art will be sold on a first come, first served basis. Once sold, each piece will immediately be wrapped (complete with bow!) and sent on its merry way."

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Drawings by Joe Strasser and Joseph O'Neal now available , 20% off purchases in store til January 5th

In light of the holiday season we are pleased to offer you 20% off all purchases in the bluetan store through January 5th. Prints and Zines make fantastic gifts! Use promo code "holidaysale" at check out.

$80.00 Joe Strasser Amsterdam Study #2 According to Strasser: "It has taken me over 20 years to completely paint what I want. My work is mostly about using found material and placing it in a new context and giving it new life. This creates a certain kind of poetry with the found detritus. I also believe sex and death should always be present in a piece. There’s a Dionysian Apollonian pull of divine inspiration and the latticework of coincidence" 11" x 8.5" Original Drawing Mixed Media Signed Preview buy

Joseph O'Neal Onassis Study Claiming home as North Carolina and residing in Brooklyn, NY, Joseph O’Neal creates a transcendental dialogue through a system driven by the archaic. Symbols, phonetics, and imagery come descendent from a past that, in the words of Motherwell, “…could only have been conceived of at present.” 11" x 8.5" Original Drawing oil pastel, pencil on paper Signed Preview buy

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Joseph O'Neal interview with art-rated

Joseph O'Neal recently did an interview with Lily Koto Olive of art-rated. Have a read for an insight into his process as well as an insight into bluetan.