And One More Thing...

If you're out and about this Saturday, you'll have plenty of ways to see some great art. We covered all that here, but who says we can't mention it again?

Head over to Artlog and get a ticket to ride the WGA Tour Bus all over Williamsburg this Saturday night, as we show off our Dirty Little Secrets. Tours are departing from various locations and each group offers a great way to see what the Williamsburg art world has to offer. Buses will be leaving at 6:00pm from Armory Pier 94 downstairs, 6:30 and 7:30 from Bridge Art Fair, 8:00pm from Armory Pier 94 downstairs. We'll also be trying to have some people around the L lines to help out with directions, in case you're caught up in the economic crisis. But whatever you do, don't forget to sign up for one of the afterparties. After all our working getting this ready we're gonna be ready to have some fun, and you won't want to miss out!

Participating galleries will be marked by a red light so you'll know where to go. Help us show off the Dirty Little Secrets of Williamsburg and have some Armory-based fun all night long. We'll see you here!

Top Five Reasons You Love Like the Spice

So, we've always known that Like the Spice is unusually awesome, but lately life has been pushing REAL hard to get the message across. Our First Friday New Artist Auction was a resounding success. Jenny Morgan spoke (that's her above, in a classic example of life-imitating-art), art was bid upon, and what with one thing and another it seemed like the time was ripe for us to put together a list of the top five reasons you LOVE Like the Spice.

On we go!

Reason #5: Our Fans Are Hot

I mean, look at them. Just look. Colette Robbins, Jenny Morgan... the hotness is undeniable. And as if that wasn't enough, almost every single person in this photograph is ridiculously good at making art. Look in the mirror. Are you Hot? Look around your studio. Do you make ridiculously good art? If you answered yes to both of these questions, congrats! You're probably a fan of Like the Spice.

Reason #4: You Are Related to Us in Six Degrees or Less

We are reminded constantly here that the art world is small. Showing here means coming to your own opening and realizing that your piece is installed next to a painting by your ex-boyfriend from college, and that your personal assistant is roommates with the girl serving wine behind the bar. It's like this crazy social vortex of AWESOME.
(By the way, Like the Spice shows work by Jason Bryant, who works for Kehinde Wiley, who's done a portrait of Ice-T who lent his voice to "The Magic 7" alongside KEVIN BACON.)

Reason #3: The Internet Loves Us

Did we tell you that we've been featured in FOUR different blogs/articles in like two days? Yeah. Domestic Attempts, ARTMostFierce, ArtNews, and HeartsArena have all joined LTS's fan base. 'Cause we're cool.

Reason #2: Our Interns are Hot

These are more than just the smiling enablers of your drinking habit. They're also the finely tuned team that aligns the wheels and shines the sleek body of Like the Spice. You know, like those whaddoyoucallem maintenence teams who run alongside race-cars? In jumpsuits? Anyway. These are the souls that daily face the purgatorial cleaning of the storage closet. Who run to pick up the packages of others at the post-office armed with false identification information. Who dig in their heels to tightly hold the leash of Tabitha the Dog, saving the Chinese delivery guy from her slavering jaws and barely-concealed racism. Yes, without them, LTS would be a far sadder place.

And finally, Reason #1 that YOU LOVE LIKE THE SPICE:
The Party Never Stops, and You're Always Invited

If you haven't got anything to do on weekends, it SURE ISN'T OUR FAULT. Openings, closings, First Fridays, Exhibition Previews, Meetup Tours, Artist Talks, Dinners! We've always got something cooking - next Friday, for example. It's the opening of Dubai Underground, and we want to extend a very personal invitation to you as a guest of honor. All you supporters, friends, and artists who give so much are the reason that LTS keeps on rocking, and we're gonna keep making sure that your schedule is crammed with as much art and awesomeness as you can handle.


Lots of <3 (but screw Valentine's Day),

LTS

We've Only Just Begun: A Studio Visit With David Mramor

On a very snowy night David and I met at his studio for what turned out to be a splendid way to spend a blistery winters eve.

We started out with David's Bio: born and raised in Cleveland Ohio, David took to painting at a very young age going on to earn his BFA from Ohio University, studying under many great painters including Guy Goodwin . Upon entering grad school at SVA David began to experiment with installation, video and drawing, soon realizing that his true love was reveled in the excitement gained when he created paintings. He came upon a new method of collaging paint starting with the flat fast process of acrylic, adding oil directly out of the tube, bombing with spray paint, scratching with marker, and intuitively piling on gesso.





After graduating from SVA in 2008 with his MFA Mr. Mramor began to explore the negative space in his older pieces by using his emotional visual voice on top of photographic images from the natural landscape. Specifically using images of Yellowstone National Park, he used these images to make his negative space more purposeful and points out the illusion of memory created by the use of photography, "representing energy and expressionism".











David seeks to create an interruption, questioning the reality and truth of the paint versus the supposed reality of the photograph. What is "real" what is "illusion". David's colors are taken from the body, nature, and found artificial colors. David uses paint in a sculptural abstract and ambiguous way, lust and overindulgence restrained within the canvas.

Come and see two of David's paintings this Friday February 6th, 7-9 in our New Artist Auction, here at Like the Spice Gallery. 224 Roebling Street. Brooklyn, NY 11211
718.388.5388. or call or email to set up an appointment to see any of David's pieces.

And then there were three...

Join us in welcoming our third new artist this month! Colette Robbins will be showing her work alongside Reuben Negron and Noa Charuvi at our New Artists Silent Auction We journeyed up to Harlem today to visit her studio, and it was WAY worth the trip.


Colette's paintings are acrylic on wood panel. Her work explores contradictions in sculpture vs. photography vs. paintings. In her words: "My paintings and drawings deal with remnants of the figure. Whether it's a rolled up bundle of severed legs or strange helmet-like fossils that may or may not have once been alive, my images speak about what survives."


"Within the paintings/drawings there are highly detailed manmade objects placed in natural or neutral scenes. These scenes look like they should be inhabited by the living but are not. Instead they are occupied by objects that reference the form or utility of a human. The works have many areas that are rich with intricate patterns and atmospheric textures that form type.s of known variables for the viewer to enter into. Once the viewer acknowledges the known components of the works they are faced with the question of why these elements exist within the space of the painting. The viewer soon sees that the scenes are the consequence of unknown events. Therefore they function like a story being told in reverse."


"Like the way cultural tragedies make us look backwards at the trail of clues the present hands us, my work implies a, perhaps, tragic history. The viewer is left to wonder who has abandoned this here and what should be done with it. The responsibility is to whoever stumbles across these uncanny scenes as the task falls on those which remain."



Hear Colette discuss one of her works!