"Dirty Little Secret" Inaugural Opening for Indica on 11th / NYC

Indica On 11th presents...

Dirty Little Secret
November 18, 2010 (6-10pm)

Curated by Wendy Worth Asher and featuring the artists: Tobias Keene, Laura Keeble, Paul Hazeltion, K-Guy and Nicholas Bowers.

Indica on 11th, 150 11th Ave. New York, NY 10011
RSVP@indicaon11th.com

INDICA ON 11TH is a contemporary art gallery located in the historic Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. Opening as an homage to the original Indica Gallery in Mason's Yard in London, we seek to resurrect the free spirit and fun that is inextricably associated with art. At INDICA ON 11TH, opening November 18, 2010, our mission is to create a dialogue through the exhibition of emerging artists along with their established counterparts. We offer art without pretension- an outlet for creative boondockery.

Gallery owner, Alex Mallick Williams is excited to present the first exhibition, “Dirty Little Secret”, curated by Wendy Worth Asher.  “Dirty Little Secret” is a group show running from November 18th-December 22nd 2010 featuring hand-selected works from acclaimed artists: Tobias Keene, Laura Keeble, Paul Hazelton, K-Guy and Nicholas Bowers.

Curator, Wendy Worth Asher is best known for her impressive personal art collection, her affinity to urban art and her eye for discovering up and coming talent.  She can most recently be seen in the Banksy documentary “Exit Through the Gift Shop.”  Wendy studied art history at UCLA and has contributed as special projects coordinator to Shepard Fairey and Roger Gastman’s Swindle Magazine.  “Collecting art used to be my dirty little secret” Wendy has been known to say, and for the first time, on November 18th, 2010 at INDICA ON 11TH, Wendy will be sharing some of her favorite secrets with the world.

Tobias Keene
Tobias Keene is a third generation British painter who currently lives and works in Los Angeles.   His majestic and captivating art continues to explore, through the immediacy of color, texture and form, a quality of lost innocence. By using negative space as a crucial part of his composition, he evokes a unique feeling of displacement. His current work explores the resplendence of children, animals and static objects; he uses long shadows to signify the passage of time, and the images of children at play are somewhat metaphorical.  He says: "In my recent works, I'm exploring through natural subjects the use of royal colors mixed in with metal and gold tones to bring a certain majesty to the images.”  Tobias Keene has exhibited at the Earl McGrath Gallery in Los Angeles and New York since 2003 as well as Christies, MOCA, Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, Chait Gallery and the Bergamot Station. His work is currently hanging in the permanent collection of The Trout Museum of Art alongside his Father and Grandfather.

Laura Keeble
While Keeble is often referred to as a street artist, she prefers to see her self simply as 'someone who does stuff'. Keeble garnered much attention with her second-ever public installation: a mock-up of Damien Hirst's “For the Love of God.” Keeble purchased an anatomical model of a skull, affixed to it 6522 Swarovski crystals, placed it in a glass case, and in effect created a replica of Hirst’s diamond-encrusted skull. The replica was then installed with placed garbage bags and a box and placed outside the White Cube Gallery the day after Hirst’s exhibition closed.  Keeble and her work have also recently been featured in the Taschen publication, Trespass: A history of Uncommissioned Public Art.   With critical understanding and her trademark wit, Keeble’s installation and sculptural work alters our daily environment in order to provoke awareness of situations and systems we typically take for granted. Keeble currently lives and works in Southend in the UK.

Paul Hazelton
“I live in a vacuum and I am interested in nothing – whilst I want to create something from the dust of everyday life I also want to reduce the stuff of everyday life to almost nothing.”- Paul Hazelton. Hazelton creates remarkably detailed and delicate miniature sculptures from carefully collected and cultivated off-white household dust.  His works have the soft-focus quality of an old photograph and delicacy of a drawing, but in three-dimensions - Slightly Alice in Wonderland or fairy-like, these miniature dust figures will draw you into other realms. Paul Hazelton has exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery in London, The Fuse Gallery in New York, The Haunch of Venison Gallery and The Tokyo Hipsters Club in Tokyo, among many others.

K Guy
London based visual artist, K•GUY courts controversy and attention with his pointed and provoking art.  He uses paste up, direct stencil and installations, plus a good measure of mischief and wit in his street works, which he then channels effectively into gallery output for a lasting statement - if not the last word. Politicians, religious leaders, fast food outlets and entire economic systems have all come under his perceptive cross-hairs, often to much discomfort. One of his most spectacular street installations was his memorial shrine to the boom economy when the markets crashed - a traffic stopper for nearly three days outside The Bank Of England in the heart of London’s City that made international news.  K•Guy’s hallmark is a questioning intelligence, meticulous execution and a willingness to take risks. For those who get it, his appeal is apparent and enduring.  “We are all Prostitutes and Junkies! Remember that when you’re trudging through the drizzle to work supping your skinny Latte”. -K•Guy

Nicholas Bowers
Born in Gainesville Florida in 1980 and raised in South Carolina. Nicholas’ early years were spent constantly drawing and building.  In 2008, after earning his MFA in Printmaking from The University of Florida in Gainesville, Nicholas moved to Los Angeles to work as an artist assistant for one of the world’s most influential artists.  In Los Angeles, Nicholas has taken part in The New Utopia Exhibition (2008) and Park Life Group Show (2009) both at Subliminal Projects Gallery. He spends most of his time globetrotting as an artist assistant and working in an LA Studio.  This exhibition marks Nicholas Bowers’ first show in New York- he says:  “This artwork is about me; my life and intention to communicate thoughts about human emotions- simple emotions that weigh heavy on our daily lives- feelings of fear, joy, sadness, anger and love.  Using mixed media techniques; drawing, paint, serigraphy and collage, I combine these methods to let me explore both narrative and space.”