B Scene Zine
Volume 1, Issue 3, December, 2021
In Godlis We Trust
From CBGBs to Miami and back with East Village photographer David Godlis
Inside: • Field Trip: The National Arts Club, WCC
• RIP Rue B, Welcome Hekate, SCE, Main Event
• Aaron Poochigian: A Fool at Christmas • Nicolas Party, Keith Mayerson @ Karma
$5 via Venmo
@scotto777
Launch Party II
Karma Gallery
Half, Phatory, Sunny
New on The B
Aaron Poochigian Poetry
Godlis
Godlis
National Arts Club
W. Chelsea Contemporary
RIP Rue B
Hekate/Baudelaire
Kenny Ray/Raven
The Minarets
Haikustology by Ron Herczig
Sagittarius
You like being right
And for the most part you are
Spread the righteousness
Capricorn
The path less taken
Is the path you should take
Read the cards. Again.
Remember 2020, when facing a new day hardly seemed worth chewing through the viral-induced restraints. Let’s say it out loud: the year sucked more than a collapsed star. Then, slowly it got a bit better. By the end of the year, we began to experience delusions of adequacy when outdoor service began at bars and galleries and other indoor venues began to crack their doors. With the cavalrylike arrival of the vaccine, 2021 presented itself as a very, very new year. Suddenly, with the flash of a vaccine card you could go to a club where every amp seemed to go to 11. You could enter a gallery and consider anew the worth of the latest work. Any quotidian event of pre-pandemic times was suddenly more fun than a fur-lined bikini. Ok, so we were all hard done by 2020, and maybe a bit stunned by the resilience and elasticity that allowed a roaring rebound in 2021. Now’s no time to lapse into a retrograde reality matrix. For 2022, keep the poptimism.
Editorial: Fucking Scott
Legal: Special K
Cover photo: Curt Hoppe
Photos: Scott Stanger
Launch Party II
B Scene Zine @allieryannyc
w/ music from I Quit
@seatonhancock @ezaminthecity
@missfrizzdazzlevintage
@stabbynyc @ezaminthecity
@displaybydelphine @bwpgarden
Keith Mayerson’s My American Dream: This Land is Your Land runs through Jan. 8 at Karma at 188 & 172 East 2nd Street.
Born in 1966 in Cincinnati, Mayerson is inspired by symbols of American history and pop culture, and depicts familiar figures who have impacted the country’s consciousness, in addition to personal scenes and his abstract “iconscapes.” His work allegorizes themes of resilience, determination, and the “American dream.” His work can be found in the permanent collections of the Whitney, MOMA and many
188 & 172 East 2nd St.
Mayerson
other museums.
Nicolas Party’s Watercolor is on view at Karma’s 22 East 2nd St. location through Jan. 8.
Party’s perennial subjects are familiar yet uncanny: the sunsets and treescapes in Watercolor are transformed through vibrant jewel-toned palettes and unorthodox compositions. His colors are saturated and evocative, more focused on optical effects than verisimilitude.
Recent solo exhibitions include Le Consortium, Dijon, France (2021); Kunsthalle Marcel Duchamp, Switzerland (2021); MASI Lugano, Switzerland (2021); Hauser & Wirth, Los Angeles (2020); Xavier Hufkens, Brussels (2019); and Modern
22 East 2nd St.
Party
Half Gallery
Ave. B and e. 4th
Los Angeles-based artist Umar Rashid’s new show at Half Gallery loosely riffs on the 1970s cult classic film, “The Warriors,” about a fictional New York street gang under siege as they struggle homeward after dark. The movie plot fortuitously dovetails with Rashid’s continued interest in group dynamics and what Richard Prince calls wild history. Alternate historical narratives are a prominent occurrence in the painter’s practice. The show runs through Dec.22.
Janice Sloane, a NYC-based mixed-media artist whose work has been shown globally, is at The Phatory, 618 E 9th Street, between Avenues B & C, through Dec. 11. In this exhibition, she examines the head, living forms, intimacy, and breath. “I journey to the border of physical identity to gaze at the internal face, sometimes unrecognizable, sometimes hideous; but pregnant with power,” she says.
Bookbinding Class, Wed., Dec. 8, SUNNY NY, 155 E 2nd St. In this course students will learn a brief history of materials and tools used in traditional bookbinding, as well as complete three different bindings: an accordion fold binding, a long stitch binding, and a figure 8 stitch
There are two new street art murals now adorning The B. Left, Barnell White and Envo put finishing touches on the new storefront of Ultraviolet Studios, 212 Ave. B. And right, Paulie Nassar stands with his work at the new Joey Bats Café pastry shop at 50 Ave. B.
Aaron Poochigian
A Fool at Christmas
That jingle, the Salvation Army sound,
speaks of a grief the seasoned understand:
another year refused to go as planned;
maybe next year our luck will turn around.
In Hardware, I review the battleground:
much that was out of hand is out of hand
still, and my rebel flag is tattered, and
my soldiers tired. The losses were profound.
In Garden Plus, the holidays’ renowned
evergreens slump like drunks. May they be crowned,
each, with a star. May they be bright and grand.
I need their limbs to guard childhood’s demand
for wish-fulfillment. Every sweet, spellbound
gasp like a gasp in Never-Never Land.
For an artist whose work is forever linked to the dark of night, East Village photographer David Godlis’ latest book has a lot of sunshine in it. Focusing as it does on the leatherskinned denizens of 1970s Southern Florida, "Godlis Miami" takes the punk rock photo legend about as far as one can get from his East Village roots.
Godlis, of course, is best known as the chronicler of the nascent punk rock scene at a little Bowery club called CBGBs, where he turned black leather and available light into some of the most iconic images of the era, capturing for all time the youthful exuberance and rebellious stride of the young Patti Smith and Debbi Harry, Richard Hell and Joey Ramone.
Influenced by Brassai, the Hungarian–French photographer who relied on available light to capture iconic nighttime images of 1930s Paris, Godlis’ pictorial homage to the punk era, “History is Made at Night,” ably captures the miasma of beauty, decay and abundant creativity that yielded some of rock’s most enduring and important art beginning around 1976.
"Godlis Miami," issued this year, reveals the budding talents of the 22-year-old photographer as he chronicles a trip to the sunshine state and what he calls “Jewish Disneyland.” Between the two books, he published "Godlis Streets," a collection of his street photography, mostly from 1970s New York.
The long-time neighborhood resident sums up an essential equation for any street photographer, one that he stumbled upon on the streets and beaches of Miami and brought home to the East Village: “Look. Concentrate. Shoot.”
Introducing a new B Scene Zine feature: Field Trip, in which we leave The B to visit interesting places in distant environs. This month, we went to The National Arts Club on Gramercy Park. It's a private club in an 1840s townhouse, but its really making an effort to be inclusive. All its art exhibits and many of its programs are free and open to the public. BSZ stopped by for a spectacular Warhol Show and lectures on lipstick and the opioid crisis, then took in visual artist Halim A. Flowers' arresting It Takes A Village (top) and photoghrapher Laurent Elie Badessi's stunning Age of Innocence: Children and guns in the USA (bottom). So what if you can't drink at the private bar? It's still worth the trip to 15 Gramercy Park South. Open daily 10-5, with lectures and other events in the evenings.
Field Trip
From It Takes a Village, Halim A. Flowers
BSZ
French photographer Laurent Elie Badessi explores the complex relationship Americans have with guns through photographs of children with firearms. His show Age of Innocence runs until Dec. 8. He told an audience at NAC the other night that the challenge of convincing parents to allow 100 American children to sit for portraits with guns was complicated by his French accent. He added that, for this project, he had to excise the words “shoot” and “shot” from his photographic lexicon.
From Age of Innocence: Children and guns in the USA, Laurent Elie Badessi
BSZ
Field Trip II
231 10th Ave.
Brand new in the heart of the Chelsea gallery district, West Chelsea Contemporary, an off-shoot of its parent gallery in Austin, is showing work by a flock of street art superstars and others. Counter-clockwise from left: American Burka, 2004, Bernie Taupin (yes, that Bernie Taupin); Bazooka, 2021, Cey Adams; Rolling Risky Gold, 2021, Risk; Jean-Michel Basquiat, 2019, Richard Corman. "The implication of a movement so tied to accessibility is that anyone may practice it. Anyone may dream it. Anyone may love it. Anyone may revolutionize it."
-- Concrete to Canvas Foreword
The B lost a little piece of its soul last month with the announcement that Rue B, the venerable jazz joint at 188 Ave. B, would be going dark for good after 23 years in business.
In an emotional video posted to Instagram, owner Mike Camacho said the club would be relocating, but it’s unlikely that its future home will be on The B.
“This humble establishment, institution of the community, providing live jazz, cocktails, good spirits, it’s time to move on,” Camacho said in a halting voice.
“Times have changed and we’re going to try to change with it,” Camacho said, without mentioning the COVID pandemic, which certainly played a role in the club’s untimely demise.
“Thank you for allowing us to be a service to the community. I’ll never forget you,” Camacho said.
Brought to you Abby Ehmann (top right) the brains and beauty behind Lucky just across The B, Hekate is an intimate coffee and specialty tea shop fueled by feminine energy, designed for those who seek the alchemy of herbal elixirs and a unique retail experience. In addition to the selection of alluring beverages and other goods, Hekate will offer bottled elixirs and potions, see right. Coffee will be provided by Brooklyn Roasting Company. The OG (original goth) Charles Baudelaire was on tap at Lucky as the gallery of weirdos kicked of the alco-Holidays in style with a reading in French and English of Baudelaire’s The Flowers of Evil. The B’s favorite femme fatale, Delphine Le Goff, provided the French, while Aaron Poochigian read from his brilliant new translation of the book.
Photos: @bobkrasnertoo
Photo: Christopher Hardwick
Kenny Ray Kenny Ray is a graphic designer who has lived in the nabe since the 1980s. He creates abstract and surreal artworks via computer art, oils, acrylics, wood sculpture, interior design, and of late, collage/illustrations.
If you know him from The B, you no doubt know him as Raven, but the omnipresent musician and raconteur also goes by a variety of sobriquets including Chucky and his real name Seaton. You’ve heard dulcet tones emanating from his sax in TSP and from stages in the neighborhood and beyond with Murphy's Law, Simon and the Bar Sinister and many other bands. But he’s also an accomplished visual artist, see one example at right, and a dedicated dad to kids Michelangelo and Yoko.
Photo: @therealkylekarl
Photo: @paddypinball
B Scene Zine
This zine thrives on the neighborhood's ample artistic juices, but to stay in print we also need the So far, we've relied on a small number of green. very generous donors. During this season of giving, please become one of them.
170 Ave. B
The Source Unlimited Printing
331 E. 9th St. 212-473-7833
155 E. 2nd St
37-39 Clinton Half Gallery Ave B and E. 4th St 621 E. 11th St
618 E. 9th St 168 AVe. B
Hekate 167 Ave B
ATKH 521 E. 12th St