Brooklynite Gallery is bugging out

By Meredith Deliso

Brooklynite Gallery is bugging out.

The Bedford-Stuyvesant space presents the sought-after British artists Miss Bugs in “Parlour,” an exhibition that transforms the space into a den of the duo’s imagining.

In their first solo show outside the UK, the two’s “parlour” (and yes, that’s parlor with a “u” — they’re British, after all) is comprised of their gorgeous prints and large-scale collages that looks to Picasso, Shepard Fairey, Keith Haring and Damien Hirst for inspiration. 

Advertising, religion, superheroes (Captain America has made appearances), monsters (like Dr. Frankenstein’s), and pornography (of late, their work has heavily featured bare-chested women) are frequent subject matters.

By appropriating images found in pop culture, as well as ones created by other artists, Miss Bugs consistently comments on the idea of ownership in art. In fact, a quote often associated with the pair is, “If there is something to steal, I steal it,” one uttered by Picasso himself. Fans don’t seem to mind.

“Parlour” at Brooklynite Gallery [334 Malcolm X Blvd. Between Decatur and Bainbridge streets in Bedford-Stuyvesant, (347) 405-5976], June 25-July 16. For info, visit www.brooklynitegallery.com.

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You can call him Rae

By Meredith Deliso

Brooklynite Gallery didn’t have to look far for its next show.

Rae McGrath, the owner of the Bedford-Stuyvesant space, is giving its white walls up for his own work in “Unconventional Conviction,” opening Nov. 20.

If you’re suspicious of a curator essentially curating his own work, you won’t be disappointed. The work of Rae, as he’s known, is vibrant, engaging Pop Art that speaks to his Brooklyn upbringing (see more art here).

In these new, largely portrait-based works, Rae finds his subjects in people he meets on the street — an afro-wearing youth here, a dreadlocks-sporting older man there. The photos are engaging enough on their own, but he replicates them by hand-painting or silkscreening the black and white image of their faces, and then adds splashes of color by deliberately pasting the labels of discarded plastic laundry detergent bottles, cut up using techniques he learned as a butcher.

That last tactic may sound like somewhat of a gimmick, but the resulting pieces are vibrant, intriguing portraits full of life and, of course, conviction.

“Unconventional Conviction” at Brooklynite Gallery [334 Malcolm X Blvd. Between Decatur and Bainbridge streets in Bedford-Stuyvesant, (347) 405-5976], Nov. 20-Dec. 18, with an opening reception from 6-9 pm. For info, visit www.brooklynitegallery.com.

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Icelandic volcano can't stop this 'Eurotrash' show

Some Euro ash nearly spoiled “Eurotrash.”

With artists unable to fly in from Europe thanks to a certain volcanic eruption, the opening of the latest show at Brooklynite Gallery was up in the air — until the Bedford-Stuyvesant space rescheduled its opening night party for May 8.

The exhibition features two of the most influential international street artists working today: Norwegian stencil artist Dolk and Polish muralist M-City.

Find a mostly monochromatic piece with one color statement — often a yellow banana in a nod to Andy Warhol — and it’s likely a piece by Dolk. Of late, the artist has incorporated another yellow symbol into his work; in the striking “Tweety-Halo,” a young woman with a halo has her hands clasped in prayer while a trio of Tweety Birds circle her as if ripped from a Looney Tunes cartoon.

M-City also works mostly in grayscale, leaving his sprawling murals of smoke-stack factories, steam ships and city blocks on public spaces across the globe.

For “Eurotrash,” they’re compressed to a canvas, such as in “Cactus Factory,” comprised of an imposing cactus with arms that morph into smoke stacks, spewing ash into the sky. How fitting.

“Eurotrash” at Brooklynite Gallery [334 Malcolm X. Blvd. between Decatur and Bainbridge streets in Bedford-Stuyvesant, (347) 405-5976], May 8-May 29, with an opening reception from 7-10 pm. For info, visit www.brooklynitegallery.com.

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