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September 5-8, 2024 — Pier 36, Manhattan

… Creation lives as a genesis under the visible surface of the work.” 

Paul Klee

In his first solo exhibition in Rome, the artist Gregory de la Haba, one of the most interesting on the New York scene, in this series of works defined as “Light Tensions”, specially composed for this occasion, establishes a relationship with life, evolving the way of seeing beyond aesthetic expression in a condition of fantastic privilege… And let’s think of the words of Leonardo da Vinci: painting is a mental thing”; and we say to ourselves: here’s one of advanced current affairs. What is painting without color and what is color without light? The light of day, the electric lights of the night, of neon. This bearer of an external gaze is concerned with including these visual tensions as protagonists of the process of the creative process. Thanks to digital and virtual technologies, he reconfigures the painting as a zone of truth and light. Its elements do not float on the canvas, they are incorporated into the texture and the material in an interactive dynamic. When the signs of the walls of NY are incorporated, these canvases seem to say “back to the future”. When they connect to comics and street art, we understand that for the artist there is no lesser art but only a superior vision. In his works the artist expresses the sense of a visual essentiality, only apparently confused, but structurally linked to the ironic and colorful vision of life. Expressing with his irrepressible sign a misleading gestural line, guided by a manual impetuosity, an identity full of emotional and cultural expressionism inserted in a solid reality. The structure of each work is therefore composed as the expression of a non-verbal thought, transformed into an articulated structure and consolidated in the revelation of reality. Where a stylistic exercise is gathered capable of transforming a desire, in the irony of creativity, in a dilation of time and space. Stains, quick marks, chromatic arrogance, dispute the definition of space, competing with nature and poetry in the restless search for formal solutions of the work. “Art is always organized around the void of the impossible and real thing (Lacan).

But once again he doesn’t look outside, but inside. Inside its origins, inside its being, choosing the ideal gesture, the ideal form, between proportions to contradict, colors to exhibit, words to suggest and dreamlike signs to sublimate. In making art Gregory de la Haba does not make any concessions to style, to the needs of the spectator, but the tenacious and patient pursuit of the sign in search of the canvas expresses something that is there, that exists. In this way a poetic dimension arises in which space, movement, rhythm, light and vibration are elements referable to objective emotional spaces of a dream vision, in which, once again, the sign is never entrusted to pure instinct but to a creative and structured need. But once again he doesn’t look outside, but inside. Inside its origins, inside its being, choosing the ideal gesture, the ideal form, between proportions to contradict, colors to exhibit, words to suggest and dreamlike signs to sublimate. In making art Gregory de la Haba does not make any concessions to style, to the needs of the spectator, but the tenacious and patient pursuit of the sign in search of the canvas expresses something that is there, that exists. In this way a poetic dimension arises in which space, movement, rhythm, light and vibration are elements referable to objective emotional spaces of a dream vision, in which, once again, the sign is never entrusted to pure instinct but to a creative and structured need.

In this phase of his work Gregory de la Haba wants us to believe that the stimulating and at the same time provocative idea of ​​making art is to enter the anarchy of the absence of structure. But on the contrary, these works, full of light and colour, refer to a concrete vision of today’s world, in which the artist is well aware of the assimilations that derive from the various cultural intersections encountered during his educational and creative journey. Meaning that in any case art, even today, always remains the only existential segment between human hope and poetry.

GALLERY EVENT

Written by Kurt McVey

Gregory de la Haba isn’t a thief, he’s a proliferator.

De la Haba, a New York-based artist currently showing new paintings in exhibitions in various cities around the world, shared an Instagram post on October 24th, 2023 featuring a new artwork that collages and composites six doors and entrance ways that still exist in some form around the five boroughs, all covered with years of tags, stickers, graffiti and other street detritus, going as far back as 2009, when de la Haba started photographing them for posterity.

As of this writing, the post has 109 comments, many of them from street artists-some quite salty, some pleasantly titillated. The debate concerns de la Haba creating a massive hi-res photographic print that blends and remixes 14 years of his own photographs of these various doors, some more iconic than others, like the door to Jean-Michel Basquiat’s famed studio at 57 Great Jones Street in Manhattan, where he died. Inciting further ire from several street artists whose work can be seen in the photo collage, is the fact that the large-scale print is actually indoors. The work looms large in the back right corner of In the Know, a new retail shop on the northeast corner of Broadway and Bond, past several racks of plastic-wrapped bridal gowns.

“I started shooting the street in 2009 at Jack the Pelican (Presents) on Driggs Street,” de la Haba recalls, alluding to the storied gallery space that closed in 2010. “I was the artist in residence there. Everyday I was walking in and there would be a whole new image on the door. Eventually, a new owner took over and threw the door out. He installed a new glass door. This is why documentation of these ephemeral moments is important.”

The piece and its somewhat public display evokes a dash of the artist Richard Prince, who saw a judge reject his fair use defense in his long-running legal battle over his somewhat iconic Instagram series, New Portraits, in May this year. The case would go to trial, as Prince’s repurposing of the photographer Donald Graham’s Rastafarian Smoking a Joint, which appeared in Prince’s Untitled (Portrait of Rastajay92), for instance, was not sufficiently transformative enough to shield the artist from copyright claims. Prince first showed the large-scale works at Gagosian Gallery’s Madison Avenue space all the way back in 2014. The series pulled images directly from other people’s Instagram accounts, some of them artists like Graham, and deliberately without asking for their permission. In September, the US District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that Gagosian is not liable for profits made from the artist’s contentious New Portraits series, and Graham’s quest for recompense was thrown out. The larger case continues, however, and will surely continue to morph and escalate.

“All I see that I’m doing is documenting the ephemera of the street, something that’s changing every single day,” de la Haba explains while in front of his towering print, which, though existing in a weird location, is actually an impressive, hi-resolution photographic collage pulling from 14 years of documentation. “I’m changing it by capturing it. I’m incorporating it into a giant collage that’s a celebration of everything that’s beautiful outside and open to the public. I’m making something ephemeral, but also something that will last much longer.”

“I’m changing it by capturing it. I’m incorporating it into a giant collage that’s a celebration of everything that’s beautiful outside and open to the public. I’m making something ephemeral, but also something that will last much longer.”

De la Haba invited Easy and kit17, two respected graffiti writers to tag the indoor piece after it was installed. Both can be seen in de la Haba’s Instagram post.

“It was a pleasure being a part of this great, well done project,” kit17 offered.

“His incredible installation is reminiscent of when I first started out,” says Easy. “The work as a whole gives the younger generation a sense of how New York and the subways were plastered during the ‘80s and ‘90s.”

De la Haba’s first image on his Instagram post is a bit misleading, to be fair, as it does look like he’s standing on the street and claiming the door, the larger wall, and all the art and ephemera for himself. Within In the Know, while standing in front of the work, de la Haba points to an intimidating green skull, a work by artist Matt Siren(sometimes spelled with lowercase lettering). “I love his work so much,” de la Haba says of Siren. “I said to one of my friends, ‘Do you know this guy?’ I reached out and bought a piece from this artist that is now in my collection.”

UP Magazine reached out in good faith to Matt Siren and many other street artists that commented on Greg de la Haba’s Instagram post, including some of the work’s most vocal and seemingly bellicose detractors. All declined to comment. The stark minority that initially expressed interest failed to follow up.

A few swipes on the Insta post in contention brings greater clarity to what’s actually going on. When viewed in person, the work is quite large in scale and rather sophisticated in execution. The piece stands as a complex scavenger hunt featuring a galaxy of images from hundreds if not thousands of creators, many of them remixing and repurposing other people’s imagery, aesthetic and likeness. Even next-gen OG Shepard Fairey pulled (stole? borrowed?) from John Carpenter’s They Live while transmuting Andre the Giant’s highly-recognizable visage.

Agitation is a big component of street art. De la Haba is just serving up a taste of their own street medicine, outside-in, albeit with a spoonful of brick and mortar retail sugar and a classic art trope, Trompe-l’œil. The piece calls into question, not just to what degree graffiti and street art are trolling in some form (stick it to the wall-stick it to “The Man”), but whether a huge swath of Contemporary Art is some form of troll, from social justice “front” posturing to ridiculous, exorbitant prices on “My kid can do that” paintings later pumped up on secondary markets. Was Richard Prince not trolling a bit; the contemporary scene, other artists, collectors, his dealer; us?

The piece calls into question, not just to what degree graffiti and street art are trolling in some form (stick it to the wall-stick it to “The Man”), but whether a huge swath of Contemporary Art is some form of troll, from social justice “front” posturing to ridiculous, exorbitant prices on “My kid can do that” paintings later pumped up on secondary markets. Was Richard Prince not trolling a bit; the contemporary scene, other artists, collectors, his dealer; us?

It can be a bit jarring, perhaps intimidating, when a well-versed contemporary artist, painter, publisher, and general renaissance man challenges street ethics and the street artists who attempt to uphold some kind of moral code; artists and makers who talk big-game-authenticity but are more often than not quite quick to slap their aesthetic, inevitably forced and diluted, across various retail items while lusting after the prestige of pre-stretched canvas, gallery representation, and all the press that comes with pretentious white box mojo (see street art legend Futura2000’s 2022 show at Eric Firestone). With this work, De la Haba, who was a major supporter of the late Lance de los Reyes (Rambo), proved the street has its pretensions too.

“Artists are gonna come in here and slap stickers on it,” de la Haba says of his massive mosaic ode, this monumental montage in six quadrants; this overall homage to the street, but in this case, a paid commission from a guy hosting prime NoHo retail space to sell wedding dresses. “They’re welcome to. I want it to be a living breathing thing. But if they really have a problem, then they should keep their stickers in their studio and not put them out into the public domain.”

Kurt McVey is a writer, artist, curator, and performer living in New York City. He has contributed to The New York Times, T Magazine, Interview Magazine, Vanity Fair, PAPER Magazine, ArtNet News, Whitehot Magazine, Architectural Digest, Cultured, Forbes, Quiet Lunch, Hyperallergic and more.

Insta: @whyankombone

In the diverse landscape of contemporary art, Gregory de la Haba’s work stands out for its remarkable depth and range. His subjects, spanning from addiction to mysticism, speak a universal language. Pieces like “The Portal Home”, currently showcased at the Larnaca Biennale 2023, unveil de la Haba’s artistic vision. In our exclusive interview with him, we delve into the nuances of his craft and the inspirations behind his masterpieces.

02.11.2023 by Sara Douedari

In the vast realm of contemporary art, few names resonate as profoundly as Gregory de la Haba. An American tour de force, de la Haba isn’t merely an artist. He’s a poignant writer, curator, and cultural figure. Rooted in a pedagogical heritage extending back to the esteemed Jacques Louis Davide, his artwork encapsulates themes from addiction to the enigmatic Duende, epitomizing raw and authentic artistic expression.

Beyond his evocative canvases, de la Haba’s global footprint is undeniable. Through his platform Bodega de la Haba, he’s shaped art narratives and collaborated with icons, such as Pulitzer Prize-winner Franz Wright. And now, as autumn shades paint Rome, de la Haba is set to captivate audiences in Europe once again.

De la Haba’s latest spellbinding piece, “The Portal Home (Duende MMXXII-VII),” featured in the Larnaca Biennale 2023 under the theme “Home Away From Home,” is a testament to his depth. A striking 223cm x 198cm canvas, it is awash with oil, spray paint, wheat-paste, and Krink Marker. Curated by Yev Kravt and placed inside the historic Larnaca Castle, the artwork intricately connects the notion of ‘home’ with identity and survival. Drawing parallels between the realms of history and contemporary life, it evokes the essence of humanity’s longing for home, safety, and love.

But Rome, too, awaits the maestro’s touch. From November 2nd to 5th, the Italian capital will host “The Others” – an avant-garde exhibition platform of Contemporary Art Week. Held at Kou Gallery and curated by the esteemed Massimo Scaringella, this event promises to be a feast for the senses, blending the new voices of art with the rich history of Rome. This exhibition not only showcases cutting-edge artistry but also hosts an array of meetings and cross-disciplinary events.

In our exclusive dialogue with Gregory de la Haba, we delve deep into the nuances of his artistic process and the inspirations that drive his masterpieces. 

© Gregory de la Haba

Legend, myth, and magic are an integral part of the human experience, enriching art and life.

Your art delves into addiction, masculinity, and Duende. How do they intersect in your work, especially given your deeply personal approach to creation?

Gregory de la Haba: “My raison d’etre stems from a deep love for painting and an instinctive belief to walk in the footsteps of giants: Velazquez, Goya, Rothko, Bacon, etc.  Art-making is a daily stimuli igniting purpose, agency, to  create a fresh and unique visual vernacular. Subjects and themes are drawn from experiences. Fatherhood brought about paintings of my children that zeroed-in on fatherhood. Years spent gambling at the racetracks indulged an addiction to probabilities but did little to enhance the quality of my paintings. It did add color to life that awakened the angels and demons within. And that provided insight and gravitas to my work. And ‘duende’ because lore, myth and magic are an integral part of the human experience and such ancient things add richness to art and life.“

How has NYC street/graffiti art, especially from areas like the Lower East Side, impacted your perception of urban identity?

Gregory de la Haba: “Simply put, I see the art, the Wild Style writing and grafitti by the likes of NYC pioneers Bomb One (Al Diaz), Easy, Zimad, and Kit 17 as culturally significant, important, and uniquely American as jazz.”

Tell us more about the various art projects under Bodega de la Haba and how they have impacted the development of your creative voice and narrative? 

Gregory de la Haba: “Bodega de la Haba was a platform I created to assist in showcasing artists, poets, and writers I found fascinatingly interesting and who weren’t necessarily getting the proper shine worthy of their work. From curating shows, hosting literary events in local bars and or writing essays about their art was an enjoyable and stimulating way to meet fellow artists and to truly learn about fine art. A side benefit was that these events became a great networking tool with lasting friendships. But witnessing genuine art firsthand directly from the artist’s studios, being schooled by their mastery, is humbling and inspiring and keeps the flame within burning bright.”

NYC Studio © Bryan Thatcher

Great art needs opposition and contrast, thematically and or pictorially.

The Portal Home (Duende MMXXI-VII) © Gregory de la Haba 

Tell us more about the various art projects under Bodega de la Haba and how they have impacted the development of your creative voice and narrative? 

Gregory de la Haba: “Bodega de la Haba was a platform I created to assist in showcasing artists, poets, and writers I found fascinatingly interesting and who weren’t necessarily getting the proper shine worthy of their work. From curating shows, hosting literary events in local bars and or writing essays about their art was an enjoyable and stimulating way to meet fellow artists and to truly learn about fine art. A side benefit was that these events became a great networking tool with lasting friendships. But witnessing genuine art firsthand directly from the artist’s studios, being schooled by their mastery, is humbling and inspiring and keeps the flame within burning bright.”

In “The Portal Home”, you blend real-world imagery with artistic imagination. How does this duality fit within Contemporary Art?

Gregory de la Haba: “I think all great art has a proper balance of dueling dualities. Opposites attract after all,  think Caravaggio and his magnificent use of chiaroscuro (lights and darks). Great art needs opposition and contrast, thematically and or pictorially. My friend, the painter Marcus Jansen, in his last show at Almine Rech Gallery, London, created an incredible body of work based on the dichotomy of ‘Victims and Victors’. Was absolutely stunning. Such dualities lends gravitas to art. And art needs that.”

Your piece at the Larnaca Biennale explores the theme of “Home Away From Home”. How does your work delve into the connection between home and identity?  

Gregory de la Haba: “Home is where identity is forged, for better or for worse. For many artists, unpacking this identity and revisiting memories of home forms a everlasting and deep structural foundation for their art-making process.”

What can visitors anticipate from your show at Kou Gallery in Rome? 

Gregory de la Haba: “Curated by the renowned Italian curator, Massimo Scaringella, the show consists of my latest series, The Telling Panes. These are window-size (window-pane) paintings similar in nature to the larger, Portal Series, where photographic images I’ve taken of the grafitti-covered, and sticker-filled doors of NYC are then printed-out on canvas and incorporated as backdrop for the oil painting highlighting that real-world imagery vis-à-vis imagination. It’s some of my best, most powerful work to date.”

The Telling Panes © Gregory de la Haba

‘Home Away From Home’         

Featured Artist: Gregory de la Haba

Work Exhibited: The Portal Home (Duende MMXXI-VII)

Oil, Spray Paint, Wheat-Paste & Krink Marker on Printed Canvas, 223cm x 198cm

CYPRUS— Spearheaded by the Crimean-Dutch curator Yev Kravt, this year’s Larnaca Biennale takes the notion of home and its correlation to identity and/or self as its curatorial theme. Taking into consideration the far-reaching and all-encompassing notions of home, Ms. Kravt, along with the Jury Committee, Lars Kærulf Møller from Denmark, Niki Papaspirou from Greece, Lia Lapithi from Cyprus and Bertan Selim from the Netherlands, have programmed Home Away From Home into five sub-categories: Psychology, Environment, Architecture & Design, Philosophy & Spirituality, and Space & Technology. 

‘Home is the abiding place of the affections.’

No matter the sort of home, whether a Bedouin’s tent in a near-eastern desert or a magnificent Palazzo on the Grand Canal, to enter the confines of one’s living space, mobile or stationary, is to be embraced by all that belongs, by humanity’s upbringing—past and present, sacred and profane. The abode is a web of traditions perpetually woven by ritual, memory, sustenance, birth, and death. The abode is where life begins and where the origins of family are formed and handed-down generation after generation. It is the preliminary edifice for nurturing, teaching, and learning. And where we’d like to believe, divine love can truly be experienced and fostered regardless of roofing style, class, status, or wealth.

Beyond the structural, home as-a-noun, a dwelling, so too is home an adjective: ‘home cooking,’ ‘home remedies’; and an adverb: ‘the truth struck home’; and, simply, a verb: to home (As in to return home). Its meaning broad, boundless, and what yet fascinates this artist—in correlation to the Home Away From Home theme—is the thought that, across millennia, every soldier ever shipped-off to the battlefields of war (equal those displaced by it) longed for their safe return home. The notion of home as a place of longing, of comfort, of safety, and memorable joy, therefore, is not a modern one. Originally and perhaps primordially, home was nothing more than a mere shelter from the elements, a nest, only later constructed with roof and walls to protect the core family unit from anything and everything that could—and would—harm it. Home, in this regard, might be seen as a metaphor for humanity’s survival instinct because, without shelter, humans are exceptionally vulnerable. And we’re witnessing that vulnerability on a massive scale at this very moment, globally: From the wars in Ukraine and Syria that have already displaced millions, rendering them homeless while simultaneously forcing them to flee their ancestral lands for ones absolutely foreign to them, to the millions of migrants fleeing Central and South America for greener pastures in the United States of America, there is no shortage of people in need of and seeking a home-away-from-home, protection and a sense of permanence. Today’s troubling headlines, sadly, lend immediacy to this year’s Larnaca Biennale. 

Selected as an exemplary work for their Philosophy & Spirituality showcase, the Jury Committee placed The Portal Home (Duende MMXXII-VII) inside Larnaca Castle, a 12th-century fortress along the ancient port where one can envision Othello (Shakespeare’s legendary character and himself, a Moorish soldier—and in the play—one far from home) standing tall and ready to defend Cyprus against the Ottomans. For years, Gregory de la Haba has taken to the streets of his hometown, New York City, to photograph hundreds of doors on the Lower East Side, East Village, and Williamsburg, where street and graffiti artists alike scrawl their monikers and tags or slap stickers and wheat pastings, a cornucopia of identifiers that alert all passersby of their presence in the ‘hood’. The Portal Home, like that of all the artist’s work in the series, uses the portal-door imagery as a metaphor or link between two worlds: the intangible, yet-unseen idea-world of the artist’s imagination (the top, painted layer of the artwork) and the printed-on-canvas, street-art photograph emblematic of the actual, real world.

In The Portal Home, attention zeroes-in on one of the painting’s main subjects: a self-portrait of the artist depicted as a powerful, viking-like shepherd across whose shoulders drapes a skinned carcass of a lamb once belonging to his flock. In the painting, this image is a wheat-pasted print of an original, oil-on-panel called The Good Shepherd Lost One (El Buen Pastor Perdio Uno) which brings a collage-like sensibility to the work. The biblical-theme suggests contradiction via a spiritual connection with the past while simultaneously invoking separation, detachment, and abandonment from it. Apropos, it is the freshly flayed (and sacrificial) lamb that paradoxically represents the artist’s true identity and his own departure from the proverbial herd of followers. Consequences be damned. 

The primary, eye-catching element in the painting, however, is the Spanish word Duende that, like home, has many meanings in the Spanish language and floats glowingly overhead as if a halo sitting atop The Good Shepherd. Painted in the artist’s signature, self-illuminating style, Duende–in relation to the biennale’s theme–alludes to being ‘away’ (mentally, physically, spiritually) but on a quantum level because in this instance, Duende references the creative moment when an artist is ‘lost’ in his/her work and is all consumed with the creative task at hand: Duende is when inspiration strikes, when time stops, and when the creative muses cause the hairs on the back of one’s neck to rise. Duende is the moment in between dream and realization, between lost and found. Duende becomes the beaconing for absolute clarity.

In the guise of clowns, painted protector-guardians sentry on either side of the portal, welcoming the viewer into de la Haba’s vision. Their presence marks the entryway of important thresholds in how the Romans placed sculpted lions outside their city’s gates, a demarcation between two separate worlds: the civilized world on the inside and the barbaric one beyond the city limits. But in art, there are no limits, and opposites attract; disparate or conflicting elements can be easily unified with color, line, shadowing, and glazing—all implemented by the artist in The Portal Home—techniques marshaled not to conceal the inner-city grit but to encapsulate the inexhaustible hustle of urban street-culture and to highlight the city’s momentous energy and the street artists’ calligraphic skills. But as with all art, it’s up to the viewer to cross the borders of meaning–momentarily adopt a home-away, succumb to belonging.  —de la Haba 

End Note: During the creation of The Portal Home, media company Silvertuna Studios–headed by former pro-skater and street artist KOZ–came by the studio to do some filming. In tow were three NYC legends and true OGs of the city’s graffiti scene: Al Diaz (Bomb One, SAMO), EASY, and KIT 17. We were meeting to discuss the possibilities of future collaborations, but before long, they all thought it’d be a great idea to tag the in-progress painting on the wall as if it were a coveted Blackbook for each to sign. I humbly obliged and watched as each took turns leaving their notorious marks on the then-unfinished work. It is an inspiring artistic moment filled with pure duende eternally embedded within the painting’s surface.